Has ANYONE ever had a raccoon actually DIG under the run to get in?

[OverEZ]

Carolyn252,
I'm considering options as well. Your #2 listed sounds like the better bet. Maybe, with 8" apron, 6" inches down, covered with good sized rocks then covered with enough soil to get something green growing. Also consider hardware cloth wrap over under the coop flooring and up the walls in case rodents open a hole. I'm trying to defend the roost against; Coons, Foxes, Opossum, coyotes, stray cats/dogs, hawks. No bears or bobcats yet. Good luck.
OverEZ

 

[Sallyschickens]

Quote:
Here are two good threads you mihgt check out, if you have not seen them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=160593

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=166505

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

 

[pats4lsu]

I'm new at the chicken thing but have been EXTREMELY blessed by "fort knox" skills. I have an 8x8 dog kennel. I made a mat out of welded 2x4 wire. I move my pen around, along with the mat of wire. I lay the mat down (approximately 3 feet stick out from the pen and a foot inside of the pen) then I lay the pen on top. I'm still waiting but all seems well. Have been operating like this for a while now. (I used to feed the coons before I decided to get chickens, probably not a good idea.) I do have beagles that I let roam with the chickens.

 

[mmtillman]

This is a picture of what a coon did when I tried to prevent him from living under our back deck. We buried the (chicken) wire 8-9 inches deep and he blazed thru that stuff like it was paper. He just burrowed under and up , lifting the wire as he went.
But, when I put wire around the bottom of our coop...I used welded hardware cloth wire and buried it 8-9 inches.
I just hope I buried it deep enough after what that coon did to the chicken wire at the deck!!!

This was a good lesson for us : NEVER trust chicken wire between your flock and predators. A hungry coon/fox/dog/etc....will get thru every time!!!

 

[sweetshoplady]

Glad to know that hardware cloth straight down is the way to go.

I have had something burrowing under my chainlink fences to get at my ducks and their eggs. (And pheasant eggs). The burrow is about 6" deep. Monday, after losing my 6 wood ducks to this predator, I put an apron of 12-15" of poultry wire (1") into the pen. This morning I found a tunnel under the poultry wire.

I did not put a lot of dirt or other stuff on top, hadn't gotten that far.

This predator took my ducks with him/her. All I found was missing ducks and a couple clusters of feathers and a lot of water missing from the kiddie pool.

I'm thinking my predator is a fox though. I'm not sure. The only thing I've caught in my trap is possums. The man at my feed store said he's been catching foxes, he has a much larger trap than I do.

 

[EggGardener]

In the enclosed run we built attached to our coop, we were going to bury chicken wire 12" down to protect from predators. But its such a pain to work with. So we dug down and used leftover plywood from the construction of the coop, and screwed it to the bottom of the enclosure frame. It wont last forever, but it has held up well for two years, and was so much easier to install.

 

[chuckiepam]

Bumping, I've got the same question.

My sister-in-law has had chickens for years. And, yes, nocturnal critters WILL go after your chickens!
She had to put wire panels 18” deep to keep them from killing her chickens

 

[McChooky]

My apron comes out about a foot and is covered with rocks, dirt, cinder blocks, gravel, metal roofing, galvanized shelving ,etc. Our place is right against the woods so we have predators galore.Burying hardware cloth is impossible here for the rock and tree roots

 

[Debbie292d]

My apron comes out about a foot and is covered with rocks, dirt, cinder blocks, gravel, metal roofing, galvanized shelving ,etc. Our place is right against the woods so we have predators galore.Burying hardware cloth is impossible here for the rock and tree roots

Exactly the same thing here. We use pavers and rocks mostly to weigh it down.