Yes, I think everybody worries when they first put out their chickens. Mine have been out almost a year and I still worry! My coop is pretty predator proof and even has a wood floor nailed into it, but sometimes I think what if a raccoon rips the doors off!
Wow, that's really nice. We just have a small TSC one we got free from a friend right now. Along with the electric net around it. I know this is not the best and we are planning to have a better more sound coop built. Plus building a predator safe run.I bought one of these: https://overezchickencoop.com/product/medium-over-ez-chicken-coop/
All the openings have a turn lock and a key lock-pop door, man door and nest box. I do open the window but have hardware cloth stapled up on the inside and the outside. I feel very secure when they are locked in there however.....
The other night I pulled into my driveway around 11pm and there was a raccoon in my front yard! It ran up the driveway and jumped over my neighbors fence. Needless to say I worry....
Oh my!! Luckily so far we just see hawks and raccoons around here. There were foxes last year, but have not seen them at all in a while . Of course that's not to say they can't come back.
The game camera is great. We capture most of our wildlife at 4 am TX time. You won't catch me outback at that hour. So far the hardware cloth that's covering our coop has worked like an armour from these predators.
I told my husband about the hardware cloth and I think we are going to use it to enclose the coop we have now for extra protection until we can get a better coop.
Yep! I still think about predators getting my hens and ducks at night. Doesnt help that we couldnt afford to build a more secure run for them either....
Works great! My husband ran the hardware cloth down the sides of our coop and about a foot and half on top of the ground, and then topped that with flat paving blocks. This design is very secure.
As you could probably tell from my previous post, we see most of the predators at night on the cameras. The only time we see them some during the day is in the spring when they are looking for mates and having their young so they are out more during the day looking for food (chicken) to feed their young.
Mine have survived 2 nights now and what a relief!!! I started with the 4 preadults the first night then the 3 juveniles who were already intergraded last night. Last check they were all 7 roosting together!
