How high to make roosts to be safe from possums or coons?

[backyardcelia]

i love that mounted roost poles idea! do you have any photos perhaps? and about how high would the pole have to be to both keep a critter from climbing and the prevent the girls from breaking something? (and is the main (defense)idea getting away, or keeping away?)

 

[sumi]

I think the best way to go would be to keep the critters out of the coop. I mean, what happens if you have a broody hen? Do you put the nest box 6 feet up? And what if a chicken falls of the roost or gets pushed off the roost? It happens....

 

[centrarchid]

I think the best way to go would be to keep the critters out of the coop. I mean, what happens if you have a broody hen? Do you put the nest box 6 feet up? And what if a chicken falls of the roost or gets pushed off the roost? It happens....

I have no pictures. Imagine having post anchored in ceiling rather than floor with roost pole serving at tie between them. If still concerned about damage from coming down too hard from roost, consider a straw bale birds can fly down to but raccoon can not jump from.

Electrified perimeter fencing is an option but proper placement required and coons will push past it is not hot enough.


Sumi, I deal with broody hens all the time with many nesting out in open. Hens are almost always at greater risk than general population owing to ground nesting / roosting habit. My protection of such vulnerable birds is provided by dogs (another layer of protection) which are more reliable than coop where hen is cornered and often against some surface / fencing that funnels predator to her. Having birds pushed from roost also indicative of condtitions too crowded.

Remember, I am not saying do not beef up coop to keeping predators out, rather I am saying in addition to that make so roosting birds are harder to access in the event predator defeats upgrades of perimeter. To me it is not all one way or another, it is a healthy compromise.

 

[backyardcelia]

from the ceiling... i see. now it all makes sense. as does the bale bed below. and yes, of course this is if all other perimeters are compromised
i was happy to see this thread because i am designing what will be our first walk in coop. in regards to those breaching crafty critters, how about parallel roosts vs. a staircase sort of situation i often see?
and speaking of roosting poles, they don't necessarily have to be straight and or level, do they? i was also wondering if there was a tree that would be ideal for just that (for a pen during the day)?

 

[Feanor]

Thanks for the input! I do the deep litter method, so there is always a fresh, springy floor for them to jump down on. Like Centrarchid said, it's more of a secondary defense plan. I've read many stories on here about people with super coops and a determined coon still finds a way in, even chewing through the wall. I've seen possums around at night, and I have traps set all around my coop, but haven't caught one in a while.

My walls are solid wood with roosts spanning the width of the coop, so there is nothing they could grab on to to climb straight up, unless they can sink their claws into plywood enough to climb a wooden wall. I had a ladder for them to get up to the first roost, about 3.5 feet high, but I watched them for a while and realized they don't even use it, they just jump up to the first roost, so I took the ladder out.