Hello! Great to be here. Here's my story.

I moved into a house with a nice backyard with a few big trees about a year ago and have quasi-adopted the resident fox squirrel who lives in these trees and considers the backyard her territory-- her name is Mama Quixote and she's the best! I have been feeding her avocado (her favorite), a variety of nuts (no Brazil), homemade squirrel balls (with good calciumhosphorus ratios), in-shell pecans, etc on a daily basis, and in modest amounts in order to hopefully not totally supplant her natural foragings. She is pretty comfortable with me and will approach for snacks when I'm out in the yard and will take food from my hand but otherwise is still guarded and will not let me touch her. This seems like a reasonable arrangement.

I noticed her looking pregnant (enlarged nipples) a few months ago and sure enough 3 kids emerged about 6 weeks ago. Super fun to watch them progress and explore their new world. I resisted feeding them for a while but they eventually caught on to Mama's game and now get in on the dinner action a bit (but I try to keep it limited). Their names are Benny (boy), Peach (girl), and Poppy (girl). And as unbelievable as it may sound, they are very cute.

I figured out where MQ's drey was a while ago and would keep an eye on it. Recently/post-birth she built a new one which, lucky for me, is in a more viewable spot. (I watched her make a few trips transporting bedding material from old to new, which was fun.) It appears that she and all the kids pile in there based on my observations of the traffic to and from. Why did she move? Not sure. Maybe the old nest was just dirty?

The coolest thing that has happened since the kids arrived is the wrestling sessions. Sometimes it's kid-on-kid, sometimes kid-on-mama, sometimes all of them at once. They really get into it and are obviously having a blast and it's amazing to watch. I have some video of this, not sure if I'm able to post that or not.

My question/concern...

I live in Colorado and we're just about to go into thunderstorm season (lasts a month or two) which around here means serious HAIL. MQ didn't build the new drey in the most protected of spots; it kind of sits right at the pinnacle of the tree (about 25 feet up) with scant cover above it. I am not able to get a good look at the construction of the drey to assess if it has any overhang action that could provide shelter but I just ordered a drone and will hopefully be able to get an overhead look in a few days.

Anyway, I am worried about these guys being exposed to heavy rain storms and especially the gnarly hail that this region is known to get in late spring/early summer. So I'm wondering what, if anything, I can do about this. One idea is to get up there and install some kind of overhead protection but this is WAY easier said than done. The tree is not readily climbable (by me) and it's not obvious where and how something could be rigged up anyway (and would it freak them out anyway?). The other thought is to install a new ready-made squirrel house onto the trunk a few feet below the drey and just hope that they'd have the sense to take cover in it. But that idea brings concerns of unintended consequences such as inviting other neighborhood squirrels to take up residence in what I consider MQ's sacred territory (based on how she reacts to other squirrels passing through I know she'd be vexed). Furthermore, I've looked at some of the commercially available houses and they all seem a little small for one full grown squirrel plus three 3/4 grown 'teenagers' (but I don't really know what size is appropriate).

Conclusion, I'm not sure what to do, if anything. Wife says I'm getting too involved, they're wild animals, they'll figure it out. Probably right, but I still worry about them. I appreciate any advice. Thank you