Hello,
It's been a year since we posted here, all has been well with chickens. However last night we had a disturbing "chew-in" to the coop. I could hear chewing from the house and tried to investigate several times during the night, but I didn't see anything with a flashlight and couldn't seem to scare off whatever it was. This morning I found a small hole chewed through part of the door and the coop wall where they join. Some dedicated animal spent the whole night chewing a hole in my coop. I'm pretty upset about it, but all the hens are fine and didn't seem disturbed. We do have a serious rat problem around the coops and in the adjacent creek area. I'm off to buy more traps today but we've had only slight luck with trapping. Due to children, pets and the watershed poison is not an option. One theory is that a rat got caught in the coop last night when we closed up and chewed it's way out. I just can't imagine a rat chewing IN to the coop especially at this time of year when there is so much food around outside for the foraging. It's just very strange.
My other question... how the heck do I repair this damage? I'm posting pics to help with the visual. The door swings down from above and is secured with a metal strap closure. We used to have a swing up ramp door but had to replace a month ago because we simply couldn't get it closed into the hole anymore, temperature changes and settling had taken the coop off square enough that it just wouldn't fit. We thought this was much better... but apparently if you're willing to spend 8 hours chewing wood it doesn't matter what style of door you use
Thanks much for any help on figuring out how to fix this up and stop whatever it is.
It's been a year since we posted here, all has been well with chickens. However last night we had a disturbing "chew-in" to the coop. I could hear chewing from the house and tried to investigate several times during the night, but I didn't see anything with a flashlight and couldn't seem to scare off whatever it was. This morning I found a small hole chewed through part of the door and the coop wall where they join. Some dedicated animal spent the whole night chewing a hole in my coop. I'm pretty upset about it, but all the hens are fine and didn't seem disturbed. We do have a serious rat problem around the coops and in the adjacent creek area. I'm off to buy more traps today but we've had only slight luck with trapping. Due to children, pets and the watershed poison is not an option. One theory is that a rat got caught in the coop last night when we closed up and chewed it's way out. I just can't imagine a rat chewing IN to the coop especially at this time of year when there is so much food around outside for the foraging. It's just very strange.
My other question... how the heck do I repair this damage? I'm posting pics to help with the visual. The door swings down from above and is secured with a metal strap closure. We used to have a swing up ramp door but had to replace a month ago because we simply couldn't get it closed into the hole anymore, temperature changes and settling had taken the coop off square enough that it just wouldn't fit. We thought this was much better... but apparently if you're willing to spend 8 hours chewing wood it doesn't matter what style of door you use
Thanks much for any help on figuring out how to fix this up and stop whatever it is.
