Predator Proofing

[jbahros]

Hi
At 4 weeks they are fully feathered! They will be ready for their new coop. Still it’s a good idea to get into the habit of locking your chickens in at night. At 4 weeks old I’d also start feeding them some cracked corn with parakeet grit. It may keep them warm and fatten them up a little.
good luck !!!

Wow thats great. I would love to get them in their coop at 4 weeks! They are 2 1/2 weeks now. I guess I will still need to use their same feeder and waterer which drives me nuts because they get the waterer so dirty so quickly. Their big chicken waterer will come soon and I'm making a feeder DIY with a a food grade bucket and PVC pipe inverted so there hopefully will be less food wasting. Thank you so much for your help. I will get the cracked corn and the grit.

 

[barn206]

Wow thats great. I would love to get them in their coop at 4 weeks! They are 2 1/2 weeks now. I guess I will still need to use their same feeder and waterer which drives me nuts because they get the waterer so dirty so quickly. Their big chicken waterer will come soon and I'm making a feeder DIY with a a food grade bucket and PVC pipe inverted so there hopefully will be less food wasting. Thank you so much for your help. I will get the cracked corn and the grit.

Put the water on top of a paver. They are big enough to climb n drink. You can also make a platform out of 2x4’s and a 12x12 1/2 inch plywood. Just an idea...

 

[jbahros]

Put the water on top of a paver. They are big enough to climb n drink. You can also make a platform out of 2x4’s and a 12x12 1/2 inch plywood. Just an idea...

Wonderful, that sounds great. Thank you so much.

 

[Rldad1]

Looking at your pictures it looks like you attached the HC to the chain link by tying it with something. Make sure that you attach it using metal of some kind (wire, clamps etc). On your run, just remember that any large predator and even a large hawk/owl can rip through it quickly.

 

[cmom]

Your coop and pen look nice. Here is an owl going through some netting. I have since replaced that crappy netting with some good heavy duty netting and the owl tried again but got caught in the new good netting. I have had netting covering my pens for years but didn't have quite enough so I bought some online which was the crappy netting the owl went through. I have a some coops that are open on one side that I put tarps over and the owl went through the crappy netting and killed some birds. I moved the birds to another coop and pen and put a camera up and the owl came back. When it got caught in the new good netting we managed to get it into a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it. Good luck and have fun...
http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/tips-for-protecting-poultry-from-predators