I am particularly thankful for the extra vents that my husband included along the top of the chicken coop. There are six vents in addition to the vents in the eaves, and it helps with circulation especially in the summer. When I made the vent covers with the simple wooden latch, I was going for very simple just to have something to close the extra ventilation when it was cold. It is always nice when something works out better than planned. Because the latches are large, I can work them with the end of a handle, and don’t have to get a stool or ladder to get up there and close them by hand. So in our Texas “winters” when the temperature reaches up into the 70s, but then drops below freezing, I can open up everything quickly for the day, and close up just as quickly as night approaches.

My folks gave me an early present: a new coop camera! Now I can pan the camera from my phone and see the roost and the isolation ward. Here is a slightly longer video at night.

I mounted the old camera outside the coop so I can see the chickens in the runs. That’s entertainment.

It has been cold and rainy and I tried to make the chicken’s covered run more exciting by putting in a large branch. The branch has been sitting behind the coop for awhile, so cleaning off the tiny branches to make it more roost friendly was easy.

The chickens are not impressed. They love their branch perches in the uncovered runs, but this new one has been met with incredulous skepticism. If after a few weeks they still don’t like it, I’ll come up with something different.

But hey, I still have a lap chicken!