Safe run and coop

[eggcited2]

We live central Illinois. So we have plenty of predators. Racoon, fox, mink and weasels, dogs let run loose, coyote, etc.

I need a good strong safe run/coop. I have a chance to get a pair or trio of call ducks. I do not plan on letting them free range (learned my lesson the very hard way).

After reinforcing our chicken house with three layers of chain link fence, and two layers of chicken wire, covering the entire floor and 12 inches up the sides of the chicken house, we still lost chickens and what ever we put in there. My husband went out and found a mink/weasel with a banty in it's mouth. Even though the layers of wire fencing were staggered so no holes sat on top of each other and left room to get through. We also had sealed the entry-exit door with thick wood. Two layers of 2x6 lumber. (the chicken house is about 10X15 feet-- that is the actual building itself)

I don't want a large coop or huge run. Something like 10 X 12 ft run, and house itself about 4X4'.

A friend built an 18 X 10' coop and 4X4' house (for a black tail japanese rooster and hen) last August and nothing has gotten into it. She is no longer around here, so can't get her to do one for the call ducks.

Is there somewhere to buy a strong run, and add a small house inside it? My husband is disabled (also recovering from extensive spinal surgery) and can not do building. I am disabled, so I can not do any building.

Because of being as disabled as I am, I almost never get out of my house (2 or 3 times a year is about how much I get out) and being able to watch the two chickens I have brings me so very much joy. I am sure I would love the have the call ducks to be able to watch out my window also.

What people are experiencing now with the covid restrictions and made to stay at home; I have lived that way for 6 years. So if any of you are going through the depression, anxiety, and all the other negative stuff from not being able to get out and around, you are now having a life a bit like what I live every day, and will live every day like that for the rest of my life. Please try to understand why I would like to have a couple call ducks to be able to watch outside of my window.

 

[black_cat]

I think that your main flaw was using chicken wire instead of hardware cloth. Even when it's layered, it's easily torn and bitten through, exposing the wider holes of the chain link.

 

[3KillerBs]

Hardware cloth is better than chicken wire, which is easily ripped by many predators.

For really hardcore predator protection, especially for the stronger predators, nothing beat electric.

Here is a splendid tutorial from a BYC member: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-treatise-on-electric-fences-for-poultry.72229/

 

[eggcited2]

I think that your main flaw was using chicken wire instead of hardware cloth. Even when it's layered, it's easily torn and bitten through, exposing the wider holes of the chain link.

Thanks for mentioning the hardware cloth.

I knew there was something I was forgetting when I wrote earlier. We also did two layers of hardware cloth. It took my husband and cousin two weeks to put it all down, attach it all together so nothing would slip between the many layers, and nail/screw/seal it 12 inches up all the sides of the walls.

 

[black_cat]

Thanks for mentioning the hardware cloth.

I knew there was something I was forgetting when I wrote earlier. We also did two layers of hardware cloth. It took my husband and cousin two weeks to put it all down, attach it all together so nothing would slip between the many layers, and nail/screw/seal it 12 inches up all the sides of the walls.

Do you know how the predators got in? Did you have internal or external nesting boxes?

 

[eggcited2]

Do you know how the predators got in? Did you have internal or external nesting boxes?

Internal nesting boxes.

For the way the chicken house was built-----The main studwall corners and support were telephone posts, and the cross pieces (horizontal) were 2X6 screwed into the telephone posts. The walls were all made of metal sheeting (from Menards) and screwed into the wood, the entry door was cut out of the metal, lined all around with wood, and closed up in the evenings.

No clue how the predators got in. We lined the outside of all the walls about 6-10 inches high and that wide around with rip-rap.

 

[black_cat]

What kind of latches did the doors have?

 

[eggcited2]

What kind of latches did the doors have?

We have a regular walk in door, like a home would have. Tight door frame, well attached to the frame work of the stud wall the metal was screwed to. It has a normal door knob. We never found it open, no holes through the door (like chewed on or chewed through) no holes dug under it. The chicken house entry, was opening cut through the metal wall, framed inside and out with wood, door that manually closed, fastened with both a hook and eye fastener, and a carabiner (not the snap on kind, but the kind that had the screw down piece, and it was always screwed all the way closed. Never only screwed it part way). I was a fanatic about latches, locks, how well things were sealed, etc. I loved my chickens, ducks and guineas and was maybe a bit over protective (my husband felt).

The guineas started off in the rafters of the chicken house, but soon switched to the rafters in the barn. No way could we get to them to pick them off those rafters to be able to move them. I almost swear they were laughing at us ;-) from their 12' high perches.

 

[eggcited2]

I lost around 30 chickens, 24 ducks (muscovy), and about 30 guineas within a couple months of last year.

Some we found only piles of feathers, some were pieces of bodies, a few times heads were pulled or bitten off (not sure which). There was one duck the head still attached to the spine but not attached to what was left of the body.

A few times, the bodies of the chickens, split open and the main organs gone or even just ripped open and the organs still there. Almost as if the predator killed just to kill, and not for food.

The remains were found inside the chicken house, or inside the barn, and even outside of both, in the pasture

We have seen and heard coyotes in the pasture (where both the barn and the chicken house are located), we' ve seen fox in the neighborhood, but not in the pasture, same about racoons, and as for mink/weasels Bill saw one inside the barn and once inside the chicken house. (the time he found the one inside the chicken house was after all the work of making up the many layers of floor. It had a chicken in it's mouth)

Last year we had one horse, one mini donkey and two goats in the pasture with the chickens, and they stayed in the barn at night, during bad weather, when very hot, when very cold. We lost both goats since last year, but still have the quarter horse and mini donkey. They've been around all the poultry for years.