HELP W/ PREDATOR PROOF (OR CLOSE TO IT) PLAN!!!

[BackyardChick12]

I am moving soon and have to start all over from scratch, chickens and all. The place I am moving to is a beautiful wooded area but the problem is that every single chicken predator you can basically think of lives there. Bears, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, hawks, raccoons, possoms, snakes, weasels, and rats. My friend suggested putting up chicken wire and burying it 10" deep and layer it with electric wire. I will have my new flock on 1 acre. Any suggestions will help!!

 

[Kikiriki]

http://www.aaawebmaster.com/chickencoop/chickencoop.htm

Check local information where you are moving to regarding bear proofing ordinaces for your garbage.

Chicken wire is next to useless: save your money! Check craiglist free listings for used chainlink fence, make it 10 ft tall, and save your money for electric fencing, which you can install for a small area, and expand easily as you can afford it: small but safe trumps large but unsafe!

Note, that your personal stuff should also be inside a safe perimeter: your grill, garden, garbage are all temptations that will lure unwanted wildlife.

Just for cats and racoons, I have a 6ft board on board privacy fence on one side, and an old picket fence repurposed to be my run and coop enclosure for the the other three sides. The run is split in two, enclosed and semi enclosed. My dogs are out in the daytime, so I do not have roof on the outside run, but I do have a very small locking coop inside a fully fenced covered inside run with the eggbox and the coop inside that area. It has welded fence plus chicken wire, plus the wood fencing, and two doors that each have two spring loaded hook and eyes. It has a shade tarp over garden weed block, over the wire roof. If I need to be away, the chickens can still have a fair amount of room in a safe place. My DH wants air cover over the outdoor run for hawk protection. I will be planting shrubs to provide cover, and I need access there for trimming the neighbors invasive weed tree that grows six inches a day right over my yard. The coop ventilation openings are all 1/4 inch hardware cloth. The ground is so full of roots, I had to build the fence by finding spots where I could make a hole six inches around. From what I read, that might not stop a weasal, though. You might need a hardware cloth floor.

We have a lot of snakes here in FL and I yet to have had a problem (that sound is me knocking on every piece of wood within arms length!). We have not had any snakes in the yard since we got the chickens, though we used to have at least a couple every year. For yourself, watch where you stick your hands, watch where you step, use caution with piles of things, and find out what the local species do and do not like. Carry a long stick or shovel around, and use it to poke before you stick your hands or your face somewhere. Talk to locals! They have dealt with everything you will be!

 

[BackyardChick12]

Thanks so much for the help!! Every chicken counts as well as advice/experiences!