ARGH!!!
My husband looked out the window today at noon...and saw TWO coons eyeballing our run! A mom and her baby...normally would go "awww cute!!" but NOT when they are looking at MY babies.
Thank god my husband put hardware cloth up on the bottom of the run so that the babies and grownups would be safe from being dragged thru but now the coons know they are there...they were right up at the run with their bibs and eating utinsels ready when we turned the sprinklers on them. Hoping that they associate the thought of chicken dinner with Act of God...we look at chickens we get wet. We also chased them after that with the hose and sprayed the daylights out of them.
But, we know they wil be back one day...probably soon. Strange they were out in daylight tho!
Any ideas on what to do? ATM we have the run as a 10x10 chainlink kennel fortified with hardware cloth on the bottom and deer netting over the top. They wont be able to dig thru, and the hardware wire stretches up 2 feet from ground on the inside of the run so it cant be pulled out that way.
The coop itself we arent worried about..its literally a Fort Knox of Chickens the way my hubby built it... the only place they could get thru is if they chewed thru the walls or roof and we would catch that fast...its not thin by any means.
It's not electrified <the coop itself isnt>, and we are trying to think of ways to protect the top of the run from the coons deciding to do an up and over MI type of routine. So far we saw the mousetraps, and the solar electric...
At least Esther was a good mom!! She called out the alarm and had all her babies with her on the other side of the run....the coons were near the wall where the pophole is so I think she was afraid to pull the chicks inside. She was in full protect mod... all puffed out and guarding her chicks...she is so good
My husband looked out the window today at noon...and saw TWO coons eyeballing our run! A mom and her baby...normally would go "awww cute!!" but NOT when they are looking at MY babies.
Thank god my husband put hardware cloth up on the bottom of the run so that the babies and grownups would be safe from being dragged thru but now the coons know they are there...they were right up at the run with their bibs and eating utinsels ready when we turned the sprinklers on them. Hoping that they associate the thought of chicken dinner with Act of God...we look at chickens we get wet. We also chased them after that with the hose and sprayed the daylights out of them.
But, we know they wil be back one day...probably soon. Strange they were out in daylight tho!
Any ideas on what to do? ATM we have the run as a 10x10 chainlink kennel fortified with hardware cloth on the bottom and deer netting over the top. They wont be able to dig thru, and the hardware wire stretches up 2 feet from ground on the inside of the run so it cant be pulled out that way.
The coop itself we arent worried about..its literally a Fort Knox of Chickens the way my hubby built it... the only place they could get thru is if they chewed thru the walls or roof and we would catch that fast...its not thin by any means.
It's not electrified <the coop itself isnt>, and we are trying to think of ways to protect the top of the run from the coons deciding to do an up and over MI type of routine. So far we saw the mousetraps, and the solar electric...
At least Esther was a good mom!! She called out the alarm and had all her babies with her on the other side of the run....the coons were near the wall where the pophole is so I think she was afraid to pull the chicks inside. She was in full protect mod... all puffed out and guarding her chicks...she is so good
