...other predators that will kill the whole flock and Foxes are one of them.Whatever killed your chickens will be back.Please be aware of this and keep your chickens locked up until you have a secure run for them.Foxes are excellent diggers too.You will need an apron around the bottom to keep...
Thanks! This sounds like what I was doing pre-pregnancy (I'm not much for getting up early now, haha, and I'm not the one handling his morning routine right now). Thankfully, there is no reason for the dog to interact with the areas the baby will be in, so we will have time to adjust and work...
...purpose with unruly dogs.
Step 1)
The modern way: Start early a.m. on the dogs empty stomach. No Food in any bowl. Load your pockets or a apron with all his daily kibble. He gets not a single piece until all four feet are grounded and he is a calm state. When you see him attempting a jump...
...as well. Inside the nursery with the chicks is only feed and fresh water.
The rats, sadly, have been able to tunnel into the run. (I have an apron, but there are vulnerable points at my corner posts, and the rats dug under the posts, SIGH). They cannot access the feed (the run has a treadle...
...so that it's tall enough for you to walk in, it has a solid, pitched roof and walls secured with 1/2" hardware cloth along with a 2 ft predator apron spread along the ground.
You'll want to scale it so that it offers about 15 sq ft per bird and put lots of branches, stumps, old wood chairs or...
That’s some amazing ideas! Thankyou! We have most tools to do things, like metal drill bits, tech screws etc, my husband has collected many tools etc over the years which are handy, I was thinking the A frame sheets would be good on the roof for some shelter, but it can get very windy and wet...
...for predators to dig. Unless chain link has been buried, anything thinner like hardware cloth will have rusted by now. So you can dig a new apron, or lay an apron down and seed something that will grow quickly (and if it's tall and leans that can help provide some salad bar greenery for the...
We have every one of those predators as well. I wonder if it depends on how much cover you have for them? I live in the woods and the little bit that isn’t wooded has a tangle of perennials. They are just so happy when they are out and about.
...just the safest way to go. The coop and initial run have a concrete trench poured around the perimeter to prevent digging in. The extended run we're planning will be much bigger, so I'm not sure if we'll do concrete again or just run the HWC cloth out along the ground and cover to make an apron.
I laid a 24 inch 1/2” HWC apron along the ground and up the sides of the coop bending it as close to 90 degrees as possible at ground level. I overlapped the pieses by 8” for good measure then covered the apron with 22a driveway gravel tappered and graded out to 3 ft and compacted.
After 2...
I've used 18" pavers, my intent is to put a wire apron under the pavers for some added security.
We're overrun with raccoons as well. I have security cameras around the house, principally watching the deck. I'd have raccoons visit every single night. But then a couple of months ago, the visits...
Here is my 12x12 chicken run. It has 1 inch welded wire on the sides and base (as a predator apron under the gravel). And then a 1 inch poly net on the top. This net concerns me because it a large animal can easily chew through it if it can climb over. I tried an energized polywire strand...
...that what @EmmaDonovan is dealing with are critters who dig waaay under the outer walls, a foot or more deep, and come up in the middle of the run. Not a critter that digs three inches under the wall and pops up. An apron isn’t going to dissuade them.
These are serious subterranean excavators!
...fence. A lot of the time they don't even need to dig to go under, they can squeeze through a very small gap. The way I stop that is to use an apron. I put a strip of wire mesh 12" to 18" wide around the run and attach it to the bottom leaving no big gaps. I lay it flat and bury it about...
...could get through and predate eggs or baby chicks, I guess.
Anyway, my run is completely enclosed in 19 gauge 1/2" HWC - walls, "ceiling", and aprons extending out a meter/yard from the base of the run. So far, so good!
If your run is open-framed, attach the HWC to the outside, rather than...