Safe portable run?!

[heiditam]

Need adivce. I don't want an attached run. I plan to free range girls a lot. I would like to let them out of coop in morning, but I feel like free ranging for 8-10 hours really increases the risk(can't have roo in city either). I had the idea of making a large portable run and letting them in it from about 8am-4pm and then letting them totally loose from 4-roost time. I think the run should protect them from hawks, but what about other DAYtime predators? I almost fear that having them contained may be more dangerous if a crafty predator can tip it or dig under it. We have a rare fox and stray cats and rare coyotes. We have hawks galore but a lot of tree and brush coverage. Thoughts? Is this is feasible would peck n play be safe or the PVC pipe run? Another? Thanks!

 

[TinyBirds]

We found the same problem. We have daytime raccoons that wipe out entire pens at once. Covered pens

 

[heiditam]

Oh no! how are they getting in? Digging? Tipping? Chewing through wire?

 

[TinyBirds]

They look like cats do when they squeeze through any tiny gaps at the top of the fence or under. They are also good at just reaching through the fence and ripping birds through. We caught 7 raccoons in a week once. I've heard some people eat the raccoons but we haven't tried it. We also have bobcats but they are usually satisfied with just 1 bird a day and don't wipe out entire pens in an hour like raccoons can do. Chickens are very hard to keep in predator heavy areas like ours. We haven't had the daytime attacks in a few months now, cross fingers, but if we don't shut the coop doors exactly at dark, they still come within 30 min after sundown.
Good luck to you though. Hope you still enjoy your chickens and don't let me discourage you. It took 4 years before the raccoons started their daytime attack her. We had much enjoyment before that. And Now I just try to focus on each day separately, enjoying the birds while we have them. I still do let them free range a lot since the pens weren't foolproof anyway, like you said. Getting a guard dog would help but we haven't gone that route yet unless we happen to find one that's already trained not to eat birds.