Racoons

[remuda1]

Will they/can they bite through chicken wire? The bottom two feet of my run are hardware cloth, but above that I have chicken wire. The older birds are inside the coop at night, with hardware cloth on all of the windows. I have an outdoor brooder in the run with two week old chicks in it. It's made of expanded metal, so I know that nothing will bite through that, but I still don't want to think about coons in the run. I still have a red light on the chicks at night and I feel like I am spot lighting them for any predator within a couple of miles to see! Kinda like the red flashing light on an all night diner

Any thoughts, suggestions will be appreciated.

Kristi

 

[7L Farm]

I did the same thing with my coop. But I still worried about something getting in so I added hot wire around the whole coop & run. I sleep better knowing their safer. I now build all my coops with only half inch hardware cloth with an apron on the bottom. Here's a coop for an examp

le.

 

[remuda1]

Here is my set up (trying to post pics for the first time, be kind

).

The hardware cloth is concreted into the ground. We pretty much live on a rock so I am comfortable that nothing will dig under the concrete.
Here is the brooding cage. You can barely make it out in the first pic against the wall of the coop, under the windows.

Anyway, I just didn't know if anyone knew of any instances where coons had actually bitten through chicken wire to get to the birds or not and was curious. I have two Great Pyrenees that spend each night (along with my sheep) on the left side of the coop. But the dogs can't get out of that pasture and I can just imagine the racoons thumbing their noses at them while they try to sneak into the run.

Where do you have the electric wire run and also, if you don't mind..... Where in Texas are you located?

Kristi

 

[7L Farm]

I live on a farm right outside of Anderson, Texas. South central Texas. I put the wire about three inches above the ground & another strand about 18 inches above the ground. Here's the coop before I added the hardware cloth on the bottom & before I added the hot wire. It was a coop that my grandparents care taker used. Super old I had to move it & remodel it. I added a run on it because back then I don't think they did runs. I house 10 hens & 1 roo in it. I like your coop. I like big coops I believe chickens need alot of space.

 

[7L Farm]

I just noticed you have a bunch of biddy's in a grow out pen in the run that's cool. How many birds do you have in your coop?

 

[remuda1]

LOL, I am really new to this, so does biddys mean pullets or are you talking about the little ones in the brooder? The ones on the ground are six 10 week old pullets, Black Copper Marans and Cuckoo Marans. There are also 2 cockerels, one of each. I got the chicks on the 2nd, they are 6 gold laced wyandottes, 6 silver laced wyandottes, and 6 brown leghorns. I will end up selling some of the chicks once I grow them out for a while to pick the ones I want to keep. I don't have any adult birds yet. Now wishing that I had just tried to find all of the birds locally instead of getting the chicks from the hatchery, then they'd all be about the same size

..... Now I get to stress over mingling them sometime in the future. I DO need to think about how I want to make a big grow out pen in the run.... I think that would make it easier to mingle the two groups.... AND I would like for the chicks to be pretty good size when I do mingle them so they won't be able to stay in that brooder till then

. I like to give them lots of room as well and I am letting the pullets get some more size on them before I let them free range for much more than a couple hours. I have a really BAADD feeling that more contruction is going to be taking place, LOL! I went to Tractor Supply just before the chicks came in and bought what I THOUGHT was a large brooder for them...... The joke was on me for sure

. But I found the outside brooder (the thing that the chicks are in now) on Craig's List for only $100 and that thing will last a lot longer than I will, it's a tank and it's working out great for them right now.

The inside coop does not utilize the entire shed, I also keep sheep, horse and chicken feed in there. I may end up enlarging the inside coop, that will just depend on how many of the chicks I decide to keep. Right now the only ones utilizing the coop inside are the Marans at night. It measures about 6X12 right now.

I am amazed at how fast they are all growing and the Cuckoo Marans cockerel is a MONSTER!!! LOL, I can't even think of him as a baby anymore and he's just now started to crow.

I am in Granbury, Texas. About 50 miles south and west of Fort Worth. Well..... All that was probably more information than you wanted to know, haha

, but I like talkin bout chickens!

Kristi

 

[remuda1]

OHH, and I LOVE that you are using your grandparents caretakers old coop. That is awesome. It looks really great, if I start seeing any signs of problems, I'll remember about the hot wire. Have you had any trouble with predators?

Kristi

 

[bryan99705]

Sorry but you are a prime set up for a coon feeder. The coon will rip thru the chicken wire and the chickens are trapped inside. Suggest you overlay with 2x4 welded wire (above the hardware cloth on the sides and the entire top) The hardware cloth will stop reach thrus at chicken level and the rest will stop access for the coon's body.

 

[speckledhen]

We've seen some pretty impressive holes ripped in chicken wire by coons here on BYC.

 

[remuda1]

Thank you all..... that's what I was afraid of. I think for now, as long as I don't let any of the chickens stay in the run overnight they'll be okay. The coop's windows are all covered with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. For now I may just line the outdoor brooder with the hardware cloth until I can overlay the run. I do have some left over 2X4 horse wire. I know they can't bite through that and hubby will be glad that I don't have to write yet another chick check, you saved me some money there, Bryan. I would have gone for hardware cloth all over the run. Thanks again for the input..... I'll be starting on modifications tomorrow, sigh......

Kristi