Sadly, it's hard to find good homes for chickens where they are protected from predators and receive good care. Many chickens that make it to animal control are euthanized, particularly roosters, who are almost impossible to place.

To help these animals find homes, the Santa Cruz Pet Poultry group has started a program where if someone rescues a rooster, volunteers will build them a chicken coop! All they pay for is materials. The design is simple, yet prevents bird flu, is predator-proof, and comfortably houses a rooster and five hens (standard size) in all seasons. The design is patent pending.

Unfortunately, we lost our lead builder/carpenter! A Santa Cruz animal shelter and a private individual (who does lots of dog and cat
rescue) would each like one of these coops, but we have no one to lead the projects! If you have these skills and would like to volunteer your time to help the chickens, please contact me.

At animal control, this coop would serve as a model for others who don't know how to build a predator-proof chicken coop or how to
protect their birds if bird flu arrives in our area. So you would not only be helping to provide a safe home to the chickens they receive,
but also do a valuable service to the community. We'll even put a plaque on the coop to commemorate your contribution. Huge numbers of
backyard chickens are brutally killed by predators, simply because people don't know how to build a coop properly; for example, chicken
wire is not predator-proof at all.

A picture of the coop is here:

www.blackhenfarm.com/rooster.html

Anyone else who would like to volunteer, but might not have all of the carpentry skills, is also welcome.