All my chickens are gone...

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Criticalicious said:
So sorry for your loss! These stories are my worst nightmares. Get a solidly built coop that predators can't easily access and close up the chickens at night. Get an automatic door timed to sunup and sundown in case you can't be home in time to lock them up. Run should be entirely enclosed top to bottom in hardware cloth and add dig skirts on the ground wherever you can. Then surround the whole thing in electric fence. Every set up is secure until it isn't.

I thought stories about the TSC and prefab coops were hyperbole until I was expanding my flock and decided to try one. It was SO tiny and flimsy that I refused to put any birds in it, even temporarily. I could tear it apart with my hands! $150 wasted.
Click to expand...
Thank you :). The coop and run were predator safe, it was my lack of forgetting to close one of the doors at night. The solar door is a great idea!
 
I have electric wire around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and netting covering all of my pens. There are some places along the bottom of the fencing I dug a foot deep trench and buried some welded wire and attached it to the bottom of the fence. The electric wire does work. The predators know it's there. Once they touch it they don't touch it again. In fact I think the coyotes teach their pups to stay away from the wire. We have a lot of coyotes here. Everything likes chicken so if the predator is able to breach, it will. Good luck...
 
The best advice I can give is simple.
Build a coop and run like you are going to live in it.
My husband tried the same deal as yours when I got back into birds.
I asked would you feel safe in there?
You already know the answer I got.
The next day I started researching pallet coops.
I can honestly say id feel safe in the one we built, the only living things I worry about are bears and people.
Expense wise since pallets are pretty much free it cost about as much as the cardboard coop but only due to hardware and siding to make it pretty.
 
Chickassan said:
The best advice I can give is simple.
Build a coop and run like you are going to live in it.
My husband tried the same deal as yours when I got back into birds.
I asked would you feel safe in there?
You already know the answer I got.
The next day I started researching pallet coops.
I can honestly say id feel safe in the one we built, the only living things I worry about are bears and people.
Expense wise since pallets are pretty much free it cost about as much as the cardboard coop but only due to hardware and siding to make it pretty.
Click to expand...
My coop was definitely safe and totally secure. My error was their demise when I forgot to shut one of the 3 doors, just once, after having chickens for 5 years that fateful night they were taken....
 
Oh, hun I was talking about the OP who had her coop dug under.
You just had a brain fart, they happen to us all.
I'm like flippin rain man when I lock up at night touching latches and counting out loud... iv'e been there. ;)
chloemae said:
My coop was definitely safe and totally secure. My error was their demise when I forgot to shut one of the 3 doors, just once, after having chickens for 5 years that fateful night they were taken....
Click to expand...
 

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