We have taken my once portable hoop coop and cleared out a more permanent area for it. Problem is, the boards are a bit warped, and it's hard to find level ground for it not to have some gaps underneath. I lost 4 of 8 pullets a couple months ago to what I believe was a snake (going by the matted down head and neck - like it got swallowed to the wings, then spit out). DH is wanting to just build a new pallet coop, but we only have 2 weeks before we go on vacation and I need to have it done before then since I've been putting them in a big container with a screen on it at night and I'm not about to ask someone else to deal with that (then letting them out first thing in the morning). I'm thinking some quickcrete around the bottom edges to fill in any possible gaps, then smaller wire around the coop itself. I know we have possums and raccoons, but so far nothing has bothered the chickens - just snake issues (also lost a couple guinea keets b/c they got out of the run and didn't go in for the night plus many many eggs over the last 3 years). I KNOW a snake has been around b/c I found it underneath two of my remaining pullets and got it out before it could do any damage (thought I had them in a secure enough section of another coop, but underestimated just how small a snake can make itself).
The current set up is a hoop coop - about 8x8, maybe 8x10? - with hog panels covered in chicken wire (which I know isn't the best... didn't know any different at the time) and a tarp covering the top and back, the front is open. I need to make the chicken wire gaps smaller/stronger, and fill in the gaps at the base of the whole thing. Amazon.com has some plastic netting with small gaps I thought would be good for snake detterrent, then maybe a line of electric fencing at the base for possums or raccoons? Or another layer of chicken wire offset to make it stronger and to close up the gaps? Whatever it is needs to be fairly cost effective and quick to do since we won't have a huge amount of time over the next 2 weeks to work on it.
The current set up is a hoop coop - about 8x8, maybe 8x10? - with hog panels covered in chicken wire (which I know isn't the best... didn't know any different at the time) and a tarp covering the top and back, the front is open. I need to make the chicken wire gaps smaller/stronger, and fill in the gaps at the base of the whole thing. Amazon.com has some plastic netting with small gaps I thought would be good for snake detterrent, then maybe a line of electric fencing at the base for possums or raccoons? Or another layer of chicken wire offset to make it stronger and to close up the gaps? Whatever it is needs to be fairly cost effective and quick to do since we won't have a huge amount of time over the next 2 weeks to work on it.
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