securing a coop against predators

[manderzpants]

hello, i am new here and doing a lot of research for when i can have my chickens. i am sorry if this has been asked before/recently, but i was wondering if it would be a good idea to bury hardware cloth beneath the coop/run and bend it up around the entire coop run and attach it to the bottom so that predators can't even dig their way in there. i just want to make sure that my hens are secure as possible, as i would be heartbroken if a coon or fox got them! thanks!

 

[Lynn in Texas]

Hello - Sounds like a wonderful idea to me. My husband made a 12 x 12 coop with a 12 x 20 run - buried metal roof flashing around the entire perimiter, put all our bent t-posts and lumber in the bottom of that "ditch" and then attached a cattle hot wire around the perimiter at 4" and 8" off the ground. The run is fully enclosed with 1" poultry wire - we simply couldn't afford the hardware cloth but I'm getting ready to add the "cloth" around the entire run (36") as a snake squished himself in and consumed one of my lovelies when she was 4 weeks old - when he tried to get out the lump stuck him and he fried his neck on the hot wire.

My brother in Northern California warned me to do everything possible to protect them - he has racoon problems as we do ( I call them a "biker gang") and some of the stories he has told me before he fortified his coops were truly horrifiying.

After doing all of this preparation I went out the other day and one of the hawks that lives up the road was sitting on the wire on the top of the run and was obviously making his shopping list. When I let them out for the first time this fall I sure hope the roos are ready to play hero. These are my first chickens in over 50 years and I'm already completely emotionally attached to all of them.

I hope you get as much joy from your charges as I do.

 

[manderzpants]

thank you for replying. yeah i have read a lot about raccoons in the past and they can get into just about everything. i want to have padlocks on all of the doors/openings to my coop and i'll be using hardware cloth on all of it. if i ever catch any varmints around my coop there will be HELL TO PAY, i tell you what.