Hippie Chickens

Another broken egg! I grumbled while mucking out the gooey mess from inside the nest box.  Who's doing this? I directed at the feathered flock who gathered around me. Beak by beak, I conducted an inspection and found no incriminating bright yellow egg yolk.
Days turned into weeks with broken eggs plaguing the chicken coop. Periodically I would glimpse starlings, a pesky little blackbird, nervously bolting from the chicken's doorway in the coop. Since they are small and fragile, I assumed they did not possess the strength to break and gluttonously feed on eggs, but were little thieves stealing pellets from the coop's feeder.

Then it happened. I finally caught the proverbial kid with his hand in the cookie jar. No, it wasn't a cannibalistic chicken eating one of its own, but a marauding magpie!

While heading to the coop, I caught a glimpse of activity through a window. The magpie was on the jump bar positioned right outside the nest boxes and looking inside at the treasurous eggs. Too focused on another easy meal, it didn't notice my approach as it casually hopped into the nest box to further implicate itself in the crime. Sprinting, I slammed the small chicken door shut, trapping the magpie inside the coop. Panic stricken, the magpie flew around bouncing off walls and ricocheting off windows.

Egg yolk coated his coal black beak and I stepped inside to dispatch the profit-eating scavenger. Assuming more magpies knew how to gluttonously feed on raw eggs, I had to figure a way to keep them out but yet allow chickens in and out of the coop as needed.

Hmmmm...

Viola!

Realizing wild birds will not risk injury to feathers or wings, I cut short pieces of chain to dangle in the opening--much like beaded doorways back in the "hippie days". The chickens push right through, possibly saying "outtasight, man, that's far out" while ignoring the chains brushing along their bodies. This inexpensive addition proved successful, but the starlings still squirted between the chains to steal food. So, I stripped copper wire free from insulation and added danglers between the chains. 

Perfect. 

No more unwanted wild birds enter the coop with the chickens now sitting in circles clucking about a tie-dye pattern being painted inside with peace symbols randomly mixed in with psychedelic colors.

Now, it's all groovy, dude.