The rain finally came late in the afternoon.... I mean R-A-I-N mixed with a smidgin of hail.
It was getting really dark out about an hour before the sun goes down, and it was getting cold. There was some sprinkling happening throughout the day, but we really didn't get the rain that had been forecast for the day. On the other hand, with the darkness encroaching so quickly, I took the opportunity to try coaxing the peeps up the ramp with some egg yoke. It worked... after I just about crawled down the ramp topside down! Little peep was the bravest and once I got her going, she scurried up the ramp into the coop, with Blue and Green right on her tail. Red held back, half way up the ramp, waiting to see what I was going to do.... I closed up the top doors and talked to her through the screen for a few seconds, reminding her that the other three were going to finish up all that egg if she didn't hurry up.... She actually hesitated for just a moment longer then forged on up the ramp for her share of the egg delight. I pulled the ramp up into place, locked up all the doors and made certain that the light was on.
Not more than 30 minutes later, the heavens opened up and we had about a half inch of rain in less than half an hour. We were scrambling to get the tomatoes covered and were worried about the electrical cords that we have plugged in for the heat lamp. After the first deluge, hubby checked the electrical situation and I checked the coop. I was happy to discover that the coop appeared to be all dry inside!!! At this point, I feel fairly certain that this design will work well for our weather. But time will tell. I picked up some cabinet magnets that we plan on using to help secure the doors a bit better, as an addition to the heavy latches that we installed, in the event some varmit tries to pop open an edge of one of the doors. Also, we get some pretty strong winds out here, upwards of 75+ miles per hour in the fall and winter months. So hopefully, the magnets will help prevent the doors from "puffing up" with the wind gusts, as well.
On a different front though, we are going to have to rethink the food situation. Their feeder totally filled up with water. Obviously, we will need some way to protect the trough from the rain. Back to the drawing board on that.
