I have been reading all of these horror stories and am in the process of building my chicken run.
I live in a suburban neighborhood. Here we do have fox, racoons, and hawks. However, I've never seen any of these creatures in my yard. I have a small dog that might be very nice fox bait, but he's never been bothered.
I'm wondering if many of the attacks I read about happen when people have chicks out at night or live in more wooded or rural areas? Even though, I am trying to build a really secure run.
Here is my plan. Will it be enough for a backyard? My auto mechanic laughed at me for using hardware cloth; he's had chicks in the neighborhood for years and only uses chicken wire.
Plan: Run is enclosed on three sides by coop, wooden fence, and garage wall.
I have dug down about 9" and will bury hardware cloth along the wooden fence; it'll come up about a foot and I'll screw it in to the fence.
I will frame the front of the run, add a door and enclose the entire thing with hardware cloth and also dig down & bury.
Coop is raised 2 feet and hardware cloth wraps the bottom (buried also).
I will put chicken wire on the top (only because I can't afford more hardware cloth. The area is about 8 x 12).
There are branches that extend over the coop. The nesting boxes are on the non-run side of the coop...I have a tricky hook & eye hook with a spring...but that doesn't seem like enough on that exposed side.
All of this occurs in my fenced in yard.
Am I doing enough? I'm worried about the roof part. I also don't know what to buy for the nesting boxes as far as a lock goes. What is secure enough??
Or, am I being ridiculous--is a raccoon going to climb on my coop or garage and jump down into the chicken wire right here in the 'burbs?
THANKS!!!!
I live in a suburban neighborhood. Here we do have fox, racoons, and hawks. However, I've never seen any of these creatures in my yard. I have a small dog that might be very nice fox bait, but he's never been bothered.
I'm wondering if many of the attacks I read about happen when people have chicks out at night or live in more wooded or rural areas? Even though, I am trying to build a really secure run.
Here is my plan. Will it be enough for a backyard? My auto mechanic laughed at me for using hardware cloth; he's had chicks in the neighborhood for years and only uses chicken wire.
Plan: Run is enclosed on three sides by coop, wooden fence, and garage wall.
I have dug down about 9" and will bury hardware cloth along the wooden fence; it'll come up about a foot and I'll screw it in to the fence.
I will frame the front of the run, add a door and enclose the entire thing with hardware cloth and also dig down & bury.
Coop is raised 2 feet and hardware cloth wraps the bottom (buried also).
I will put chicken wire on the top (only because I can't afford more hardware cloth. The area is about 8 x 12).
There are branches that extend over the coop. The nesting boxes are on the non-run side of the coop...I have a tricky hook & eye hook with a spring...but that doesn't seem like enough on that exposed side.
All of this occurs in my fenced in yard.
Am I doing enough? I'm worried about the roof part. I also don't know what to buy for the nesting boxes as far as a lock goes. What is secure enough??
Or, am I being ridiculous--is a raccoon going to climb on my coop or garage and jump down into the chicken wire right here in the 'burbs?
THANKS!!!!