Every chicken palace needs a doorman

Back in late October, when the chicken palace was finally done...or so I thought,

I ended up extending the height of the fence that separates the chickens from the pig.

Eugenia insisted on jumping over the original fence to visit Wynonna and peck the dry skin off her back. 

It was gross. Anyway, Danni was visiting at the time, and she helped me build the addition.

We made it out of some scrap pieces of wire fence panel, which turned out to be a perfect solution. 

The solid fence at the bottom protects Wynonna from the pecking chickens, and the see-through fence at the top 

lets the sun shine through but keeps Eugenia where she belongs. 

We made a hole in the wire panel so that I could open the gate latch from the chicken side of the fence. 

This worked fine until the weather got cold and I started wearing my bulky barn coat to do chores. 

I thought about making the hole bigger but worried that Eugenia would use it as an escape route. 

Danni suggested I tie a weighted string to the latch so that I could simply pull the string to open the gate from the other side.

So I did. But what could I use as a weight for the other end of the string?
Hmm. I looked around at many boring options before I found this...

...a leftover Halloween decoration which was in keeping with the whole cow skull vibe.
Meet Igor the Doorman.

Roll your mouse between the margin and the picture and watch Igor open the gate. 

Igor does a very good job. And there's no pressure to tip him at Christmas time.