- Jun 27, 2013
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We just got our first hens and baby chicks two days ago, and live in Kentucky. I built a chicken coop and attached it to my garage. I have been in construction for twenty years and built it much like a paranoid person ( because I am lol ) and made it as sturdy as I could. I built the run with a covered roof, 2x4 and 2x6 supports, elevated it off the ground about two and a half feet, used one inch chip board for the floor, some metal fence nailed to that, and then a layer of quarter inch plywood on top of that. I got the small half inch or quarter inch hardware cloth? and put that on for my fencing and put three different locks on my door into the run area. For the back/the actual coop, I have it elevated as well, put down the one inch chip board floor, framed it in with 2x4's, filled that with ceramic tile I had left over from a job, put a layer of wire on top of that, put down another half inch floor on top of that, and build my roost. I tried to seal it up like fort knox, but even with everything I did I am worried it isn't enough. We only got two six month old light Brahma hens to put in it and I have the baby chicks inside under a heat lamp. The hens absolutely refused to go into the coop the first night and last night, but as of today I have them going into the coop from the run and I think I can lock them up in there for the night now. The very first night we had them it looked as though something had bent a piece of the hardware cloth back, trying to get in. I built the coop down the wall and it is attached to my garage. The piece that got bent back was just extra I hadn't trimmed off after nailing it in. It is nailed to the coop and garage, but had about 8 inches extra that I meant to trim off, but got to busy when I went to pick up my hens and chicks, buy feed, other items I needed for them etc...
Is the hardware cloth strong enough to keep coyotes or dogs out? We have a bad coyote problem around here, and they even have come up close to my house. I had to shoot one a while back because it was in my "yard" about 9am and trying to kill a neighbors cat. There are so many that we see them sometimes a couple times a month when we take our dogs out at night. We also have a lot of foxes and I have seen as many as three in just one short trip to town from our home. I haven't seen many here at the house though, but they must be around if I see them just driving down the road, or maybe not if they avoid the coyotes. A few of my neighbors have actually been losing dogs and cats to the coyotes in the last six months. Then we have the normal skunks, coons, bobcats etc... and dogs that run loose from people that allow them to roam. I have the smaller quarter or half inch?hardware cloth all around the run, but was thinking about adding a protective layer of chain link around that for extra support. Do you think that would be a good idea? or overkill?
My other question is what size vent do I need in the actual coop? and what is best to use so that is strong enough to keep out predators? Sorry for so many questions, but I am totally new to this and want to make sure our chickens are safe.
Is the hardware cloth strong enough to keep coyotes or dogs out? We have a bad coyote problem around here, and they even have come up close to my house. I had to shoot one a while back because it was in my "yard" about 9am and trying to kill a neighbors cat. There are so many that we see them sometimes a couple times a month when we take our dogs out at night. We also have a lot of foxes and I have seen as many as three in just one short trip to town from our home. I haven't seen many here at the house though, but they must be around if I see them just driving down the road, or maybe not if they avoid the coyotes. A few of my neighbors have actually been losing dogs and cats to the coyotes in the last six months. Then we have the normal skunks, coons, bobcats etc... and dogs that run loose from people that allow them to roam. I have the smaller quarter or half inch?hardware cloth all around the run, but was thinking about adding a protective layer of chain link around that for extra support. Do you think that would be a good idea? or overkill?
My other question is what size vent do I need in the actual coop? and what is best to use so that is strong enough to keep out predators? Sorry for so many questions, but I am totally new to this and want to make sure our chickens are safe.
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