Jen Fulkerson

This will be the second total coop remodel. The coop was made mostly by my father-in-law. I built the nesting boxes totally out of scraps, and it was my first build. It stayed the same for about 15 years. It was still totally functional, but I wanted to be able to clean it easier, and do a better job. I rebuilt the nesting boxes and built a two bar roosting bars mostly used to get onto the high roosting bars that ran along the back of the coop.
The coop is 4' 5" wide and 21' long . Several years ago my son and I built a chick wing 7'X7' attached to the side making the coop L shaped. There's an opening between the coop and chick wing that can be open or closed.

The reason for the remodel is a combination of need because racoons kept breaking into the coop and eating my chickens, and hating my nesting box design not to mention it was already falling apart. (which is frustrating and strange because I bought new wood and painted it and added linoleum to the bottom to make it easy to clean.)
phase one is done. I removed everything from the coop, tried to remove the soil that had built up over the years, and level it as good as I could. We attached hardware cloth to the bottom of the coop. We also added a couple of corrugated steel panels behind the nesting bars because the raccoons were still harassing the hens by sticking their old hands through the chicken wire.
Phase two new roosting bars. The old ones were 2x4s wired to the top frame with the two tier bars to make it easier to get on the high bars.  The major problem with this setup is with the coop only 4'5" wide it took up lots space and it left no room for the chickens to fly down. They weren't getting injured, but I always worried about it.
I built  ladder type roosting bars That went into the end of the coop. Giving them a lot more room, and room to fly down. I made it out of the two 2x4s that was the old roosting bars, and some pallet 2x4s. I painted it with some exterior paint I had bought on clearance. I was pretty happy with it. The chickens on the other hand are very unhappy with me. I don't know if it's because it's in a different place, or maybe the color blends in to much and it's hard to see. I should have realized it would be hard for them, but wow they were not happy. They kept looking for the old bar, keep trying to fly up to what wasn't there. We ended up turning the light on and also removed the tin behind the bars. To let more light in. I hope the racoons can't harass them. I tried putting a few that will let me handle them on the bars, putting mealworms on the bars. They did finally get on the bars. They weren't happy about it. Some of them kept trying to rooste on the slanted sides.
I hope they will adjust in time. I do plan to paint the bars red like the old bars.
The next two changes will be to make new nesting boxes. I plan to make roll away nesting boxes with a collection drawer in the back. The front rollaway was a huge mistake.  I want to fix my chicken door. I have to remove wood chips out of the way to close the door every night. I have a solar automatic chicken door. I don't know if I will install it. I want to, but I don't know if it's racoon proof, so we will see.

Thanks for the great info. I have failed sooooooo many times. A couple of wonderful folks on Permies sent me a lot of comfrey roots. I planted them all and did my best to care for them, and never got a single comfrey plant. I also tried comfrey crowns. That one grew, but I really had to baby it to keep it alive, and it died I think in year two. That could have been from a gopher, I'm not sure. I finally started some by seed. One has done very well and is 3 years old??? I've started several others from seed, and some how managed to kill them before they were established. I hope propagating comfrey will help. Ideally I would love to have comfrey grow next to all of my fruit trees

In my hot dry climate comfrey is a challenge.  I have found if I start comfrey from seeds it will survive. I planted seeds this year, but I didn't get a single one. Maybe because I didn't cold stratify, it was old seed, My watering was off, who knows .  I really want more comfrey, so I decided to try to grow it from a cutting. I cut 3 put some root tone on it put it in a pot, and kept it watered in the greenhouse.  One died, one was green with no growth, and one grew new parts. I knew the one that grew had worked. I planted that one, strangely there was a baby next to that plant with it's own root system, and the one that hadn't grown anything new yet did have roots. That's 3 comfrey plants. This is definitely a great way to increase my comfrey. I plan to keep trying to increase my comfrey.

