Calling all Coop experts!!

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
Put a padlock on the egg doors and the key on a piece of chain stapled/screwed to the side of the coop. Raccoons are smart, but I don't think they'll figure that out.

 

[Sammimom]

I am soooo not an expert, but I do have little kids...the only ones I trust to shut up the coop are the nine year old and the seven year old, the five year old needs another's help to be sure it is done properly. Also, I am the only one to lock them in at night.

We just have a "prefab" set of nest boxes (see my page if interested) and they are 12X12, and in my opinion too small for our Buff O. The advantage in my area is that anything which hangs off the main coop is at risk of having water leak in from our heavy rains, so ultimately we decided to just lock everything down. The older children or myself open the coop, and then we let the little guy carry in the eggs (in a basket).

Our kids LOVE the chickens, they are great pets!

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Raccoons CAN figure that out and get to your birds.
Basically if a toddler can do it, a raccoons can.

PLUS I have only had losses to HUMAN predators.

I PADLOCK my coop every night now!



For the OP, I use a 5gal bucket on it's side with half the lid cut off. The opening is NOT 12" x 12" but I had two Leghorns squeezed in there this morning at the same time (one's butt was sticking out, wish I had my camera!) so I'd say it's definitely big enough. I drilled 2 holes in the bottom (now the back) and zip tied it to the welded wire so that it doesn't roll around on them.

 

[rileysgranny]

Tala - I guess we've been lucky or there are not raccoons in our area. We've had chickens for a year and a half and had no losses to preadators - 2 legged or 4 legged. Although I've had my suspisions a couple of times about some possibly missing eggs! We've really had to be on the alert lately for hawks. DH was standing at the window the other day and a hawk swooped down through the trees and grabbed a squirrel at the base of the tree right outside the window. My DH couldn't believe it! Now our flock has complete supervision when they are free ranging. The rest of the time they are in their wire covered pen.

 

[95yj]

the chickens are probably gonna use them no matter what, unless you have chickens who hate nestboxes like mine, the bigger the box is the cleaner and less broken the eggs will be though.