I house my chickens in a strong shed with doors that lock and a small hatch that I can close and latch at night. The latch will keep out anything except racoons, but we haven't had problems with them for a couple of years. Our pen is large, 65' X 100' so we couldn't completely cover the top. Our coop is a wooden shed with a head height of 12' and the perches are 2' from the top. Most of the chickens can fly up, but some of the older ones use a little ramp to a lower perch and then fly over to the higher one about 5' away. It's too far for a coon to jump over to it even if he climbs the ramp. The chickens feel safe up there as they huddle together every night. The floor is two layers of 5/8" plywood with vinyl sheet floor. The vinyl makes it easy to clean and sanitize between bedding changes. To stop predatory birds we hung string and wire in a criss-cross pattern at the top of the fenceposts. On one of the wires we hung a pair of cover-alls that has long sleeves. It looks like a man standing right in front of the shed with his arms up in the air. In fact the only predators we've had trouble with since we hung Clyde out there are rat snakes. I killed a 6 footer this summer - it gave me the willies when he crossed behind me at the door... But, anyway.... The fence is 8' cedar fence posts with 18" set in concrete and standard chicken wire up to the top. We let the top 12" of chicken wire curl outward so that if something climbs the wire they get to the top of the wire and fall backward on the outside of the pen. We also buried the bottom 6" of chicken wire angling it outward to prevent diggers. Two years ago we had a racoon who figured out how to climb the wire right at the fence post and then to hang onto the post and bend the chicken wire to the inside of the pen. He then managed to get inside of the coop by unlatching the little chicken door. The perches are high so I know he didn't grab one of the chickens, but I had a brave roo who probably attacked the racoon. He followed the racoon all the way to the fence (or was dragged), but the coon couldn't get him over the fence before I got there and he got away. Roo lost an eye but healed just fine otherwise. Anyway, I guess the bottom line is there aren't very many systems that are compoletely safe, but the more protection you can provide the better. And Velvet Sparrows web site is bookmarked on my computers because she knows her chicken stuff. Cheryl

You just might think you have 2 or 3 "Active" squirrels gardengrl. I betting you're wrong. I thought I had been averaging about three locals that have stripped a plum tree bare 7 years running. Since I've started growing more produce in my yard I've observed the following about FL Squirrels. They will eat plums, lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, tomatoes, green beans, green bean flowers, rose buds, grapes, blackberries and blueberries. I have personally observed them eating all of these things in my yard. I have also had them in the attic on more than one occassion. I thought I had rats making all that noise - surprise, it was a squirrel in my peanut butter baited rat trap. They are destroying all my hard work so I finally resorted to a squirrel specific tube trap. What I thought were 2 or 3 has turned out to be 13 in less than two weeks and there were two more investigating the trap this morning. You likely have a plague of squirrels brought about by peanut pushing neighbors. At least that's my problem.

yeah.. i meant to come back and mention that.. lol ... thought about that about an hour later ... hence the referral to a trapper .. who has permits for such ... see link ... its really all about how hard you want to work in dissuading them ... versus damage.. etc ... some times i get lucky.. and they go away.. if i go out there daily.. and irritate them simply by being around [filling the hoe.. putting down hardware clother.. etc ...] .. some like privacy .. lol ... as compared to other things.. that can do significant damage.. and need immediate results.. like when momma and 3 raccoons took up living in the eave of my pole barn ... i had no sense of humor about that ... and OMG.. the stink .... many options.. for you to choose from ... but you have to start.. by figuring out what it is ... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

If you look at the Modern-Aire site, they have several shapes where the front tapers at the top to the depth of an upper cabinet, and the sides are straight so as to butt up to, and cover, the yellow cabinet sides you mentioned. Their typical sizes are 18" and 30" high, but you could get a 24" custom one if your budget allows. Or you could get an 18" and have a box made for above it to cover that area and to which you could attach replacement moulding. The box could be made of either wood matching your moulding or sheetrock. Vent-a-hood has a stainless direct replacement if you decide to stick with the same size you now have. I'm attaching the link to the Modern-Aire page that shows their shapes. PS-10, PS-11, and PS-26 all have the characteristics I was talking about above. Here is a link that might be useful: Modern-Aire Hoods