Is thatlastic netting used for the walls? If so you may (most likely will) one day discover a predator has ripped it apart and your chickens will be mossing or dead. Also you will find the white zip ties will rot in the sun and become brittle over time and break off.
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It is plastic. Believe it or not but the only predator I have to worry about is hawks. I'll keep an eye on the ties too, my other coop that's at my folks house is still going strong and is three years old. Thanks for the advice
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It is plastic. Believe it or not but the only predator I have to worry about is hawks. I'll keep an eye on the ties too, my other coop that's at my folks house is still going strong and is three years old. Thanks for the advice
They do have coons in NM you know
Just a quick story for you....we had no evidence of coons in the area, only hawks. So, we did a bright colored netting over the top of our modified dog kennel. Well, everything went well for 4 years. No sign of any predators, nada. Then we had a coon show up and massacre our birds who were in the run in the daytime. We lost several birds, including my beloved Boo. She gave her life protecting her flock till we could get outside...the coon won that battle.
So even tho you might not see any signs of them there...I can pretty much guarantee that there are more predators than you know out there than just hawks. Stray dogs can get in the backyard and break thru the netting on the sides, as can pretty much anything...even people. I have even heard of a few people who raise birds that they have seen hawks actually working their way thru the netting to get to the birds. They actually sat on the post and messed with the netting till they had a way in. Long story short...something wants chicken and you aren't home...something will get a chicken dinner.
Looks like a sweet coop and you worked hard on it
Just think about what happened to Boo and her sisters when we thought there were no predators but hawks
Quote:
It is plastic. Believe it or not but the only predator I have to worry about is hawks. I'll keep an eye on the ties too, my other coop that's at my folks house is still going strong and is three years old. Thanks for the advice
They do have coons in NM you know
Just a quick story for you....we had no evidence of coons in the area, only hawks. So, we did a bright colored netting over the top of our modified dog kennel. Well, everything went well for 4 years. No sign of any predators, nada. Then we had a coon show up and massacre our birds who were in the run in the daytime. We lost several birds, including my beloved Boo. She gave her life protecting her flock till we could get outside...the coon won that battle.
So even tho you might not see any signs of them there...I can pretty much guarantee that there are more predators than you know out there than just hawks. Stray dogs can get in the backyard and break thru the netting on the sides, as can pretty much anything...even people. I have even heard of a few people who raise birds that they have seen hawks actually working their way thru the netting to get to the birds. They actually sat on the post and messed with the netting till they had a way in. Long story short...something wants chicken and you aren't home...something will get a chicken dinner.
Looks like a sweet coop and you worked hard on it
Just think about what happened to Boo and her sisters when we thought there were no predators but hawks
Well I do plan on adding a layer of metal chicken wire around the bottom within a few months, partly because I want to add a bunny to the flock later. I don't think we have coons. We don't even have squirrels. We have coyotes in the country. Here in town we have dogs, cats, skunks, rats, and hawks. I live in a town on the high plains, nearest trees once you get outside of town are hours away. I'm not trying to sound ignorantly stubborn but I grew up in this town. I lived five minutes outside of town and raised chickens for five years. I know the predators around here well. Out in the country I kept chickens, ducks, and pheasants in pens just like this. Three years old and my folks are still using them. I don't know maybe there's plenty of food and they aren't desperate. What ever the reason I only lost eggs to skunks (geese stopped that problem), three free range to stray dogs (again geese fixed that), and a full grown turkey to a hawk (to this day I'm not sure WHY the tiny hawk even tried that lol). I guess I'm just risking it and some day I'll be taught better but it's always worked before.
