Grateful of heeded advice, thank you!!!

[kareninthesun]

this morning I went to let the hens out, and something had tried during the night to get in. pulled part of the wiring from the doorframe and from the farside of the coop. I am sooooo thankful that I took postings here seriously, using the best, and smallest gauged hardwire, and that my son went extreme in using good materials to hook it all togethwr. whatever it was was quiet bit persistant. had to be pretty good sized to bend as pulling, and too big to get through. amazed that neither dog heard a thing, but going super extreme to re-enforce now. what is strong enough to do this while not scratching up the wood? I am thinking ot was fast enough to not get the dogs involved...

 

[jeepguy982001]

I'm not sure exactly but a raccoon can use its front paws just like a human hand. And they can get pretty big. So maybe that's the culprit

 

[woodmort]

Yes, I suspect a coon. They can do a great deal of damage since they can get a good grip and a big coon has a very strong upper body. No one appreciates the damage they can do until they've actually seen it done. I've seen hinge torn right off the wall. No wonder the Native Americans consider them small bears.

 

[thegreypony]

We put two strands of hot wire around our coop & yard after a neighbor's dog tore the staples right out of the 4x4 post and decimated the flock. It's on a 5 mile charger and until last week when I noticed the light wasn't blinking, it was hot as FIRE. Don't stand next to it when sweaty or you'll get shocked kind of hot. Our dog wouldn't go within 10 feet of the coop when we first put it up. He'll come around now (he's chicken OK) but it knocked the tar out of a couple of stray dogs a few months ago. Can't say enough good things about the electric fencing...

This thread is a good reminder to me to get that box replaced NOW.

 

[kareninthesun]

Sitting here grinning...a few days ago my son sat down and watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I was telling him earlier about when I first saw it many years ago, and thought it was such a good movie. When he and I watched it, spent more time laughing. Gave up trying to explain why originally I thought differently: now speed up to the two of us fixing up and strengthening the coop. Once done, as he's unplugging the staple gun (having reloading it many times, along with rewiring and nailing extra boards as extra frames) he says, "Well, if one of us starts playing with mashed potatoes, I'm gonna look for the remainders of a coop full of holes where the staples and nails shoulda been."

Taking nothing for granted regarding raccoons, thank you again!

 

[christineavatar]

You could also consider using NiteGuard or something similar,
http://www.niteguard.com/
They keep the predators away after the sun goes down.