Look what we caught in our trap....

[UThobbyfarmer]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and support! I've never knew mink were such a huge problem for chickens. It's been eye opening.

After a few days I decided I'd like to keep the remaining hen around. I bought hardware cloth and fortified the coop. I purchased 2 new hens, Barred Rock and Easter Egger, the same age as her. I had 5 roosters (and turkeys) growing out in a separate pen. They were not part of the attack. So I picked one of them, a Blue Copper Marans, and he was also added. So there you have it. A flock of 4. From that we build.

Edit: We've had the traps up but not caught anything new. I'll update again if we do.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

We have trapped out killer minks a couple of times. The last one tunneled under the fencing. Now we added deeper mesh and some cement. Lost 3 chickens to that little killer. We relocated the monks out the road away from any inhabited areas.

Please! Do. Not. Relocate. Trapped. Predators!!!
I have a problem raccoon here for months that won't go into a trap. It somehow steals the bait (Tried everything from stinky fish to peanut-butter) without triggering the door. I assume, and have been told, that is because it got trapped and released at least once.
Don't make your problem-predator somebody else's problem! PLEASE!

 

[chickencoop57]

Lol yeah that should work. For me, i'm wondering whether I need to put down 1/2in hardware cloth or if the 1in chicken wire alone will work. I like to move my coops around so I want something portable. I haven't had problems yet (our 'soil' here is pretty much solid, undiggable limestone), but this topic reminds me better safe than sorry.

I would go with the 1" chicken wire but that's just me.

 

[chickencoop57]

Thank you everyone for the kind words and support! I've never knew mink were such a huge problem for chickens. It's been eye opening.

After a few days I decided I'd like to keep the remaining hen around. I bought hardware cloth and fortified the coop. I purchased 2 new hens, Barred Rock and Easter Egger, the same age as her. I had 5 roosters (and turkeys) growing out in a separate pen. They were not part of the attack. So I picked one of them, a Blue Copper Marans, and he was also added. So there you have it. A flock of 4. From that we build.

Edit: We've had the traps up but not caught anything new. I'll update again if we do.

Good for you!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would go with the 1" chicken wire but that's just me.

That will be no protection from raccoons, mink, weasels, coyotes or big dogs.

 

[chickencoop57]

That will be no protection from raccoons, mink, weasels, coyotes or big dogs.

Lol, ChickenConoe we do the best we can, there's no guarantee's. This aint no perfect world! If you have any better idea's , please share!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Lol, ChickenConoe we do the best we can, there's no guarantee's. This aint no perfect world! If you have any better idea's , please share!

Anyone who has been around the block with chickens knows that chicken wire will confine chickens long enough for the invaders to eat them.
Raccoons, coyotes and dogs can rip through chicken wire and mink, weasels will squeeze through 1" openings.
Properly adhered hardware cloth, 1/2" mesh will keep all of those listed out. You would probably need expanded sheet metal mesh to keep bears and mountain lions out.

You probably have all those creatures in TX.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Hi UT! I had to buy a trap this year also, I lost 2 hens to a skunk. We caught him in the trap. and put a tarp over it. PEUW!

 

[chickencoop57]

Anyone who has been around the block with chickens knows that chicken wire will confine chickens long enough for the invaders to eat them.
Raccoons, coyotes and dogs can rip through chicken wire and mink, weasels will squeeze through 1" openings.
Properly adhered hardware cloth, 1/2" mesh will keep all of those listed out. You would probably need expanded sheet metal mesh to keep bears and mountain lions out.

You probably have all those creatures in TX.

Well, if you'd seen my previous post, my run is hardware cloth, my coop closed in. However, the only problems we ever encountered, in the past, was Ringed Tailed Cats, and that was at my Uncle's chicken ranch, long ago. I learned a lil from that. He had over 200 chickens of every variety, including Peacocks and Peahens, ducks... etc..

 

[cluckcluckhens]

First of all I'm going to say I'm really sorry. We have been here since 2012 we have no visitors to our back yard other than a dog and squirrels, you want some squirrels? They won't leave. This is our only problem. They dig under everything even the house, they will take the eggs, water and feed and caught one in front of the laying box. It was stunned to see me. Glad I saw it first before reaching in the box, ran right in front of my shoes. Between the wild birds and squirrels we haven't seen any coons, possums, etc, zip none. Coyotes are across the main road and in our front yard. Ours is pretty secure except their dog door flap that is left open 24/7. Nothing that I know of has went into the coop other than the two I mentioned and it's usually day time when it happens.

Keep your chin up and secure your coop. I don't know what we would do if this happened when we had our moveable coop/run/hen house. Ours was close to what yours looks like.

Next, we used to have a coop sorta like yours and we used to move it around all the time. It was a 10x20 coop with a hen house inside of the coop. I yelled and complained because of the winter I was getting muddy and falling in the mud and stuff, yuck and I said no more.

In 2014 we built a 10x20 building and shed. Expensive to build and keeps me from getting dirty, I stay clean now.