So one of our chickens, Frittata, has been getting a bit hen-pecked lately. I guess she’s the low chicken on the chicken totem pole. Anyway, she was looking pretty bad. After some research and reading, I decided she needed to be separated from the flock for a while, but how? we only have one coop.

Desperation being the Mother of Re-purposed Items, I hit on the idea of using our old dog kennel.

The kennel would keep her nearly as safe as the coop over night and give her plenty of room. I covered it with a tarp to help keep her dry and warn and put it up on some cinder blocks.

I rummaged up some short pieces of fencing and made a small pen adjacent to the old pen and coop, added a waterer, food dish and outside perch. I also stuffed the inside with straw and added an old wooden pop crate with pine shavings for a nesting box.

Frittata seemed to get used to it pretty quickly.  All was well until later that afternoon when we were buzzed by a Red Tail chicken hawk! Yikes! The big pen has bird netting over it, so I needed some to discourage the hawk from Frittata’s pen. I strung up and old shade tarp and added some twine in between the widest openings, so now she should be relatively safe.

I figure she should be separated for a week or two until she heels and hopefully grows back her feathers on her breast.