I am new to keeping chickens and as my babies are getting ready to live in their coop/run I am getting more and more nervous about the raccoons getting to them. We have 4 chickens we are keeping as pets not for production. Every night/morning there is evidence of raccoons, they get on our deck all the time, have scrapped with the dog twice, lights don’t bother them, they are always digging in the mulch around the house. I have even hear raccoon fights several times at night.
Anyway as far as the coop goes we got one from a friend for free making chicken keeping affordable for us this year. one of my main concerns is that it is made out of 1/4” plywood. Should that be reinforced? I have used an air nailer to overlap and staple the hardware cloth in the run. In addition to the air staples I have either sandwiched It with wood or I will use washers to further secure the hardware cloth. We did put hardware cloth under the run. And are adding hasp/ with Carabiner to the existing latches. Any other suggestions? Is 1/4” plywood too thin? If so how do I fix it without building a whole new coop? We have contemplated running a couple electric Lines around the bottom exterior. Is this overkill?
Anyway as far as the coop goes we got one from a friend for free making chicken keeping affordable for us this year. one of my main concerns is that it is made out of 1/4” plywood. Should that be reinforced? I have used an air nailer to overlap and staple the hardware cloth in the run. In addition to the air staples I have either sandwiched It with wood or I will use washers to further secure the hardware cloth. We did put hardware cloth under the run. And are adding hasp/ with Carabiner to the existing latches. Any other suggestions? Is 1/4” plywood too thin? If so how do I fix it without building a whole new coop? We have contemplated running a couple electric Lines around the bottom exterior. Is this overkill?