Barn Conversion Advice Needed

[CircusMum]

We have a horse barn and I'm working on converting a few stalls for our chickens with access to an outdoor pen. I have covered the lower portion with field fence and the portion above it with machine wire (difficult to see in pic). I'll be covering the open stall doorway to the right of the frame last and there is machine wire above it. My question is, do I need to extend the fencing to the roof of the barn to keep raccoons out? We've lost most of our flock to raccoons in our backyard coop, so I want to ensure they're safe, but it's a logistics nightmare because the rafters zig zag. Our rafters are wide and easy enough for an animal to walk on, I'm just not certain if a raccoon will be willing to drop in ten feet to get at the chickens. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Raccoons will definitely go up and over that. I would attach some 2x4's to the top to support a cover. You may also have troubles with wild birds like sparrows getting in if you don't use small enough fencing.

We have coons that come into our pole shed to help themselves to cat food, so they aren't afraid to enter one.

 

[Molpet]

coons and weasels can climb up just about anything, fencing, wood, my downspouts... weasels can get through an opening bigger than 1/2 inch... top is a must.

 

[barn206]

X2
How I wish I had a barn like yours!
It's perfect

 

[Sara Ranch]

I converted a barn to the Roo Barn. (For the rooster flocks I have.) I used hardware cloth and built rooms.

Yes, I put hardware cloth on ALL sides, including the existing wood on the walls to the exterior side of the barn. I overlapped the hardware cloth in some areas and sandwiched it in between wood in other areas.

It looks like mice and rats could get through the machine wire cloth you put up. Would you be putting water and/or feed into the chicken stalls? Would rodents be a problem?

 

[CircusMum]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I didn't think converting the stall would be so much engineering! We don't have weasels, so raccoons are really our only major issue. The barn cats take care of rodents, so we don't see much in the barn (we do have hoofed creatures in the barn, too). I figured out a way to angle over to one of the beams with machine wire and found a ridiculously heavy marine storage canvas to screw into the flat portion as a roof. I decided to move the grain into the barn kitchen since we don't use it and converted the closed grain room into the chicken sleeping quarters. I'll cut a hole in the wall to the enclosed stall and create a door that can be closed up at night.

 

[aart]

I'd add a ceiling, rafters across where blue line is,
then attach mesh to the bottoms using screws and washers.

 

[speckledhen]

You've had some great advice from folks in the know already. Very nice barn you have. Seems like it's harder to retrofit an existing barn that never housed chickens to make it predator proof, but that usually goes for the old wooden ones with a bazillion holes in them. You'll get it right. Try to see from a predator's viewpoint. Raccoons climb like nobody's business and of course, weasels are much worse to fence out.

You just pretty much have to act as if you're building a coop from scratch like it was not inside the barn, not relying on the barn itself to be predator-proof.