City Life - Predators?

[Folly's place]

x2!!! "if you build it, they will come!" One night, one raccoon, all birds dead, if you count on chicken wire on windows and doors. Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, if you believe you don’t have predators you might talk to your animal control people. You might be surprised at what they have to deal with. I’ve seen raccoons using storm drains as highways between denning areas and feeding areas, usually garbage cans. I’ve trapped possum in the middle of suburbia. All foxes, bobcat, and many other things need is a park or wooded streambed to raise a family. Over 2,000 coyotes are estimated to live in the Chicago city limits.

Having said all that, some people can go years between predator attacks even when totally free ranging while others can be wiped out almost immediately. There is a lot of luck involved. I grew up on a farm in the middle of not much and we had predators all around, yet I only remember two predators attacking our chickens. One was a dog that a visiting uncle politely shot while Dad was at work. The other was a fox that was taking a chicken every morning until Dad figured out his pattern.

I remember where a really nice guy on this forum that bred championship chickens and kept them in chicken wire coops and breeding pens for many years. Then one day two large dogs found them and wiped out his championship line of prize winning chickens.

Predators are living animals and those don’t come with guarantees. You may have a raccoon walk past your coop and run every night for a long time and ignore your chickens, then one day attack.

I also built my run out of 2x4 welded wire and covered the bottom 18” with chicken wire. That was mainly to keep chicks from walking away from a broody’s protection but also to keep the chickens from poking their heads out eating grass where a raccoon can get to them.

Many people think that foxes, bobcats, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, and many other predators only hunt at night. Not even close to true. They are normally more active at night when they have more undisturbed time to create their mischief but many attacks occur during daylight hours. Still a good predator resistant run with a predator proof coop to lock them in at night is often a successful strategy.

Good luck!

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: This is 100% true. I've been one of the lucky ones. I do have lots of cover for the birds, plus several roosters in different pens who have different vantage points when other groups are free ranging. I've seen a fox eying my flock just outside the livestock fence perimeter while two cockerels stood their ground and an older rooster was getting hens to safety, seen hawks try to dive on my birds, had a fox's den about 250 ft from the main coop, never once lost a bird to a predator in going on 10 years we've raised our own birds, all the while free ranging on an almost daily basis one group or another. I'm pushing my odds at this point and do expect a predator loss eventually.

We are home most of the time and no birds free range while we are off the property, but still, no pen or coop breaches. I live on a wooded mountain property, but when I lived in the suburbs, I saw more coyotes there than I have since living here. Folks tend to believe that being in the city, they won't have the predator losses that we do in the country, but that is simply not true. The #1 predator of your chickens, IMO, is the roaming domestic dog, but the wild predators are all around you, whether you've seen them or not.

 

[centrarchid]

Will birds be allowed any free-range time? If so how much area is available and what does the plant community look like? Protecting birds can involve more that efforts to exclude predators. It can also involve efforts to not attract them and to keep your flock in tight where protection efforts can be concentrated to be more effective.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

I would say if your neighbor has issues and does it a certain way you would probably wanna copy that. You may not see the predators or realize they are there but as soon as you put a buffet of chicken out there you will probably have the same issues your neighbor does. There is alot that goes on outside at night when we are sleeping and predators are good at what they do.

 

[SurbFarmGirl]

Thank you all so much for your replies! I have been non-stop thinking about how to reinforce our area.

My friends down the street have never had issue with predators ... and their fence backs up to a huge farm lot that grows cotton and wheat. I've never even seen a squirrel run along our fence.

We are converting our metal shed into their coop. Reinforcing the walls ... cut out windows and framed them in wood with the chicken wire sandwiched tight in-between the wood pieces. I told my husband that I want to run the chicken wire ... and reinforce it with welded wire (and still creating an apron just in case). The roof of the run will be corrugated metal .... and I will have a pop door keeping them inside the shed/coop at night. The only time the will be allowed in my (fenced) backyard is when I am out there with them.

You all have given me a lot to think about I wish I lived in the country .... where I could build them a larger area ... but this will do for my 4 girls Not too many City Coops out there ... or at least in my area LOL.

Thank you!!

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: You want to do hardware cloth, not chicken wire, in those windows. And you run welded wire for the pen first, then wrap in other wire. No chicken wire in any opening like a window or vent or trust me, eventually, something will find its way in. I wish you the best of luck. Remember, the predators are there whether you see them or not.