2x4 mesh for top of run -keeps out raccoons?

[Dobela]

If we buy fencing that has 2x4inch mesh, would that keep out raccoons? We are thinking about putting it on the top of the run. I know that on the sides we will need additional wire over it for smaller things, like snakes.

 

[PapaChaz]

my old coop i had put this for the sides. i lost a hen a few months ago, she was laying at the fence, one of her legs and head ripped off. coons usually run in packs, and if they scatter around the pen and get the girls stirred up eventually one of them will be close enough to grab. thats why i put hardware cloth around my new coop. i did use what you're describing over the top of my run though, it's strong enough to hold the weight of any coons, and tall enough they couldn't reach the girls on the ground in the run. how tall is your run? you should be fine as long as you've supported it well and definitley overlap the edges at least 2 or 3 squares

 

[wekiva bird]

We used 2x4 wire on the top of ours.

 

[Dobela]

Quote:
Thank you! We are looking at making the run 5ft tall, or 6 if I can find the wire locally that is that tall. Our plan is to put chicken hex along the bottom 3 feet with an apron coming out about another foot at the bottom.

 

[bburn]

Quote:
Coons run in packs? Gosh, I hope not!! Am going to go read about them! Lost two to a racoon last week on two different nights.
I am studying my coop and run now to make sure we don't have any more racoon problems!

Raccoons maintain a lifestyle that helps keep them from becoming prey. They are usually solitary animals. By avoiding being part of a pack, they make themselves harder for predators to find.

Just looked it up and this is what I got.....sooooo.....I don't know.

 

[PapaChaz]

Quote:
Coons run in packs? Gosh, I hope not!! Am going to go read about them! Lost two to a racoon last week on two different nights.
I am studying my coop and run now to make sure we don't have any more racoon problems!

i have a deer feeder with corn in it with a trail camera on it. i see coons all the time, and never just see one, there's always two or three at a time. i'm guessing what happened was they'd spread out around the coop, get the girls stirred up, polly got too close to the wire close to one, and it reached in and grabbed her.

while i'd never argue about it, i know what my trail cam gets. i'll never depend on dog fence type wire on the sides of my coop again, and it has to be something stronger than just chicken/poultry netting too

 

[PapaChaz]

something else i learned from all the pics from the trail cam, everything goes to the salt block! possums, coons, rabbits, squirrels! everything i've gotten pic of sooner or later i'll see them at the salt block, i thought that was interesting

 

[patandchickens]

If it is good livestock-quality 2x4 mesh, regular raccoons cannot go thru it. HOWEVER be aware that the youngest ones (the first few weeks or month that the mom starts taking 'em out on excursions) *can* sometimes get thru. Also yer younger possums, and weasels and minks, all of which are pretty strictly totally nocturnal (whereas raccoons *do* sometimes forage during early morning or late afternoon)

As long as your chickens are locked in the coop by dusk, I would say it is pretty darn safe, even if not *quite* as safe as smaller mesh.

Quote:

Raccoons are solitary animals EXCEPT THAT family units typically stay together for a year or longer. So, adult males or unbred females are solitary, but it is really really really common to have groups of 2-6 raccoons wandering around b/c it is a female with her last years' grown offspring.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[PapaChaz]

ohhhh, so i guess i'm seeing the family that preys together stays together,

we have a creek through the front yard that empties into a pond on the neighbors land, very dense cover all around, i keep a path cleared around the pond for walking/fishing, and see the tracks all the time. and then there's the trail cam. i'm thinking of moving my trail cam to the coop/run area, it's set off by heat, so anything that would be around it i'd get a picture of

 

[patandchickens]

Btw the o.p. should note that 2x4 mesh ONLY keeps out raccoons IF it is sturdily enough supported that their weight does not cause it to come down or open at the seams! And raccoons are HEAVY -- especially a grown family bouncin' up and down up there, or even just a big trophy-sized old male. So do not neglect your support/attachment systems.

Pat