How to prevent foxes from getting in to your coop (Pics):D

[chicken crazed 1o1]

Last year I was new to chickens and one day in the evening whent out side to feed my chickens and thier was a fox trying to dig into the coop. So i ran at it and then it ran away after it ran away I checked if every body was ok thank god every body was fine. Then i ran in the house and told my mom that there was a fox. Then i ran back out to the coop and then stuck fencing around the base of the coop and stapled it to the base . Then we put post to hold the ends in place.so that the fox cant get under the coop. Here are pics ... Yes it is hard to see the fenceing lol

This is the back of the coop

Hope this helps

 

[annie3001]

.....imo looks like it could be a little bit more secure. hard to tell with the pictures. if a fox visits. it will return. can a adult help build a more secure coop?

 

[bryan99705]

Lot of work but borderline effective. Lay down a skirt and they won't be able to dig, period! Also that chicken wire may slow them down but it don't stop them!

 

[silver1313]

What is a skirt? my babies are just getting big enough to put out in their coop and run. We have heard there are foxes in the area but have not seen any yet ? I would like to do everything i can top prevent my babies from becoming fox food!!!

 

[chicken crazed 1o1]

well Its on a dirt mound so it is not that secure and what does imo mean lol ?

 

[Hoss1975]

Quote:
It means in my opinion.It looks like it will work,i would put large rocks down to.

 

[True Grit]

For a skirt you can use nails and washers to nail some hardware cloth to the wood at the bottom of the coop and lay it on the ground all around the coop 18 inches wide and peg it to the ground with tent pegs. You could put rocks on it as well. The fox won't be able to dig through that.

 

[brownegger]

OR...you could save yourself a lot of labor by just driving some posts and stringing an electric fence around your setup. Two to three strands at different heights will do wonders! Hotwire is in my opinion the best first line of defense against most predators! Good luck and hopefully you don't lose any birds before you can get something in place!

 

[JENoth]

The skirt of chicken wire would work (so that it is lying on the ground a bit), our pen fence is dug partly underground, so a fox would have to dig very far to get under! another way to deter foxes if you have a willing family member that is, is to urinate around the coop, foxes hate it! hey worth a go surely!

 

[bryan99705]

Yes as described it is good wire that is fastened to the bottom of the coop / run and laid flat on the ground to deter animals from digging under the run wall. What happens is the digger encounters the fence and starts their dig at the base of the obstacle. When they immediatly encounter the wire they will look elsewhere. It's less expensive than electric fence but only works on diggers.

The electric fence is a fantastic way to keep most all non flying predators away if set a few feet away from the coop / run and the climbers don't have trees to get around it. It may cost a couple hundred $ (going new retail)to complete but you can surround a area up to 10 miles and as tall as you need. There are many different size chargers available as well as solar. When done right, critters only need one lesson and they tend to relocate rapidly! It is funny to see

If you can catch it on video, it's priceless!

If you need proof, enter "electric fence shock funny" on YouTube