What stalks your chicken flock when you are not around?
Monsters!!! Yes, MONSTERS!!!
Monsters that want to eat and kill your precious chickens AND their eggs.
You may have what you consider a coop that is the perfect protection for your flock…until…one day you go out in the morning to let your chickens out into their run or for free-ranging. You discover one or more of them are missing, and there may or may not be only a feather left. OR Maybe it is the eggs that are missing until you notice the egg shells. What is going on?
I thought that I had built an invincible coop that was impenetrable by those creatures of the night and the day time too. The first coop ended up having a faulty door that some critter – raccoon, opossum, skunk, fox, coyote, dog, fisher cat, bear, weasel, mink, otter, snake – tore the door apart. Eighteen chickens and 3 turkeys vanished. I built another ‘better’ coop. The next coop was a real vertical structure where the critter had to climb up 8 feet off of the ground, rip astrong heavy duty hardware cloth off of a 6 inch by 4 foot long window, and squeeze inside. A dozen of my chickens and a half dozen of my turkeys disappeared with hardly a trace. Only three feathers were left behind.
There are many things which little and big creatures can do to your chicken coops. I have seen the damage a possum can do to the corner boards on a shed and a house; it violently ripped off those vertical corner boards to attempt to get in.
Remember that many raccoons usually travel in family groups. Their little hands are extremely strong and agile. They also work together to break in and solve any puzzling aspect to get what they want from in ground garbage pits to trash cans by using all kinds of antics. They are like little Houdinis, but instead of breaking out, they break in to reach their treasures.
I have seen those plastic coops and wonder how will they hold up to the rigors of the wildlife that lurks just outside your door. I like the idea that they can be set up easily and quickly. They can be easily washed out to keep them clean. I wonder if any smells would get locked up in the plastic material which they are made from now over an extended period of use. Would these smells end up attracting any animals by the scents announcing the chickens’ presence in the neighborhood?
Another thing to think about is: yes, you want wind or shade protection from trees and bushes, BUT make sure that they are at a respectable distance from the chicken coop. Remember to check out any branches that are hanging over the coop. You may have uninvited guests dropping in to your coop to have a party where your chickens are on their menu for the party. This is another reason to have some kind of cover or hardware cloth over the top of the entire extended fenced in area of your coop. Even during the day you do not want a snake, hawk or eagle or at night an owl dropping in for a tasty snack.
When it comes to choosing a type of fencing or wire system for your coop, consider what critters are known to live around you. There are many types to pick from going from a welded or woven wire mesh to the typical chicken coop wire now known as poultry netting to metal screening.
Maybe you can get by with a more open grid above your outdoor run to just protect your flock from birds during the day. You may need more protection if you have many snakes in your vicinity. In that case, you may opt to use metal screening over your whole coop to prevent them from going through the sides and dropping in from above because there are many snakes that are fairly good at climbing. Believe it or not, even gray foxes are known to climb trees up to 30 to 40 feet high.
This is why you need to do a bit of research with your neighbors, your local aggie or county agricultural department, and local fish and game department. They are out there patrolling and responding to all kinds of critter situations, thereby, they are knowledgeable as to what lives around your area. Your local feed and grain stores may also be able to give you some good advice as to what kind of wire mesh or netting is best or that most folks around you use for their chicken coops too. Ask all of these people what reports they have had of different kinds of predators in your locale.
Build or buy your coop, then check it over completely, even if you think that it is sturdy enough to prevent predators from getting inside. Sink the outside run fencing down in to the ground at least a foot or more if you can. Even pour some concrete into a trench around the run’s perimeter and over some of the wire fencing to bury that in the cement too, so the critters can not dig under the fencing.
For doors, I recommend a latch or lock be installed at both the top and another one close to the bottom. These latches should be a bit difficult to undo; some of these animals are quite adept at opening door latches that they should not be opening and getting access into. This is just so the big monsters can not pull the door out enough to get a hold on the door and rip it off of your coop or so the little monsters can not pull the bottom corner of the door out enough to squeeze in and get inside the chicken coop.
Another tip is to cover any poultry staples or nails over with strips of wood, apply building adhesive, and screw down the wooden strips with screws so these strips can not be pulled off. This will prevent or at least slow down those critters the ability to easier access to the nails or poultry staples which they could otherwise just pull straight out of the fencing or other areas of your chicken coop.
If your coop is brand new, it will be wise for you to keep a close eye on it for the first six months or so. Remember to sleep with an ear to listen for any commotion that might be happening out there in the coop. I can attest to the fact that sometimes these monsters are so stealthy that they never make a sound or cause the chickens to make any noise either.
The more that you do ahead of time to prevent predators AKA monsters, from entering your chickens’ fortress, the better off you and your flock will be. This is also a financial investment for you, so protect your chickens and eggs the very best that you can.
If you do not think that you do not have any predators in your neighborhood…Think again. They are everywhere. There are many night vision videos made to watch and see what lurks around at night. If you remain skeptical, get [buy or borrow] a night vision camera to discover what kind of ‘monsters’ live in your own back yard. Sometimes these videos are truly revealing of what the truth is.
If you build the coop right, your chickens can sit tight at night…and you can sleep tight through the night too.
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