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Digger or storm damage?

macmac955

Songster
Apr 13, 2023
159
418
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There are these small holes in the ground next to my chicken coop and rabbit hutch (which has Guinea keets in it). There was a pretty bad thunderstorm last night that knocked some trees over, and I’m wondering if these holes are from a small critter or storm damage. Any guesses?
 

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Critter. If I were you, I'd inspect your security arrangements. Do you have aprons around your coop and hutch? Are they totally secured?

I see diggy bits like this around my chicken coop on top of my 3 ft apron. No one's made it under yet, but I put out mulch on top of the apron so I can track what the predators are up to and where.
 
Critter. If I were you, I'd inspect your security arrangements. Do you have aprons around your coop and hutch? Are they totally secured?

I see diggy bits like this around my chicken coop on top of my 3 ft apron. No one's made it under yet, but I put out mulch on top of the apron so I can track what the predators are up to and where.
My coop is secured and it has hardware cloth under the entire coop. The hutch on the other hand isn’t very protected because my brother told me it was too old to attach anything else to it… it’s one body slam from shambles, but I don’t have any other options for merging my guineas.
 
My coop is secured and it has hardware cloth under the entire coop. The hutch on the other hand isn’t very protected because my brother told me it was too old to attach anything else to it… it’s one body slam from shambles, but I don’t have any other options for merging my guineas.
Even if it's old and shaky, you can attach hardware cloth to it. Bend the hardware cloth to shape, and use zip ties and/or cage clips to secure it to the hutch. Or use ~1" Fender washers with screws to secure the hardware cloth into wood. Use 19 or 20 gage galvanized wire to weave/sew pieces or edges of hardware cloth together if needed. Cover the entire hutch so there's no area with a greater than 1/2" space. It can be a bit tricky to do doors sometimes, if they're like wire dog crate doors, but it's doable. With such a small digging predator, I'd try and add the hardware cloth as soon as possible. Don't want to lose your birds.
 
Even if it's old and shaky, you can attach hardware cloth to it. Bend the hardware cloth to shape, and use zip ties and/or cage clips to secure it to the hutch. Or use ~1" Fender washers with screws to secure the hardware cloth into wood. Use 19 or 20 gage galvanized wire to weave/sew pieces or edges of hardware cloth together if needed. Cover the entire hutch so there's no area with a greater than 1/2" space. It can be a bit tricky to do doors sometimes, if they're like wire dog crate doors, but it's doable. With such a small digging predator, I'd try and add the hardware cloth as soon as possible. Don't want to lose your birds.
Thank you for the info! I’ll do what I can.
 
Thank you for the info! I’ll do what I can.
I forgot to tell you - I wear gardening gloves dipped in that rubber grippy stuff whenever I work with hardware cloth. It's easy to work in them, I get poked very rarely, and they're washable if desired. Much easier than leather and more cutproof than other non-leather gloves. I use ~3-5" blade snips to cut the hardware cloth, so no bits of metal on the ground.

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From Home Depot website
 

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