A Careless Mistake

[JimyCrakKorn]

You are so right. Good is never good enough. I'm sorry too that you went through a loss, but you have the right attitude when it comes to making sure your girls are protected from now on! They count on us. We can not let them down!

How are the traps coming?

 

[RaeRae2]

Aww, so sad. I am really sorry.

I want to ask though - so when the chickens went to bed at night, they were not locked in a coop or chicken house? They were loose inside the run? I ask because I want to know how they got inside the coop where the chickens were sleeping. My coop is so secure that nothing could get inside it (literally - it's 4 steel walls, steel doors, and a concrete floor). But I worry about them during the day when they're in the run. The run is secure - as secure as one can make a chicken run.....but I constantly worry.

Thank you for sharing your pain so that we can all learn from it.

 

[dominiques]

How do you all secure your run door? What type of latches?

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

Sorry for the delayed reply, I had to have a new keyboard put on my laptop. What I call my coop is a converted dog house that was built for a great dane. So it's 4 ft wide x 4 ft high x 6 ft long. I built an attached outside nesting box with two nests which extend the coop by another 2 ft. the inside floor is covered in shavings and there are 2 roosts. The opening is 2 ft x 3 ft and had no door. That's been fixed. The pen is as posted earlier 20 ft long x 8 ft wide x 6 ft high. The run is 100 ft x 100 ft of 4 ft high chain link fence. The mistake was thinking the girls were inside the pen where they had been for a couple of weeks with no problems. That night my wife closed the pen but the girls were in the run where over the previous week or so they had discovered, much to our delight the downed logs and several very cozy bedding down spots. Three were taken as the run had no cover at all just the 4 ft fence to keep them in while we were with them during the day. They were never to be left out all night. We both feel that had they never been left out, the coons would not have bothered them. My heart tells me they would have been fine but my head tells me the coons would have found them at any rate. But once they knew they were there, they would keep coming back until I caught them or the girls were gone.

What I call a pen, it sounds like what you call a run. It is very important you cover the pen/run completely. Do not trust chicken wire. Even the 1 inch opening can leave openings for predators; mainly snakes. By the way I found a great way to stop snakes. Deer netting. It's black plastic that disapears when more than 5 ft away from it and if you place it like a fence, a foot or two high with maybe 6 inches laying flat on the ground the snakes will either be blocked from coming in or more than likely will try to go through it. Here's the part that catches them. The start in and when they find out they can't get through, they try to back out. They can't. They're scales stop them from backing up. The more they try to get out the more tangled they become. They will ddie or if they are the kind you want (just not around the coop, you can cut them out and relocate them. However, you must know what you are handling if you plan on cutting them loose.

The coop door is now secured with a screened door I built to cover the opening. The screen is 1/2 inch hardware cloth and secured with screws. The entire pen is covered on all sides and since I don't have a roof, the entire top is also covered with 1/2 inch cloth.

The pen door is a door I made to fit a 4 ft opening what is called the human door.

I hope this helps.

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

I will take a picture but it's a fence latch with a caribeaner (misspelled) through the hole.

 

[off-grid hen]

I am in the center of 200 undeveloped acres. I have a 10x30 run completely enclosed in 2x4 welded wire. The bottom has hardware cloth so coons cant reach in. (If I had to do it over again, I would make the whole thing hardware cloth, to weasel proof and rodent proof.) The door to the run has a turning hasp, which I latch with a carabiner clip. I then flip the carabiner upside down. The coop door has a slide bolt, with a hole on the end, which I slip another carabiner and flip upside-down. All the windows are covered with hardware cloth attached with long thick electrical staples, then screws and washers. My rule of thumb: if a 4 yearold can open it, so can a coon. The raccoons have been quite numerous this year. My husband has gotten three this year, and I got two. Last year, we relocated the first one we caught. I will NEVER relocate an animal, even a chipmunk, again. I realize how stupid it was to transfer possible diseases to another location, and it didn't do the animal any favors. At least I know it wasn't a female with vulnerable young suddenly abandoned. I now use the .22 or the shotgun. I am not happy doing it, but I don't feel emotional about it anymore either.

I have seen coon scat on the roof of the coop, and around the outer perimeter of the run, so I know they have had meetings and tried to breach security. . the bottom border of my run s turned up. I have tree logs(full whole trees) over the upturned wire. I then placed large field stones every 4 feet to block the logs. Lol. I knew what I was in for when I decided to raise chickens in the middle of the woods.

Someone about a mile down the road from me said there was a very big black bear in his pasture. I guess I'll soon see if my run can stop a bear. :/

Good luck!

 

[Chambertin]

Many have said it right:
"The racoon is just doing what coons do." paired with "Im just doing what humans do to racoons."
Not just shooting them when you're bored, but eliminating a predator who endangers your flock.

 

[dominiques]

Thanks for your descriptions.

I have 2x4 welded wire over my run. I even put chicken wire over that just because I had it laying around. Should I replace it all with hardware cloth? I have hardware cloth on all sides of the run.

 

[JimyCrakKorn]

Thanks for your descriptions.

I have 2x4 welded wire over my run. I even put chicken wire over that just because I had it laying around. Should I replace it all with hardware cloth? I have hardware cloth on all sides of the run.

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. You didn't say what the size of the chicken wire was. 1 inch, 2 inches? The 2x4 welded wire will provide the strength and if you are using 1 inch chicken wire you should be okay. I would caution you to make very sure all sides around the top are secured with screws at least 3/4 inch long. The welded wire should be secured with fence staples if what you are nailing into is sturdy enough to take the hammering. Otherwise use screws with a flat washer or screws that have a shoulder that can act as a washer. If everything is tight and can stand a coon walking across the top, your girls stand a good chance of surviving. Remember, snakes can drop down through small openings so look around for ways they could crawl up the sides of the pen and through the top. For them I suggest deer netting streached around the bottom of the walls.

Good luck.

 

[sharron]

do not ever relax your guard against the coons, after killing all the coons at my place, for a whole year, coon free, a troop of four found my chickens, out of
13 chickens, they killed 10 in one night, we moved the last three into another coon proof coop, and started trapping, my husband caught four and killed but still afraid more will come, my husband leaves the trap out, set all the time now just in case