I live in a area with lots of predators and after losing many birds and trying so many different things to stop it from happening I finally came up with a great set up to keep the predators out and I would like to share this with you. Firstly I built my coop off the ground this is a great way to keep coyotes, fox, dogs, raccoons from digging a way in. I like to let my flock free range but their is so many hawks, owls, falcons and eagles in my area so I fenced in a very large area for them , then I took twine and criss crossed the twine above the area this works great! no chickens or ducks can fly out and no hawks, falcons etc. can fly in because the twine is spread out enough so that there wings cannot fly in or out. my set up has already been tested I watched a falcon plummet from the sky and smack right into the twine like a fly in a spider web the falcon flew away dizzily and never came back. I also set up trail cams to snap pictures of what is lurking around and when I see there is something of a threat I set up a trap at night to catch it. also using a battery operated radio just for night time is great the sounds of human voices and music scares away coyotes and raccoons. if you have windows in your coop I double layer the chicken wire with the small square holes over the windows, the tiny square holes keep weasels from getting in, normal chicken wire is easy for weasels to squeeze right through the larger circle like holes. sometimes raccoons , skunks, and mice are attracted to your chicken coop because of the feed, I put away all the feed at night and lock it up in a trash bin with bungee cords to keep away those pesky raccoons. I also put locks on the nesting boxes this also keeps pesky raccoons from stealing eggs. raccoons can easily open your nesting boxes if you have no lock. Lastly keep your coop away from oak trees, acorns and oak leaves can be deadly to some of your fowl, I lost 2 of my ducks because of this, but I saved my 3rd duck after knowing the cause I was able to flush the toxins out of him with water and molasses.
This is called hardware cloth....very often and highly recommended here on BYC. Never heard of oak being toxic to poultry.
Chicken wire is suitable for controlling chickens, not much else. If you want to keep predators out, use hardware cloth. My chickens dig through the thousands of oak tree leaves here without apparent ill effect. There are many oak trees around my yard dropping leaves and acorns where the chickens forage. Chris
yep and we also have tons of oak trees here, if they were toxic all my birds would be dead and i have 100's that free range here, perhaps the birds that are penned eat them because they are trying to forage , I use chicken wire to cover my ground brooders and hardware cloth over the chain link panels, i run dogs so they keep everything at bay as far as predators out.
Very nice run you have , and I mention the oak trees being a possible toxin to some poultry not all. The acorns were toxic to my waterfowl I called the vet when they kept becoming deathly sick after letting them out to free range, the vet had told me the acorns were causing it.
Great idea to run the twine over, a cheaper alternative to net. I'll see how I can work that into my set up. I also have my coop raised off the ground, partly because the ground isn't flat and partly because stoats are a problem here, we've only had issues so far with the flying predators.
