I recently bought a new coop and chickens to keep in Ohio while I am at school. I was working on the run for them today and chatted with a neighbor who also raised chickens. She said her husband set a live trap to see what killed one of their chickens and over a period of a few weeks they caught 10 raccoons! I forgot that raccoons were such a issue in Ohio. Where I keep a minority of my chickens, Northern Virginia, we really sdont have to many issues with raccoons just foxes. Even then we are lucky and predators are rather lazy and only take a bird maybe every 4-5 months if that. I'm afriad my normal pen structures will be easily broken into. I was going to have a pen attached securely to the coop with boards running along the bottom (which I have found to help a lot with escaping chickens and nosing predators) with a fully enclosed fenced pen. I got normal chicken wire but am afriad this wont be enough sonce so many people tell me about raccoons ripping the fence up. Any suggestions? I was thinking of running a electric line across the bottom and top of the pen or possibly barb wire because I have a limited budget and think it will have the same effect (just look a little menising lol). Thoughts? Oh! I was also going to set a trap sometime to to see what I catch and possibly stop the culprit before he strikes.
I'll load a picture of what I have so far so everyone can get a better idea. Phone won't let me at the moment...
I'll load a picture of what I have so far so everyone can get a better idea. Phone won't let me at the moment...