Dirt floor with foxes in the area

[dakind50]

So I have an old coop that I have to put a new roof on. It has a dirt floor in it. I will also have to add a nice run. I am worried about keeping the dirt floor as we have foxes around here and I don't want them to dig in. Rats/Mice, not worried about cause my cats seemed to kill them non-stop last year.

I am a newbie and want to know what I should be looking for in this coop as far as keeping out the foxes..

thanks
chris

 

[first time farmer]

Put a floor in! I know some one who did not and she lost all 30 of her chickens to a fox or something. I reacently(sp) lost 5 to a fishercat so i would not take any chances on that one.

 

[dakind50]

I am worried about things living in the open space and I didn't want to spend the money, but I guess I will. How do folks using dirt floors keep out the foxes?

 

[rainbowgardens]

I'm concerned about the foxes as well and will add on a question.
How quickly can they dig a hole?
My friend has a dirt floor for their coop and they assigned their son with the job of looking everyday to see if anything has tried to dig under.
Could they dig under in one night?

 

[homeschoolmama]

We're just finishing our coop and hope it works. We have a dirt floor and are surrounding the coop with the run and dug an apron and buried fencing there around the edge of the run. Trying to make the run predator proof so the coop doesn't have to be.

 

[AkTomboy]

I got a few ideas ~~
1. Get a Great Pyr
2. Put electric around the bottom of what you have
3. Get a 17hmr

Fox are fast and sly just as we all know. It doesnt take much to do the electric wire around the ground on the fence. Im sure there is lots of other ideas people have as well this is a great place for help good luck!

 

[JJG81]

Well foxes in the UK can dig under in one night as I found out to my cost, so take no chances. The above suggestions are good. After all the coop will last for ages so a little more initial expenditure on making the thing secure will pay itself back eventually.

 

[patandchickens]

The safest thing would be a 4' wire apron, tightly pinned or weighted onto the ground or buried just below the sod.

Electric is fine except that ALL electric fencing will fail SOMEtime (power supply, grounding out, connection coming loose, snow in winter) so I would not rely on it as your sole or main means of foxproofing.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[newchickmom]

my suggestion would be the wire fence apron around the coop.

 

[gbharden]

We built our coop with tin walls and ran the tin about one foot deep into the ground all the way around and then cemented from there up to prevent anything from digging in. I hope this works for us.