Spring time should be about the garden, but thanks to a very determined raccoon it's all about the chickens.
20+ years ago we got chicks hatched in my daughter's kindergarten class, and we have had them since. My father-in-law built us a coop he welded out of old pipe. It's 53" wide by 21 feet long and 7 feet high.  we wired chicken wire to the frame, used an old door and there you go. Up until about 5 years ago Nothing changed. About 5 years ago my son and I added a 7X7X7 chick wing onto the back side. Now it's the shape of an L. Along the way I added some corrugated steel panels to the South side to give shade and shelter from the rain when they were on. they're in roosting bars.
For 20+ Years Besides rats and mice I have never had anything dig under the coop. Once dogs broke through the chicken wire. Racoons have taken advantage of I forgot to close the door. We have had our share of problems like most.
In very early spring Just before I put my new chicks in the chick wing. I decided I was tired of dealing with the rodents digging into that area. I removed everything, removed  the cement chunks I had been using the fill the holes, leveled it back to ground level (thanks to my son who did most of the digging). I cut 2 pieces of hardware cloth sewed it together with stainless steel wire. We secured it to the corrugated steel walls we had in the ground, and solved the rodent's digging in.
Then one morning a chicken was dead in the coop with the door shut. We found a spot the wire had broken away from the frame.   The chicken wire has held up very well, especially for that many years. The bottom where it's in contact with the ground is starting to rust making it easy to brake. We have solved this problem in other areas by putting hardware cloth under the frame and sandwiching the chicken wire above the compromised chicken wire. This area doesn't have the access for that kind of fix. My son and I screwed corrugated steel panels to the frame. We did about half the coop before it got to late. This worked for a couple of days. Then you guessed it , another chicken died. A hole father down. We put panels on the rest of the back, and thought that should do the trick.  It did for a few days. Now the rooster is dead and there's a hole dug under the coop. Now not only am I extremely frustrated, but I'm confused because the racoons are pretty big, and the hole isn't very big.  I put up a trial cam, and it's a raccoon for sure. Now I have to remove everything from the coop, again tons of concrete and brick that I've shoved in the rodent holes, and level the floor (it's amazing how much soil we've built over the years) Sew together 5 5' a 1 18" piece of hardware cloth ( my hardware cloth is 4', and I didn't know if I had enough to do a 21' and another to cut to 1' plus I didn't want to hang onto the off cut.) During this process I jammed the wire between my toe and toenail, I now understand why this made a good way to torture someone. Rolled it into place screwed it with washers to the pipe because With the corrugated steel back. there's no access to run wire. I can tell you screwing self tappers into pipe is a total pain! Thank goodness my son's helped with this part because it would have taken me for ever to do it by myself.
I bet you think my long winded story is over, but sadly no. The next day I decided the chicks should come out of the chick wing while I'm working in the coop and can keep an eye on them. Then I start to see a lot of little spots on the old barn side of the chicken yard they can probably get out.  I get it all patched up. The chickens aren't bullying the chicks, and the chicks go into the main coop instead of the chick wing.  So in the morning they are let out into the chicken yard with the hens.  For 3 days in a row I have a chick getting out of the yard. I find a spot in a corner that might be the spot.  I squeeze in and use chicken wire to secure it.
Now no escaping chicks, but I get home from work, and my son tells me we have to add another corrugated steel panel next to the roosting bars because he saw a raccoon reaching in trying to get the chicken through the wire. the chicken wasn't harmed but I'm sure it's stressful so another panel went up. I do know it's working because the other day there was a spot dug out about  a foot under.  I filled the empty space with soil, and covered it back up with wood chips.
At this point I can finally concentrate on my very late garden. As soon as the garden is cleared and planted I will have to get back to the chicken yard. It's a disaster. I hate the nesting boxes I made, so since it's out I may as well make a new one. I also want to make new roosting bars. No to mention all the chunks of concrete and brick that need a home. Plus I have started moringa and sweet potato malware spinach to. plant in the yard so it's not so bare, but all that has to be protected from the chickens at least for a while.
I'm sure it will be worth the time and effort, but wow it's all about the chickens.
The garden is now planted and seems to be growing faster than ever, so maybe everything will work out.
On an unfortunate side note now the racoons are eating all the apricots before they are ripe. I live in the middle of an almond orchard and a walnut orchard, I'm never going to get rid of the critters. Anyone have any tips on how to discourage them from my yard?

