The Shelter .... plus update on COCKA-DOODLE-DO!!

Now that we have cows AND horses, we need a place for each when it's drizzly, stormy, blizzardy or just windy from the north!  They don't really congregate together.  So Mike planned and built a shelter for the horses and I've already seen them in there!!  Here you can see the progression:

The meager beginning (L) and if you enlarge the detail on the right, you can see at least 3 grasshoppers on the post, not to mention a nice side view of the house.

Once the frame was completed, it was time for the roof:

Then the aluminum siding to wrap around for the finished structure:

BUT, my favorite shot is looking out from the interior:  a nice fall day, with a view of the house and the horses just resting under their favorite tree - You may have to enlarge to see the horses!!!:

As for my cock-a-doodle-do-less 'Cogburn', about a week after my last post, he started cock-a -doing!  He didn't quite have it until about another week later when he finally got it right.  He now wakes us up with a full COCK-A-DOODLE-DO!!!  Every morning it's very noisy out in the hen house as all the hens are 'BEDAWKETTING'  VERY loudly in response.  Don't think those hens didn't notice Mr Rooster's shortcomings (L) - however, time has made him a more handsome rooster as he's growing in tail feathers:

As for our hen population, something 'got' one about a week ago.  My count was off when I put them to bed, and I hunted all over for her but couldn't find her..... until the next morning.  With daylight, I could see feathers all over the place and following the trail --- I found her dead and picked apart by something.  My cats were a little suspect at first, but we've narrowed it down to a likely chicken hawk.  Then Mike got a call from someone who was selling his chickens, so he got 6 more hens.  Upon arrival, one flew over the fence and disappeared across the road.  We've been visited nightly lately by howling coyotes and figured that hen's chance of survival was next to nothing.  Late the next afternoon, I heard a screem and went out to find Sam with something!!  It was the hen!!!!  We yelled at him to drop it and she ran off the first time.  He ran after her and caught her a second time and was 'mauling' her with his mouth.  Again I yelled at him and he dropped her and she just laid there.  Well, so much for that hen!!  So Mike picked her up so Sam wouldn't get a taste for fresh chicken, and after several seconds, her eyes blinked!!!  Then she moved a little.  So we brought her to the hen house, and she jumped down and joined her sisters - all huddled in the corner.  So by some miracle, we have all 6 new hens!!

I don't know what kind they are, but they are interesting with their orange necks and feathered feet.  The one below looks like she has fluffy slippers on.  They're pretty young, so I don't know that they're laying yet.  I did have one very light egg the other day, so maybe they're just starting.

Speaking of eggs, on the recommendation of a friend, I painted a face on an egg and put it in one of the laying boxes.  Sure enough, they like laying when there's already an egg there.  Sometimes there are up to 4 new eggs in that carton.  So I put a golf ball in one, but they didn't buy it!!!  Finally, after a month, at least one hen accepts the golf ball and sets on it to lay her egg.