ripping holes in wire? what is it?

[Lindsy]

Hi
We've had something breaking into to our chicken run...ripping the chicken wire open...holes of 4 inches to 12 inches, and often 3 1/2 feet above the ground! It seems to happen at night (we've been locking up the girls in their coop at night) but that was after whatever it was got our 3 ducks. It opened up their hutch. One duck was never recovered, other 2 had throats torn open and left. Sigh. We can't seem to stop the wire being ripped open and the chicken wire in in good shape! I'm thinking we're going to have to trap something but not sure what to go for. We live in Canada, B.C. Any suggestions about what to do next would be appreciated!

 

[dainerra]

Chicken wire is to keep chickens in, not predators out. Even squirrels can tear it apart.
My first guess would be raccoons. Or possums, but likely coons.

Replace the chicken wire with hardwire cloth or welded wire.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A coon will go right through chicken netting, and as said, so will most critters. It is fairly useless in terms of protecting your birds.

 

[sourland]

Do you have a coon population in BC? If not I would think that a canid of some sort may be the culprit.

 

[Lindsy]

Wow, thanks for the heads up about the chicken wire...we've used it for about 4 years without the ripping...I guess we were just lucky. I guess we will be off to the building supply store. Yes, we do have lots of racoons...and they have been a problem in the past but they have never ripped the wire apart before...it was more if we left the girls out too late after dusk.