did I miss anything?

[abhaya]

I am building a coop for my silkies. I am trying to make it pred proof/safe for them.

The coop is about 6 inches off the groung for rain to run under I am on a hill.

The floor is plywwod with 1/4 inch wire mesh/fence over it so nothing can get in from below.

I had a ton on chicken wire. I used 2 layers so they overlap and leave small openings. The layers are also about an inch apart so a coon would have to get thru both layers to do any damage to chickens

Walls
East 12 inches of board on bottom double chicken wire on top.
south People door double layer chicken wire hasp for closeing. the rest is double chicken wire top to bottom.
West Ply on 1/2 window and poop door on other 1/2 double Chicken wire covering rest of the wall.
North Nesting boxes bottom 1/2 Double chickenwire top 1/2

All corners have a layer of chicken wire just in case something would try to get in a corner. There are no opening that are uncovered. All venting has chicken wire over it Double Layer for low and single layer for high.

Poop door is 1/2 inch ply .

All windows have chicken wire on the inside incase one would break.

Top is covered in chicken wire as well as all vents.

Roof is meatle about 2 inches above chicken wire top of coop

Did I miss anything? Can you think of any other predator proofing I should do?

I have reworked it a bit ai have enclosed thr entire coop with tin. With about 12 inckes of covered ventalationat the top of the coop

 

[catdaddy66]

Is the metal roof connected to the top of the wire? That is the only thing I think you can add... oh, yeah - CHICKENS!!

Couldn't resist that one!

 

[joedie]

I don't think a coon would have much trouble going through both layers of chicken wire. That's usually why hardware cloth is recommended. It's a heavier gauge wire. JMO

 

[turtlebird]

I, too, would be concerned about the chicken wire. I would feel comfortable using it indoors as dividers between pens, for example. I would not trust it for predator proofing. I use 1/2" hardware cloth attached with screws and washers. Coons are strong little buggers.

 

[elmo]

I agree with the other posters. Even two layers of chicken wire wouldn't keep a raccoon out, sorry.

 

[patandchickens]

What they said about the doubled chickenwire. It is better than a single layer of chickenwire, but not necessarily very raccoon- or dogproof. I thought (maybe I'm misremembering) you were using 2x4 or hardwarecloth or something like that??? If chickenwire is your only option at the moment then that's just a risk you'll have to live with but if you can soon get something safer it'd be a real good idea.

If you feel the need to put chickenwire over corners, a better solution would be to beef up the corner construction in the first place. Use plenty of long screws going into lots of good wood (add pieces of 2x4 as needed). Chickenwire won't keep raccoons etc from grabbing at your wood or tin and pulling it all apart, so you need to make it so strong that you cannot get it apart with a 24" prybar. Really really.

Make sure the door hasp is lockable in a raccoon-proof way. Just a hook is totally unsafe; even a 'biner or double-ended snap can occasionally be opened by a raccoon but is at least *better* than a hook; a lock and key is safest (you can leave the key hanging right next to the lock, raccoons are not *that* smart <g>)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat