New to the country life, and new to chicken owning!

[maria0]

Although I've been told I come from a long line of chicken farmers, I've had minimal experience with birds..

That being said I'm getting ready to move my 1st set of babies to their coop, which is above ground, and topped with hardware cloth, 4 study walls and a window that is secured with hardware cloth..but I can't help being a nervous wreck about predators! I read some of the stories on here and can't help but wonder where some folks went wrong. From what I can see the only way a creature can get in our coop is if it CHEWS through the walls..is that possible? The hardware cloth is sutured with poultry staples and I've pushed and pulled they are not coming loose!

anyone have any more words of wisdom before I put my babies out there? (they are 2 buff orph's, 1 barred rock, and 1 silver laced Wyandotte)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You're probably OK but a raccoon is stronger than you are. I cover the edges of hardware cloth with either siding or metal strapping - both attached with screws.
I recently had a raccoon pull the siding off of a building. Then the mink squeezed into a 1" gap and killed all the birds in there. You can go years without a problem and then lose everything in a few days.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Yes, predators are scary, but a fact of life. No, it is highly unlikely something will chew thru wood unless there is a starter hole or you are gone for days on end. Predators can't waste too much energy and need to eat. So it has to be fairly easy to get into or something they can work on each night and eventually get in. So it is important to always to perimeter checks looking for signs of things digging, chewing, clawing, and such. I look at it this way, how hard would it be for you to get in if you had to? Could you get in by digging, chewing, clawing, etc? Build it like fort knox and nothing can enter.

Here is a page in our learning center on predators that may help you out a bit...https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-predators-pests-how-to-protect-treat-your-flock

You can also post questions in our Predators and Pest section of the forums to ask more questions...https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/13/predators-and-pests

Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

ChickenCanoe and TwoCrows seem to have covered the informational side of things pretty well, but wanted to say

 

[maria0]

Thank you all so much! why do I feel the need to learn how to shoot a gun?? lol

 

[TwoCrows]

In some cases, shooting may warrant itself however generally shooting one opens the door to another. So it becomes senseless shooting. Best thing you can do is build strong and they can prowl all they want and never get in.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

And some of them are hard to shoot. Try shooting a mink zipping around with a pistol at night, or a raccoon for that matter.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with your new flock! You've gotten some good suggestions and links above, you could post pictures of your coop/run in the Coop Design or Predator forums TwoCrows linked for you to see if anyone has any ideas on what you could do to make things safer .....

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

 

[drumstick diva]

Glad to have you join the flock

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