Finally moving along...

[SemperChicken]

They are certainly going to be on edge. I am glad you are keeping them somewhere else for the time being.

If the board was pulled away I am sure it is a coon. Nasty smart they are.
I am in the middle of town and we have them here. The neighbor across the street came by a month or more ago in a real panic. She saw a mama and 2 kits leaving a hole in her shed. She was certain they were eating my chickens. I had to walk her out to the coop and show her again that all of mine are secure behind chain link and explain how my night time latches on the pop door will keep it from lifting that.
I have showed her my security many times lol.

One of my neighbors had a premade coop with 6 hens. NOT secure and sadly no more chickens in their yard either. A fox got all of theirs in one night. It dug under the side of the run and just walked right in the little door.

I hope you can do the app thing with your phone.

That is sad. I guess the only thing we can do is make better decisions from what has happened. I'll need to get the roof part finished whenever I redo the run and install hardware cloth.

I didn't really think thru the lighting as far as the trail camera app... So I'm not sure what I'll do. Maybe I'll go ahead and get a trap since that's more than likely what it is.

Oh and some good news about Lola. Ever since we've had the youngens in her house, Lola has been having a heck of a time dealing with Harriet (the mean EE), and also Brooke at times. I have noticed lately that Brooke doesn't bother Lola as much anymore. Tonight when I went to lock up the big coop I saw that Lola was cuddled next to Brooke (well, it was Roo, Lola, Brooke, and Harriet all next to each other). Just makes me happy that she isn't getting constantly terrorized.

 

[II Arrows]

Sorry to hear about your lost birds, I had a neighbors dog get into my yard and kill 2 of my layers and 2 other young pullets. Definitely do whatever you have to do to take out that predator. Lock up all your chickens at night and if you haven't done so yet hardware mesh is a must. If you lived closer I would let you use one of my trail cams.
Semper Fi brother, and good luck.

 

[SemperChicken]

Sorry to hear about your lost birds, I had a neighbors dog get into my yard and kill 2 of my layers and 2 other young pullets. Definitely do whatever you have to do to take out that predator. Lock up all your chickens at night and if you haven't done so yet hardware mesh is a must. If you lived closer I would let you use one of my trail cams.
Semper Fi brother, and good luck.  

Thank you, and Semper Fi. Yea, have definitely been locking up the girls and stud at night. Something I haven't had to do since owning chickens last year spring, but just an extra step at night and in the morning to be safe and not lose any of my older chickens.

I'm not sure when I'll have time to get hardware cloth installed, but it is on my to-do list. I'll just install it over the chicken wire, like 21hens suggested, and reinstall the horizontal boards over top. Then I'm going to finish the look and install 2x4 "trim" on the vertical spots where the wire ends are exposed. Just clean it up a little. Still debating on what to do with the roof... Maybe just lay the wire straight across the top, but with a 1/2x1/2 inch mesh I'm wondering how much of a pain it'll be to do debris cleaning from pine needles and leaves... And gumballs... Those dang gumballs. Lol.

 

[21hens-incharge]

You can use 2x4 welded wire on the top. It is strong enough to hold a grown coons weight and large enough to let things drop through.
You can use a leaf blower to get the larger leaves off of it if you have a tree that drops huge leaves. Pine needles and such should drop right through.

The reason to use the 1/2 x 1/2 on the walls is to keep a raccoon from reaching in and grabbing handfuls of chickens. Yes they will pull them through the fence a piece at a time.

They generally will not be close enough to the roof of the run to get grabbed and if they do they will likely drop down to the ground avoiding total loss of life and limb.

 

[SemperChicken]

You can use 2x4 welded wire on the top. It is strong enough to hold a grown coons weight and large enough to let things drop through.
You can use a leaf blower to get the larger leaves off of it if you have a tree that drops huge leaves. Pine needles and such should drop right through.

The reason to use the 1/2 x 1/2 on the walls is to keep a raccoon from reaching in and grabbing handfuls of chickens. Yes they will pull them through the fence a piece at a time.

They generally will not be close enough to the roof of the run to get grabbed and if they do they will likely drop down to the ground avoiding total loss of life and limb.

Ah, very good point. Duh. Thanks! Yea my 10ft 4x4 posts are about 3 ft in the ground, so the top is about 7ft tall... Definitely no reason the chickens should be near the top. I'll do 2x4 wire for the roof.

What's the likelihood of raccoons during the day? Could I just do 2x4 wire for the sides as well? Just to eliminate the cost of having to buy two different hardware cloth sizes? The prefab coop had 1/2x1/2 wire already installed for the windows/vents.

 

[21hens-incharge]

The 2x4 welded wire has openings that are far to large. You want something the nasty buggers cannot stick a paw through on the sides.
They can reach in through chicken wire and will grab hold with one paw (very hand like and very strong by the way) and pull pieces off the poor chicken with the other. Horrid way to die in my opinion.

You can put the hardware cloth on the lower 3 foot of the run and welded wire to reinforce the chicken wire the rest of the way up. More cost efficient that way. There is hardware cloth that is 1/4x 1/4 but they can rip that apart. Chicken wire has the same issue. They can get a hold on it with their teeth and bite/rip through it.


Now that being said my old run was chicken wire covered with the 2x4 hardware cloth. I have since gone to chain link. I have LARGE dogs and would not want an incident with them.

I will see if I have a pic.....

 

[21hens-incharge]

This pic shows what we had on the old run. It kept fox and raccoon out. I know it is not what folks recommend but it fit the budget at the time. I did have critters that tried to get in. The chickens are always locked up tight at night so the only damage was to the wire. It did rip a hole in the chicken wire but was unable to get all the way in the run.

You could do this for your set up if you make certain they are NOT sleeping in the run and you shut and LATCH that pop door every night without fail. By latch I mean something that even a human may struggle with.
The chicken wire was also done as a skirt extending out from the run 2 feet to keep diggers from getting in.
The top of the run was just the 2x4 welded wire. There was evidence that it had been tested as well with a big butted raccoon sized section sagged down.