Building a coop

[lexabare]

We buried hardware cloth, and put it on the run walls with the seams in-between wood framing so nothing could pry it open. We also put hardware cloth over the coop window just to be safe! We have fisher-cats, raccoons, hawks, coyotes... Its like the wild kingdom in my yard hahaha!

We also lock our girls every night in their coop just to be safe, just in-case something gets in the run SOMEHOW. The coop itself is quite tall, the floor is about hip high on me (I'm 5'10). Is this overkill? I'm not sure. Knock on wood (or hardware cloth) nothing has gotten in yet!

 

[berettp]

What gauge cloth do you recommend I have raccoons, opossum, skunk, and fox to deal with.

 

[emcd124]

Howard, this is such a helpful post. I'm working on building my first coop, so I wanted to follow up with a question about ventilation: I am converting an old tv stand into a coop for two. I will have 2.5 inches of wired-in ventilation across the top of the north facing wall where the door will be located. I intend to put a simple slanted lean-to style roof (eg not gabled) with a significant overhang, and finish off the naturally flat top of the tv stand in exterior paint. I was thinking about putting in a "skylight" vent on the top that would be under the metal roof with about 2" of clearance to allow the fumes out. I havent read anywhere about skylight vents. Is there any serious pro or con I should consider about cutting in skylights or not?