So frustrated

[jbahros]

Ooh I am so frustrated. I went out to my predator proof converted dog kennel 12 x 12 with my coop centrally placed. My 4 week old chicks are in the brooder now with no heat lamp, temp 68, draft free. I was contemplating putting them into their pen and coop this week when I saw a large hole entering into the inside of the pen. The diameter of the hole was the size of a grapefruit. It enters in the ground at the outer border of the wall. I have lined the pen with hardware cloth: walls, under roof, and 2 ft around perimeter. I did not dig down into the earth but played it on top and secured with landscape staples. What kind of animal do you think did this? Im guessing the solution is digging down and placing the hardware cloth into the earth 6-12 inches. Please help. I would be heart broken if something got my chicks.

Thank you very much,

Jessica

 

[aart]

Squirrels don't dig tunnels 10 yards long.

 

[CrazyCrttr75]

Yeah, it is always recommended to dig down around the perimeter and line with hardware cloth. So many different animals can dig and it is a great deterrent. Is better to be safe than sorry. I don't know what animal it could be but so glad that this happened before you placed your babies out there and you caught it. Best of luck to you!

 

[jbahros]

Hey CrazyCrttr75!

Thank you so much for your lightening quick response. I appreciate your help. I will get back out there with my shovel and dig down a foot to put vertical HC. Yes you are right better that it happened now and not later.

Thank you so much!

Jessica

 

[jbahros]

Hey Hippieatheart,

Thank you so much for following up with me. No still a mystery. I put a trap out (for 2 weeks) but caught nothing. While I was working in the pen I saw many chipmunks around the pen and making holes in the adjacent garden. To make the 12 x 12 foot pen safe I dug down 5 inches in the floor and then laid down HC 1/2 inch 19 gauge and secured it with hog rings to the vertical HC ( 9 inches down) that I had previous put along the perimeter. I also still have the 2 foot apron of HC around the outside perimeter. The girls, now 6 weeks old, are very happy in their new digs; coop in pen centrally with a large covered run. Thank you so much for asking. I suspect chipmunks but my biggest fear is a weasel.

Jessica

 

[aart]

The diameter of the hole was the size of a grapefruit. It enters in the ground at the outer border of the wall. I have lined the pen with hardware cloth: walls, under roof, and 2 ft around perimeter.

Pics?
Hole started outside the 2' apron?
How far in did the hole go?
Stick a stick or garden hose down there.

 

[jbahros]

I finally saw that the hole started10 yards away from pen, then into pen near wall,, then up to 2 foot apron around the outside perimeter and then I think it turned around. Since all this I took your advice and dug a trench inside the perimeter of pen and put 9 inches of vertical hardware cloth then backfilled over. The chicks went out today for the first time for 2 hours because it was warm 81 F. I gave then some cracked corn but they did not eat it so I am hoping it will serve to bait any intruders. If I still have holes then I guess I will have to line the floor with hardware cloth and then cover with soil and wood chips. It is a lot of work!

 

[aart]

I could put a stick in it but it only went down 4 inches so there must have been a turn.

Garden hose, turned on full blast.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I keep thinking about this.
What would tunnel that far under the mesh...and not eat the feed on the ground?
Reminds me that @rosemarythyme had a similar tunneler?

I think it's unlikely to be a rat, from my experience they tunnel shorter and closer to surface. And a mouse hole would be a lot tinier. Though there's always exceptions I'm sure.

Sticking by some sort of burrower such as a gopher, given the type of hole. Our burrowing pest are small moles but thankfully they stay away from the run (the chickens would likely kill them if they surfaced, or the dogs definitely would).

 

[Doc7]

This is messed up! Never in my life have I seen such a long hole to get in. I have to rethink telling people my 18” Flat exterior apron is rock solid predator proof.