Ozark Style Dog House

We built this miniature Ozark style dog house complete with a porch for the dogs to lay on but we built it for our dogs, of course. The dogs watched with interest as we built it, but so did the chickens. We had no sooner put fresh straw in the little house when the chickens rushed up on the little porch and quickly made themselves at home.

This is not where they roost at night; they roost in the big chicken house we also built that summer. As with the dog house, when we built the chicken house, the dogs watched and all nine of the chickens watched as it slowly took shape.

When we were almost done, two of the dogs moved in and laid around on the floor as if to say, "They can have the dog house, we'll take this one."

However, Rocky the Rooster knew a good thing when he saw it and brought his family into the very nice new home and spent his first night in a chicken house. Remember from earlier posts, Rocky flew away the first day we brought them here and roosted in an oak tree across the gravel road and in the woods each night.

He did that from May 2007 until October 2007 and to our happy surprise, he survived. The Ozark woods is full of predators: raccoons, foxes, opossums. We even discussed various ways to get Rocky to go in the new chicken house but none of that was necessary.

When the chicken house was ready with fresh straw, nests, food and water, we opened the hatch door and Rocky marched right in and never went back to the oak tree in the woods again. He did take his family across the road and apparently showed them where he had been living for months but after that, he never returned to that area.