Some chicken coop improvements and egg price increase

Young Barred Rock rooster.

The bad news first: we have increased the price of our eggs from $3/dozen to $4/dozen.  We hope you understand that we put a lot of work and money into our chickens in an effort to produce the highest quality eggs we possibly can.  OK, we've got that unpleasant task out of the way. 

Now on to the good news - or at least the not bad news.  I'm sure you've noticed that the temperature has been increasing lately.  You'd have to be living in a cave to not notice.  Now that I mention it, living in a nice, cool cave doesn't sound all that bad right now.  I think I'll still opt for central air, though.

The coop - more about function than form.

The chickens have noticed that its getting to the hottest time of the year, as well.  We designed and built the chicken coop in late fall, so we had winter on our mind.  We neglected to include windows that would allow air flow during the summer heat.  This was a major oversight as the chicken coop would get awfully hot.  We made up for it by opening the door and putting some chicken wire in front of it, but chickens inevitably escaped the coop and swere at the mercy of the neighborhood dogs.  We even contemplated running a fan in the door to increase airflow.  None of these were attractive long term options.

The birds like the new windows.

To remedy the situation, I cut a few holes in the door and one on the opposite wall with my Sawzall.  I then covered the holes with chicken wire.  I went with chicken wire over screen because it allows more air to pass through.  The improvements immediately lowered the temperature in the coop and there was a nice breeze passing through.