BYC members in Massachusetts?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

They’ve been destroying mine too!! And were stealing my chicken feed before I moved it inside. Naughty little things! Lol we are overrun with them currently.

I think the welded wire would be fine. Theoretically it shouldn’t be and they can fit through it but I’ve had mine in a chain link run with a welded wire top for years.

I know that’s just anecdotal and that I’ve been extremely lucky but we are pretty wooded and have all sorts of predators and have been fine so in a suburban backyard that close to the city I think you’d probably be fine with welded wire. Especially if you plan on covering part of it and the welded wire would only be on a little bit of it. Is your yard fenced? If so that adds a little bit of protection too. Not a ton, predators can still get through it, but it adds an extra barrier. Ours isn’t and we have had lots of attempts by raccoons and foxes to break in but none have been successful. But I do still plan on putting HC around the rest of the run.

I’m not sure about weasels and climbing but after seeing my little chipmunk climb a huge tree up 25 - 30 feet I’m thinking the weasels might if they were hungry enough. But likely not. LOL! I don’t think a Fisher would climb too high either. The 2 x 4 wire will allow small birds to get into the run. Not predators but could carry disease and steal food. It’s your call.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Fisher's are actually quite large and I wouldn't imagine one that close to a city in my wildest dreams. I have always lived around the Berkshire foot mountains and very rarely does one have Fisher problems out this way, where they have actual natural habitat. It's those damn fox that are an overpopulated brazen nightmare.
Fox and coon can rip birds through chain link. I would be hesitant to consider a fox a threat from the top however. Yes, they climb, or dig, but really only during hungry times will they penetrate a run like you describe. Near a city I imagine you have plenty of easier food sources for them, so they'll keep walking unless they have no choice.

The chickens might kill whatever bush you have in there.
Did you say you're going to be using clear plastic panels? I would switch to metal. Those plastic panels make for excellent greenhouse material. You might slow cook the birds

 

[ShrekDawg]

I won't be leaving food out in the run (besides treats I toss in like table scraps, which I imagine will be gone quickly), so hopefully chipmunks and squirrels won't have a reason to go in. I want to be able to leave the pop door open permanently though, so I want it to be predator proof... Just not sure of which predators I'm proofing against. The confusing thing about anecdotal evidence is that I've heard both kind of stories - a neighbor had chickens for 16 years at the edge of the woods with 2"x2" welded wire all around, and had no predator problems, but a different neighbor had some animal squeeze through a 2"-ish hole and kill one of her chickens, so... I was hoping to collect more stories and see if there's a pattern... Like, if I cover the sides with a denser mesh, can I get away with the larger welded wire on top, because yeah, damn, HC is expensive and the uncovered-by-roofing part of my run will be quite large actually...

My yard isn't fenced and I've seen big things in it - raccoons, groundhogs, etc. which don't bother me because they won't fit through. What I'm trying to figure out is how much of a threat weasels and fishers are.

Tbh I leave my pop door open every night and before I built my new coop last year my birds used to sleep on top of the coop right near the roof. they were always fine. The coop was inside the run back then and it had grown too small for them to sleep inside so they chose to sleep outside. That’s when we had the raccoons try but they had plywood over where they slept and the dog chased them off and they were all fine.

But I know I’m extremely lucky. I know people, even someone a few minutes down the road, who had weasels take a bunch of her chickens, but I don’t think she had them in a secure coop and run so idk. But I’ve heard of people even with secure runs have weasels slip once through half inch holes but then there’s me with my chain link and welded wire and I’ve never had issues even when I added new babies in April so idk.

I think you will be fine with the welded wire. Especially near a city. I rarely see fishers even here being relatively wooded so I don’t think they’re that close to the city but I could be wrong. Weasels could be an issue but you won’t know until you try and find out I guess.

I’m not sure about weasels and climbing but after seeing my little chipmunk climb a huge tree up 25 - 30 feet I’m thinking the weasels might if they were hungry enough. But likely not. LOL! I don’t think a Fisher would climb too high either. The 2 x 4 wire will allow small birds to get into the run. Not predators but could carry disease and steal food. It’s your call.

Yeah they are expert climbers! And runners lol they run so fast when they see me come out and they’re where they’re not supposed to be lol

But yeah, I don’t think they would climb. Too much effort. Especially near the city with easier, faster meals.

And hmm that’s true about birds but tbh I’ve never been seen any birds in my run other than my own. Even with the huge chain link gaps. We do have robins hang out near the outside in the spring because it’s prime worm territory around it but no one ever tries to get inside. But maybe it is because we have so much natural territory and food and bushes and such. They tend to eat the wild foods I guess. My birds are also all vaccinated for Mereks though so I’m not too concerned anyway but it hasn’t been an issue for me. Maybe in an area with less natural food it would be.

