Keeping mongooses out

[Chrismp]

I’m on Oahu. I just got a stray hen and bought a bantam so she’d have a friend. My husband just built a coop and run for them, but now I’m wondering if it will keep mongooses out. It’s got 1” chicken wire on sides and top, but the bottom is open so they can scratch around. Can a mongoose fit through the 1” wire? Do I need to put wire on the bottom so a mongoose won’t dig under? Will an electric wire around the bottom work to keep them out?

 

[Starburst]

Can you maybe post a picture of the setup?

 

[Rivendell Chick]

I’m on Oahu. I just got a stray hen and bought a bantam so she’d have a friend. My husband just built a coop and run for them, but now I’m wondering if it will keep mongooses out. It’s got 1” chicken wire on sides and top, but the bottom is open so they can scratch around. Can a mongoose fit through the 1” wire? Do I need to put wire on the bottom so a mongoose won’t dig under? Will an electric wire around the bottom work to keep them out?

My understanding of them is they are little ninjas at getting into stuff. I suspect you'll want to add an apron around the bottom like I did - attached to the bottom and extending out 12"-18" beyond and covered with dirt, sand, etc to discourage digging. As tasty as eggs are, I suspect they'd put in some effort to get to them.

 

[FeatherLace]

Okay excuse my ignorance, but I was extremely surprised when I heard Mongoose on Oahu! My first thought when I saw Mongoose I was like, "Oh, chickens in Canada? This ought to be an interesting article!" But then I had to double check the trusty internet to tell me where Mongooses live, because I had the strange impression that a mongoose and a wolverine were the same animal

 

[Chrismp]

 

[Chrismp]

That’s the run part. 1” chicken wire. Top is covered with the wire as well. Bottom is open.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I do not believe the chicken wire will work in keeping a mongoose out. You'd be better off with 1/4" hardware cloth as it is more durable. An apron of hardware cloth fanning out from the fenceline/run would also be a good idea as they are proficient diggers and could quickly burrow under the edge of the run and get in with your birds.

But then I had to double check the trusty internet to tell me where Mongooses live, because I had the strange impression that a mongoose and a wolverine were the same animal

Yes, one more example of where mankind messed something up. Mongoose were introduced to Hawaii to prey on the rats that were introduced and decimating native populations of ground nesting birds. Of course the mongoose also found birds eggs and chicks tasty so they didn't do much to control rodent populations, but they did cause native birds numbers to move into dangerously low numbers.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hi I am on the Big Island, we have mongoose as well. We are building a coop and run and adding a 1/2 inch hardware cloth skirt/apron around the entire coop and run set up. Expensive, but mongoose can take a silkie size chicken and not just small chicks (your bantam for example).
Alternately you can dig down some hardware cloth around the edges and add some rocks as well.
A friend who has chickens recommended this, he also uses landscaping cloth about 2 feet up the sides of the run. We might add that as well.
Apparently the mongoose will reach in and grab the chickens feet and pull them towards them much like a racoon (we used to live in California), the landscaping cloth helps prevent this.
Today, while my husband was working on the coop, he saw a mongoose come out the bamboo hedge as if to check out what we were doing. There are currently 3 feral hens with chicks cruising around our property, so the mongoose will likely take the easy targets first!

 

[SoupLava]

My understanding of them is they are little ninjas at getting into stuff. I suspect you'll want to add an apron around the bottom like I did - attached to the bottom and extending out 12"-18" beyond and covered with dirt, sand, etc to discourage digging. As tasty as eggs are, I suspect they'd put in some effort to get to them.

I have ducks and a coop and run set up with water etc. going on. I think it was just rats but might have been mongooses - kept accessing my coop through this way or that, burrowing in new nooks and crannies, just to get the food and water perhaps, though maybe they were getting eggs (the ducks were late to start laying). But I want them protected either way, so they can hatch chicks, etc.. And as soon as I started adding a 12" flange around the outside and covered with cinder - ducks started laying! But the predator was getting in through underneath a lavarock wall that was on one side of my run, even though it had chicken wire, had found a way underground through the wall and was burrowing under it. I had to do the hardware cloth across the bottom (which I covered with wood chips) through 3/4 of the run... the rest luckily doesn't have dirt to dig through. It has been successful, at last, I think they have given up. Crossing my fingers.

 

[MARANMAN2011]

1/4 inch hardware cloth.