I just kept adding light weight chicken wire to stakes (like you might use in the garden) Until my hens finally stayed put. It seems to work in my favor to use flimsy fence on the top so they can't perch on it.  Good luck I think I ended up a little over 6 feet.

Slick is no longer a problem. A raccoon made a meal out of him. I definitely didn't want this to happen! I think I finally have a raccoon proof coop, but I lost 4 hens and a rooster in the process.

It's the typical answer of it depends.Why do you have chickens?  How much space do you have? What kind of chickens do you have? (I did my research, but didn't go far enough. I got super layers, that lay 300+ eggs a year. What I didn't realize is these hens basically have the same amount of eggs as other hens, they just lay a lot in the first couple of years, and almost stop after that.) Do you have the money, time and energy to start from scratch?...
Ideally I get about 6 pullets every other year. This should have been a no chick year, but a very persistent raccoon changed that. I also had issues getting the chicks I wanted so I ended up with 9.
There's lots of reasons for and against adding to your flock you just have to figure out what is right for you. Good luck.

I live in the perfect place to grow watermelon, yet I have had very limited success. I used to grow it up a trellis and would get a small ok melon or two. I just stopped, thinking it wasn't worth the effort.  A few years ago my daughter said she really wished I would grow watermelon. It was late in the season I think July. I bought a watermelon seedling, a Charleston gray. I didn't know this melon, but it was all I could find at this late date.  I planted it in the ground watered it and ended up with 4 of the biggest sweetest watermelon. The next year gophers were eating everything, and I had to stop planting in the ground. Each year I have tried and failed to grow watermelon. One year they grew ok, but never set fruit. Last year I got lots of fruit, that the critters enjoyed. I didn't get one.
This year I'm determined to grow and enjoy a watermelon. I have planted 4 different kinds. There's some kind of watermelon in every bed. I have also made watermelon beds. Small 17"X17"X5  1/2" maybe a little more. 2 have hardware cloth on the bottom and one has a chicken wire cage attached to the bottom. Under the little bed I dug a hole about 2' deep and filled it hugel style. One I filled with just native soil after all those Charleston gray grew great. The other two have purchased soil in the above ground part.  Two have a soaker hose running under the bed, the bask will have to be watered by hand. We have barn cats that have helped a lot with the small critters, but lately we've been plagued by raccoon . If I'm lucky enough to get fruit, I'm going to cage it, and put the cage on a tile, or bricks, something to get it off the ground.
This is the plan. Hopefully something will work. It will be interesting to see which method of growing works the best. So far the raised bed, and the little bed with potting soil are the best looking plants.
I would love to know if you have any tips or tricks to growing watermelon.

I think it's kind of funny that the tomato doing the best is the one growing next to the fennel. There's a lot of reasons this could be, I don't know why. I do know the plant is very healthy looking, and is loaded with tomatoes.  I also have melons growing from seed in the same bed opposite corner.
Thank goodness the Permies experts were right again. Fennel may have it's issues, it's by no means fatal.

I'm revisiting this post, you can probably guess why. I was removing turnups, and found a lot of Harlequin bugs. I thought oh no here we go again. I got a bucket, filled it with soapy water, and dunked all the turnups. I was putting the greens in another bucket, when I noticed the soapy water didn't kill them right away. So I put all the greens back in the water and killed all the bugs that came to the surface. ( I figure it's more humane and drowning.) I'm sure a bunch got away, but I got a lot of them.
I'm doing my best to not freak out like last time. I read Harlequin bugs like brassica's turnips and radishes. This time of year there aren't any of those plants, so many they will be on their way. I can always hope.