Fisher's are actually quite large and I wouldn't imagine one that close to a city in my wildest dreams. I have always lived around the Berkshire foot mountains and very rarely does one have Fisher problems out this way, where they have actual natural habitat. It's those damn fox that are an overpopulated brazen nightmare.
Fox and coon can rip birds through chain link. I would be hesitant to consider a fox a threat from the top however. Yes, they climb, or dig, but really only during hungry times will they penetrate a run like you describe. Near a city I imagine you have plenty of easier food sources for them, so they'll keep walking unless they have no choice.

The chickens might kill whatever bush you have in there.
Did you say you're going to be using clear plastic panels? I would switch to metal. Those plastic panels make for excellent greenhouse material. You might slow cook the birds

Yeah that’s true. Even out here I’ve never actually seen one and a lot of people claiming to hear “fishers” are actually hearing foxes.

And yeah they definitely can so I’ve been lucky but honestly I had one huge coon who was more interested in the chicken food than the chickens seriously, I caught him several times at night just sticking his grubby little paws through the fence eating out of the food bowl. Didn’t even care when we shined a light on him either. We finally put hardware cloth around that corner so he couldn’t and that stopped it but now we have the bowl inside cause of the chipmunks and also so they can have more shade/room out there. And we have a ramp leading into the run from the coop but it’s outside the run so there’s an enclosed box around it and a hole cut in the fence so the fox hopped on the box then on top of the plywood up on the run and walked the wire. Scared the birds but didn’t fall in. He actually did it several times. And before we moved the run we had a pair of fat coons up there, bent the wire some, but didn’t get in. Dog scared them off.

I guess we’ve been lucky but it hasn’t been an issue for us. But yes, near the city there are much easier food sources and they are lazy haha

And that’s true.

 

[K0k0shka]

The chickens might kill whatever bush you have in there.

It's a forsythia bush, so as far as bushes go, pretty tough This one was relocated once, and is now right under my giant maple, where nothing else lives because of the shade and lack of water, and yet despite all, this bush is HUGE even though I cut it back multiple times a year. I just cut it again a few weeks ago because it had spread to 7'x10' and about 8' tall... I'm thinking of putting some large rocks around the base so they don't dig its roots out too much, but this bush is a monster so I doubt they can kill it, haha.

Did you say you're going to be using clear plastic panels? I would switch to metal. Those plastic panels make for excellent greenhouse material. You might slow cook the birds

I'm only going to use 1 or 2 panels total, to create some shelter from rain, but that will be a small fraction of the total run area. Plus, the run is going to be in shade for most of the day. That part of the yard doesn't get too hot.

 

[K0k0shka]

I think what I'm going to do is use the 2"x2" welded wire fencing I already have for the sides, get 2"x4" for the top, and then get a 3-foot-wide roll of 1/2" hardware cloth for the bottom - have a one-foot skirt along the ground, then bend it up and have the other 2 feet up against the fence (well secured), so the bottom 2 feet of the fence are dense and no paws can reach in to grab chickens. Then I'll see how it goes. I want to incubate my own chickens and only end up with 3 hens or so, which means I'll have to start with a lot more eggs to account for losses (broken during shipping, some won't hatch, chicks might die, some will be roosters...) What that means is that for a while, I'll have more chickens than I need, and losing one to a predator won't be as devastating as losing 1 out of 3... So if nobody dies while I still have a larger flock, I'll assume it's probably fine and keep the fencing setup, and if I lose a bird, then I'll have more to spare, and I can just get more hardware cloth...

 

[ShrekDawg]

I think what I'm going to do is use the 2"x2" welded wire fencing I already have for the sides, get 2"x4" for the top, and then get a 3-foot-wide roll of 1/2" hardware cloth for the bottom - have a one-foot skirt along the ground, then bend it up and have the other 2 feet up against the fence (well secured), so the bottom 2 feet of the fence are dense and no paws can reach in to grab chickens. Then I'll see how it goes. I want to incubate my own chickens and only end up with 3 hens or so, which means I'll have to start with a lot more eggs to account for losses (broken during shipping, some won't hatch, chicks might die, some will be roosters...) What that means is that for a while, I'll have more chickens than I need, and losing one to a predator won't be as devastating as losing 1 out of 3... So if nobody dies while I still have a larger flock, I'll assume it's probably fine and keep the fencing setup, and if I lose a bird, then I'll have more to spare, and I can just get more hardware cloth...

I think that sounds like an excellent plan.

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks everybody for the input!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks everybody for the input!

You’re very welcome and I hope it goes well for you.

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks!

You are very welcome and be sure to post pictures of the chicks when you get them.