Building Chicken Fort Knox, need suggestions

[rhondapiper]

Thanks folks, these are great ideas! I had no clue about some of this stuff.

We put sharp gravel down in the fall when we planted bulbs because we have so many bulb-eating critters, I hadn't even thought thought to put down something sharp to deter digging around the coop too. And as for mulch- yup, with 1.5 wooded acres, we have tons of stuff we can use to mulch. I think I'll just go to the area where we blew all the leaves last fall and gather up that stuff for the coop floor.

Any more ideas are more than welcome, I'll post a coop building thread once we get started this week!

Oh and thanks BarkerChickens, it is a gorgeous place to live. It's not even worth it for me to consider fighting the predators- the park has a neverending supply of beasties and I like to live and let live, so my best bet is to try to make the chickens as secure as I can. I like the variety of animals that visit, even if they do want to eat chickens.

 

[standardbanty]

I also agree with all the other posts. you also can have a skirt for the fence. You should put pretty tthick wire on top and on the floor of the run. So it wont deterate over time. The electric fence is great. You probably want a batery powered one because not to much sun can get through wooded areas. If you have some dogs you could walk them back near the coop and make them poop and pee so some predators are scared and wont bother becuase of the barking and scents. One last thing is this one product that is sold on many supply sites. Its called night gaurd. http://www.randallburkey.com/prodinfo.asp?number=67000