Replacing teens with peeps!

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wannaBfarmers

wannaBfarmers

Hatching
7 Years
May 18, 2012
4
0
7
Hi All!!

My last kiddo is getting all grown up and leaving the nest for college, so I've decided that I need more pets to add to our current menagerie of 4 dogs, a neighbor's cat that likes our house better than her home, a yellow naped Amazon parrot, a Russian tortoise, and more fish than I can count...inside and out.

We just bought 4 chickens...a black silkie, two belle fleurs, and a polish. They've been getting along fabulously in the "starter" coop we built for them. Sadly, in spite of all our precautions (1/4 inch hardware mesh, concrete paver floor on top of MORE hardware mesh extending a foot plus around the run, latches and locks on everything, and so forth...we came home today to find two BIG copperheads in the nest box, three freaked out chickens in the run, and one missing belle fleur.
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I didn't think we could become so attached so quickly...but...sigh.

Anyhow, tomorrow will be spent sanitizing everything to get the snake smell out (the surviving chickens are spending the night in a dog crate in the garage - they were NOT going back in the coop tonight) and figuring out what we missed in our security plans.

So, I just wanted to say howdy to everyone and thank you all for all the great posts and advice that got us started on this new, addictive hobby. We plan to be around a while!!

Best wishes,
The Haskells from Houston
 
Thanks for the warm welcome!!
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I'm wondering if someone here can tell me just how small the holes have to be to keep the @#$!! snakes out or if I should post that question somewhere else in the forums. I'm not exactly sure how y'all work things around here. I posted a question in the wrong spot once on the Weight Watchers forums and got a whole bunch of very cranky dieters in a tither!! :

Thanks again!
 
I think someone one here said if you can fit a regular old hot dog in your coop holes then a snake can get in
 
Kevin565 said:
I think someone one here said if you can fit a regular old hot dog in your coop holes then a snake can get in
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Oh wow...I'm sure we have some hot dog sized holes, but nothing bigger than that and these snakes (two of them!) were friggin' enormous!! I do not like snakes. I do not like them one teeny tiny bit. :(
 
1muttsfan said:
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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Sounds like you will have to use 1/2" hardware cloth all over. Good luck - copperheads! Wow!
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Thanks. We already had 1/2" hardward cloth everywhere...even under the concrete pavers under the coop!! What we missed were two roughly 1" diameter gaps created by the eaves of the roof coming together. My husband's fixing it now. The kit we bought was just poorly designed...edges should have been mitered and we didn't catch it. Hopefully, they won't be able to get in now. But, it's still sad to lose one so early on in the process...and I noticed this morning that the silkie injured one of her eyes in the battle. :(
 

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