Poor chickees. They have been living the life luxury these last few years in their pent house coop. State of the art design, high tech circulation, and plenty of natural light.

Almost five years ago, the first round of flufferbottoms were given the boot from their plastic bucket in the Rainstream to their newly finished 8×4 chicken coop. Then a month later they were allowed to roam free in their newly finished 8×20 chicken run. This lovely bright green coop and run held strong during Hurricane Harvey and not one single chicken was lost to the winds. Back in November 2019, during winter preparations, the clear plastic roof was replaced and a plastic washable back wall was installed to help remove chicken poop. During spring 2020, the run had some baseboard repaired and new a feeder made. Later that same year, welded wire was installed on the outside of the coop to protect against further racoon invasions. Late last year the chickens were attacked by feral dogs causing major damage windows and doors. All in all very little work to maintain their domain.

Today with another bout of rain headed our way, the long over due plastic roof had to be repaired. Plastic sheetings have been on back order for weeks and week and the chicken coop cannot weather anymore soggy poop laden pine shavings. Their natural light coop was darkened to the world with galvanized sheets. The sheets themselves did block off a lot of light but when combined with the winterization of their coop their coop became a jail cell.

Once the east wall window was closed up, the only light coming into the coop will be from the two rounded sections on top of the east and west walls. So dark. I keep telling myself winter does not last long as they can return to the lighted coop soon. The sunny, bright coop will never be what it once was but that is something I have am going to have to come to terms with as I am tired of replacing brittle plastic sheeting every two years. Guess they just don’t make plastic like they used too.