Is not closing little coop door causing drafts??

[patandchickens]

Quote:
They can all climb to the top of your run if they want to. Whether they want to is up to them. The further up your smaller mesh fencing goes, the better; it's a personal choice how much is enough versus more-than-you-want-to-invest-in.

I would for sure cover the little sort of 'tunnel' that connects the coop to run with something fairly discouraging, like hardwarecloth, on sides and top and bottom and all, as that is the most obvious point for them to get sniffin' around and wanting to get in.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[yomama]

thanks everyone for all the advice. I happen to have some extra hardware cloth, so I will start by covering the tunnel. I was wondering if a sneaky predator would just crawl over and in through the top. The top is 1/2 inch chicken wire attached to the wood frame and cross beams. So even though the holes are smaller, definitely not strong enough. Ugh. I'm starting to think just locking them in the coop at night is the easiest way. We'll see how ambitious I am. Thanks again!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If you have raccoons, that is a great big kick me sign. Remember that what raccoons most like to do, when reconnoitering a prospective buffet, is get up on top and see what things look like from that angle. If getting up on top results in a loud crash and then the raccoon being IN the run, well, it would be a good time to have closed the coop popdoor earlier that evening, you know?

Not trying to scare you -- and these things are somewhat random, so there is no way of predicting whether the above scenario will happen tonight or next month or not for some years -- just pointing out a common raccoon behavior.

Pat