help please, first aid for injured chick.

[threehorses]

When you make your new stuff, remember to use welded wire (and then you can use chicken wire or smaller welded wire to fill in the spots. And even then, be sure to really staple it in - and if possible use wood on top of the staples. i had coons rip welded wire off of the wood onto which it was nailed and kill my babies.

They can also open latches - so use snaps.

to coons.

 

[socks]

Thanks threehorses, we are using 1" welded wire and overlapping at the bottom 3 feet but you know, i am kind of wondering about our fastening material. We have been using those seemingly very strong plastic zip ties. I was going to use washers and bolts but when I found out that I would need two washers and the bolt for a total of about 70 cents each multiplied by a gazillion I thought I'd start with zip ties...but who knows...maybe they deteriorate in the sun.....arggghhh more research!!
I'm trying not too staple as I don't think they are that strong and I don't want my chickens accidentally eating the ones that I misfire or that eventually fall out.

What do you mean by a snap? So far I have this thingimabob (sorry, the name has just floated off to an deserted island in my brain) arrrggghh, I started to try to explain it but realized I can't ...I'll just say that it is like things people use to hold key chains together but you undo and do it up by turning a little screw which presumably a coon can't do?????

Gee, I wonder if anyone just gives up and has the chickens living permanently in their basement?? I know, they did it in medieval times but then lice and such were disgustingly part of daily life too! o.k. sorry for making everyone itchy

 

[threehorses]

Just to let you know - raccoons can easily reach through 1" so do make the corners solid. The staples will work - if you just nail a board over it, or better yet screw it on so you can just unscrew it if you ever have to remove the wire. I have to go back and rip all my wire off as I'm about to re-use that room and I'm going to redo it with staples (previously used U-staples) and board over to make it easier.

Snap - just if you have a latch that you can put a snap through, they can't open them as easily. It depends on what you use to close your doors. And yeah a coon couldn't do that.

I just found out from wire cages that raccoons can easily undo latches that it usually would take a human to undo. On one attack, when they killed all my show breeders, I thought at first a human had done it. I mean - there were about 18 birds dead. I couldn't imagine an animal doing it. Especially with latches undone.. Until I saw raccoon prints all over the place and talked to someone who said yes - they certainly could and would. Then it made sense the way some things were knocked over in high places... Just dreadful.

I gave up, but didn't have the chickens in my basement. I just kept the ones I had alive and let them all die of old age til I had two left. I got off of the boards (used to be online and whatnot a lot - not here though), stopped showing, all of that until my boyfriend showed an interested in them - and fate ran me into 8 little bantam chicks.

I tell you though - I like to free range my birds still, but the new show birds and these bantams - they're getting a coon-safe residence!!

LOL about lice and whatnot. Well I have a turkey in my bathtub right now, but that's different - she just had surgery last week and I SURE don't want her to be a permanent fixture!