owl?

[piper123]

Hmm something could have climbed up but it certainly could have been an owl too. Whatever it was though, hardware cloth with holes 1/2" has kept our chickens perfectly safe, even though it is expensive. If you only have cattle panels on the top then almost any small predator could climb up and get through the very large holes in that. Could you post a picture of your setup? I think it would be helpful to see it.

 

[chewball]

My pic won't load. But yes it is chicken wire covering the cattle wire( chain link)

 

[piper123]

Is it covering the entire run or just the bottom?

 

[jerryse]

Sounds like a raccoon . Owls will leave the guts of rabbits but not sure about chicken . Just saying a owl is not fond of guts .

 

[chewball]

The chicken wire only goes up 3 feet. I will pick up a live trap today when I get my netting for the top. If it was a coon that climbed the fence the netting will probly do no good to stop a coon tho?

 

[mimischicksnat]

Does anyone use things like a fake owl or shiny objects like cds in addition to bird netting. i've heard these confuse birds of prey and helps in protection. a guard dog is not an option for me.

my area is 40'x40' and getting netting up may take awhile.

 

[piper123]

Poultry netting will do no good in keeping predators out. It is for keeping chickens in, not other things out. Even if the animal is too big to reach through it, they can easily tear it apart. I suggest putting hardware cloth or something more sturdy around the entire run. Otherwise, predators can easily climb up the sides and get to the unprotected top. If hardware cloth is too expensive, you could leave your chickens in their coop at night and let them out in the daytime, assuming your coop is large enough.

 

[piper123]

Yes, I've heard of people doing that, but I don't know how well it actually works. I know we put a camera with an alarm on it for our chickens and the camera had lights on it, but the coons were only distracted for a minute by the lights, so I'm not sure if that would work.

 

[mimischicksnat]

Yes, I've heard of people doing that, but I don't know how well it actually works. I know we put a camera with an alarm on it for our chickens and the camera had lights on it, but the coons were only distracted for a minute by the lights, so I'm not sure if that would work.

We're mostly talking about protection against night time predators, correct? Mine will be in the coop at night, but I still worry about birds of prey swooping down on mine during the day. We have hawks and turkey buzzards galore!