A New House for Henrietta

I swear...the things we do for our pets!  We spent a beautiful day today (70 degrees!) setting up some new digs for Henrietta the Hen-Pecked Chicken.  (Read about her story here.)

It was finally time to move her out of the ramshackle pen that we built for her last May.  As J. put it, "it's looking a little dogpatch."  And that it was.  Of course, the RV and the tractor sitting in the yard may have added to that redneck-ish ambience.

Here's where Henrietta has lived for almost a year:

Yep, that's a dog house on stilts, folks.  Nothing to see here.  Move along...

That would be the aforesaid Henrietta on the right hurling insults at the bully Barred Rock in the henyard.  We had removed part of the floor to the doghouse and added the ramp for her to access the area underneath.  During the winter, we covered the whole thing with a tarp and added a heater.  I suspect that may be the reason why our electrical bill was so darn high.

Poor thing!  She basically used the ramp as a chute.  You could almost here the "TA DA!!!" as she hopped down from the doghouse, slid down the ramp chute and popped out on the ground, narrowly missing a swim in the water bowl.  I give her a consistently solid 8.3 for the landing.  That's my girl.

I snagged a nicey-priced 4' x 4' dog kennel at an auction a couple of weekends ago and, using the existing hen pen as one side of the enclosure, we were able to reconfigure it into a 5' x 10' enclosure for 'Etta.  It came with a sunshade, which will be nice on the hot summer days here in Missouri.

The nice thing about this new enclosure is that she has more space, even with placing her house on the ground.  And no more acrobatics trying to get into or out of her house.  Inside, we added fresh straw and a roost for her.  Note the quality feeder in that picture (an old milk jug).  I'd say this ought to be more acceptable to both fowl and neighbors.

We still need to finish the top and get some chicken wire around the bottom just in case the friendly raccoons that live in the sewer decide that they'd like to have some chicken dinner instead of dumpster diving. 

That's right...no need to get your eyes checked.  We have a raccoon family that lives in the sewer.  We see them come out of the storm drain and go prowling around at dusk.  I have to confess...the first time I saw them, I thought I'd had one beer too many.  But I suppose that's just another oddity that comes with living in downtown KC.

Apparently, we're not the only ones that have this problem.

Ah, well...I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Til next time....tood-a-loo!

 

Shared with this week's Clever Chicks blog hop.