After the fox came in broad daylight and killed all of the hens in February, the new hens are locked up in the enclosure all the time – unless we are out in the garden with them. This is clearly less satisfactory than having them completely free in the garden, but for their own safety, is our only option.
During the summer months they’ve been with us so far, we haven’t had a lot of rain, so their living in the enclosure has been fairly comfortable… but as autumn and winter draw closer they will have much more rain and mud to contend with. We decided that the best thing to do would be to have a second enclosure on a hard surface, and ordered a walk-in enclosure from Garden Life.