It is a little tough to see, but look closely at the first photo and you will see where a fox, and it is a big fox, has been trying to dig into the chicken coop. Despite multiple attempts, he has been foiled. How? Well, first of all the wire around our coop is strong and substantial. Where two pieces meet, we left a significant (10 inch or so) overlap, and secured the two pieces together with wire ties. But, the two most important things: the wire is buried 12 inches down into the ground, all the way around the coop, and the coop has either a wire or a solid roof all the way across the top. Finally, the wire is attached on the outside of the posts, so no dog or fox can push it in. Doing all of this up front, when first building the coop, resulted in safe hens last week, each time that fox climbed our 4 foot yard fence.
The hens themselves are looking a bit ratty right now, as they are going through their fall molt. From all the feathers seen in the bottom of the run, it looks like the fox got in and ate a few hens! But, no, the are just losing their old feathers and getting new ones. You can see the new pin feathers on Louise's neck (see is the light red hen).
Finally, the fourth photo shows one of the beds where a flat leafed parsely went to seed right before the hurricane. It looks like I will have a carpet of parsley this winter!
