Hi guys! We are going to get chickens in the spring and are going to get two silkies and an easter egger. We have coyotes within 20 feet of are house and wondering if you had any predator-proofing suggestions or any help at all. Thank you in advance!
If I felt that coyotes were going to be a for sure problem, I would want a chain link pen covered with hardware cloth flanked by several strands of electric fencing.
Yep... Italian Maremma... best investment I ever made. We have lost chickens, lambs, calves, and even adult livestock to a variety of predators from big cats to coyotes to Hawks and Turkey vultures. My livestock never have to be confined now. .. The Maremma protect them 24/7. I've had Maremma for years now and have not lost one head of livestock to predators. ;-) wish I had gotten them sooner.
We have a lot of coyotes in our area, too. We have a six foot 2x4 “non-climeable” fence around the coop and run, the chickens are locked into their coop at night – there is 2 feet of wire buried all around the outside of the coop. The other coop/run has chicken wire over the top of it.
Those are really good ideas! Thank you! I am only getting 3 chickens and plan to make a PVC pipe movable run with a tunneling skirt. Would that work with an electrical fence, or would i have to make a permanent non climbable electric run?
must have buried wire that goes out toward the coyote as well as a wire roof, wire also buried at the gates. Daytime raid possible at my place so...... I free range my extra males and have the hens that "semi free range" behind an electric poultry net. I am not sure how much my dog has helped stop flock losses with the fence I described being the most helpful.
