Meet Our Chicken Band

Meet the members of our chicken band! The stately Alpha is the dark one in the foreground. To her right is Frieda, she and Alpha are buds, and they are our friendly chickens. Behind Frieda is Ciena, Ciena came from C.N. or "Crooked Nose" because her beak really is crooked. In the back is LBJ...which was an acronym for "Little brown" that became "Lady Bird Johnson," until we learned just how mean she can be. Then LBJ began to stand for "Little Brown Jerk." Currently, LBJ is molting which has mellowed her a bit for now.

Still we love them all. They are 2.5 year old buff orpington chickens, known for being superior egg layers.

Our chickens live in a coop built into the back corner of our barn. They have a fenced yard to protect them from our dog Pepper. We call it Chicken Fort Knox because while many of our neighbors have suffered chicken massacres due to foxes or raccoons or maybe even by a Fisher Cat (my neighbor saw a pair of the roaming around in the field across the road ), our chickens have been safe, knock on wood! It also helps that Pepper regularly patrols the grounds and leaves her scent, though we have still had a couple fox and coyote sightings when Pepper is inside.

Lately our barn is showing some potential for problems though. If a critter is smart and skinny enough it could come in through the hole in the barn facade shown below. (From the inside):

Then slither underneath the adjacent barn wall into the chicken yard in the hole shown here by the daylight shining through:

I think the chickens made that gap by pecking and scratching for bugs. From there a foreign critter could just walk in the chicken door and into the coop. They might even already be doing it and stealing eggs. Egg production is down and we're not entirely sure if it's due to fewer daylight hours from the changing seasons or a thief in the henhouse.

But, so far so good. Here's to a long, safe and healthy life for my hens. Though I would like to add some new chicks to the flock in spring. I hope the ladies will tolerate newcomers.