First signs of predators at my coop

[bethandjoeync]

normally animal control will set a trap for you and if something is caught they will come get it. but i have heard stories that if it's a skunk they won't pick it up. crazy huh?!

we are definitely going to do the broken glass trick, because our fence isn't underground. we do have a dog right at the run, but if she is asleep and something isn't louder than her snore she won't budge.

good luck! let us know if you catch something

 

[Dirt Road]

If you fill the hole with glass, the critter will simply move over a few feet and start a new hole. A skunk is an absolute excavating machine. I promise it will take longer for you to break up the glass than it will take a determined skunk to dig a new place for you to bury it. Barbed wire won't work either. We are plagued with the nasty things here, so I have had a LOT of experience with them. I trap between 10 and 20 each year all within a few feet of my chicken run.

Jim

 

[moms_coop]

onthespot...what kind of hen is that in your avatar? its very pretty.
Sally

 

[beak]

I just got done framing our new coop. It has a dirt floor with 2x10s for the outer frame. They are buried about 3". Then I took the rototiller and dug a trench around the perimeter about 9" deep and stapled 2x4 fence material to it and buried it, so there is fence wire out about 18". I'm not worried about anything getting in the coop. I guess I'll do the same thing around the run except use hog clips to fasten the wire to the bottom of the fence and stretch one of those heavy wires along the bottom that they use on chain link and hog clip the fence to that too. Then run a hot wire on top. Stupid Foxes.