Safe Placement of our new Coop

[ZamundaFarm]

Hello,
I am new to BYC, and glad to be here. We are in the beginning phases of our backyard chicken adventures, and we plan on building our coop right under our deck. We just moved in, and there is a HUGE area right under the deck we thought would be perfect o build the coop. My husband fears that we will be bringing predators close to the house, and I am wondering if this would be true?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The predators will be all around the house, with or without chickens. If you put game cams around before you get chickens you'll see opossums, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and other things stealthily roaming in the dark.

ETA

Under the deck is a good idea for the shade it will provide. Just be sure you can keep rain out and have air flow. They need good ventilation.

 

[ZamundaFarm]

Thanks so much for the advice. Our neighbors, who are backed up against the forest have had opossums go after their chickens, so my husband is a little worried. It would be good idea to hook up camera's and we actually already have some baby monitors that would actually work. so maybe we will do that.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Night time predators are pretty silent but the baby monitors are good so you'll know if something is attacking the chickens.

 

[welasharon]

Monitors and game cams cannot prevent them from being attacked. You need to make sure the pen/enclosure is predator proof. Don't use chicken wire, It is useless. It can only keep chickens in, it offers no protection against predators. Make sure there are no gaps and predators can stick their heads in. You also need to put hardware cloth around the bottom two feet of the pen to prevent the chickens from being pulled to the fence and legs eaten off, You need an apron around the perimeter as well to prevent anything from digging under. There are some good threads on here about predator proofing your coop and pen. Good luck and have fun!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Monitors and game cams cannot prevent them from being attacked. You need to make sure the pen/enclosure is predator proof. ...

Agreed 100 %.
However, I would rather wake in the night hearing mayhem and stop it, finding half of a flock killed rather than go out in the morning and find the whole flock gone. Having 9 buildings, a weasel or mink can, over time, find a 1" opening in a building I thought was tight.

 

[welasharon]

That is true! The more protection the better.

 

[Suckafish272]

Nocturnal predators go looking for food wherever they like, including close to your house, under it, on the roof.... Coop placement will not change their behavior so put it where it makes the most sense for you.

 

[ZamundaFarm]

Thanks for the good advice

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Nocturnal predators go looking for food wherever they like, including close to your house, under it, on the roof.... Coop placement will not change their behavior so put it where it makes the most sense for you.

X2