After searching the posts for an hour, I couldn't come up with quite the info I'm looking for. So sorry if this has been answered recently.
I knew there were local coyotes about 1 mile away on a friend's farm, but a neighbor told me yesterday she saw one in her yard and another neighbor is missing a puppy. Now I'm on high alert.
We live in a suburban neighborhood, with a fenced-in yard (about 1/2 acre? maybe less?) and close neighbors. We also have a Saint Bernard who sleeps soundly inside with us a night, but frequently "waters the shrubs", as we like to put it. I have a motion sensor light on the back of the house.
Our chickens are locked up inside their A-frame tractor at night with a ramp that raises up into the floor. The run is enclosed with 1/2" hardward cloth, but no buried wire. They are in their run unattended during the day (with the ramp down) while I'm at work, but I have not let them free-range around the yard yet because they are 10 weeks old and I'm a little nervous about that. (I can hear a hawk all the time in the woods behind our house.)
Does it sound like we've taken enough precautions? Should I put hardware wire around the outside to prevent digging under? I don't think coyotes could open the ramp even if they got in, but still...
Any coyote-specific suggestions? Help!!!!
I knew there were local coyotes about 1 mile away on a friend's farm, but a neighbor told me yesterday she saw one in her yard and another neighbor is missing a puppy. Now I'm on high alert.
We live in a suburban neighborhood, with a fenced-in yard (about 1/2 acre? maybe less?) and close neighbors. We also have a Saint Bernard who sleeps soundly inside with us a night, but frequently "waters the shrubs", as we like to put it. I have a motion sensor light on the back of the house.
Our chickens are locked up inside their A-frame tractor at night with a ramp that raises up into the floor. The run is enclosed with 1/2" hardward cloth, but no buried wire. They are in their run unattended during the day (with the ramp down) while I'm at work, but I have not let them free-range around the yard yet because they are 10 weeks old and I'm a little nervous about that. (I can hear a hawk all the time in the woods behind our house.)
Does it sound like we've taken enough precautions? Should I put hardware wire around the outside to prevent digging under? I don't think coyotes could open the ramp even if they got in, but still...
Any coyote-specific suggestions? Help!!!!