Tell How Predators Got Your Chickens. Save Somebody Else From The Bad Experience

[Too Fast]

Okay, I realize this may not be the place, but are you all saying that if I have a run made out of chicken wire I will lose my birds? Does it absolutely have to be hardware cloth?

It's just the run, my coop will be solid plywood with oak reinforcement criss crossing the sides to make sure that even if a coyote or fox breaks the hardwood there is oak to keep it back. I can rebuild the run... but I really wouldn't like to

I did a lot of research, here and at the library. What I found over and over is make your coop and run like a fortress. I read over and over that chicken wire is only good to keep chickens in. I've seen reports of hawks/owls getting thru hardware cloth if they have enough time.

See the coopers hawk below? I had no worries about it getting in, I watched it for about 15 minutes as it got on the ground and looked around for a weakness:


It's secure enough that the girls pop door is always open. They sleep outdoors now,
and probably will this winter. We lock the human door at dusk. Very happy we took
the extra time and money to make our own pallet coop and did not buy one of
the flimsy ones we researched and saw for sale. They just don't compare
to one you make yourself. Yeah, the one you make yourself DOES NOT go up
in one day or weekend, that's for sure lol.






The digging creatures can get thru underneath. I put the hardware cloth/2x4 welded wire 2 feet out horizontally for the whole perimeter buried, and 2 feet vertically. I used 2x4 welded wire for the rest of everything, including the run roof. There is welded wire covering the windows. The nest box has latches and secured with racoon proof clips. The small doors have padlocks on them. Humans have been known to do stupid things to chickens also. No mammal is going to easily get in our coop/run, we sleep well at night.

 

[cheeka]

nice setup Too Fast!

my dome hasn't been penetrated in the slightest, so the pop doors to the coops stay open as well, it's so much easier that way... the human door is locked at all times, unless we are all out enjoying the day.

I've never heard of a hawk getting in the .5" x .5" hardware cloth... which is what I have all over the place. for digging predators, I have 15" of hardware cloth length overlap coming out to the ground, it's buried only a few inches below the surface, the hens actually dug to it form the outside during bathing... so I covered it with huge slabs of paving stone and large chunks of maple trunk from a tree I had had cut down... lets see them move that first, then dig to the blocking wire! it's never been budged

 

[colburg]

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but we had an Anatolian Shephard claw through 1/2"x1/2" hardware cloth. All the strands look more like spaghetti now as opposed to a cloth.

Our preferred method of keeping critters out is chicken wire wrapped over cattle panels.

Cheers,

 

[cheeka]

colburg,

got any pics of that? that's wild! as flimsy as chicken wire is... wouldn't the shepherd be able to go right through it? I'm lucky up here, most of my neighbors have hounds, who are mostly interested in rabbits... also, most of my neighbors have birds of one type or another, so we're all pretty careful with our dogs.

 

[colburg]

Don't have any pics yet. But I'll try to get some soon.

The chicken wire is wrapped over cattle panels and the cattle panel squares ar about 4"x6". The chicken wire keeps the chickens in and small critters out. The panels hold the chicken wire up and keep the large critters out.

 

[tenhens]

Cheeka, I was all pumped up feeling great with the mindset that I will simply allow them out while I am outside with them and then today a beautiful sunny day 75* and I was 25 feet away in their coop and my husband was 15 feet away from them and wham in flies a hawk! No body injured but boy did those girls holler. The speed of the hawk was incredible. By the time I turned around the hawk was back in the air on the other side of the yard.

That hawk was bold. My husbands eyes never left the chickens and he was only 15 feet away and there was nothing he could do.

Of course I did an immediate head count and panicked only finding 9. Must husband went to the basement and there was Pumpkin on a ledge in the cellar...she went right down the bulkhead stairs for safety whew!!!

Lesson learned....if there out its a risk. Its that simple.... I'm glad they have a sizable run and a comfortable and secure coop. I think I'm going to focus on bringing the outside to them for a while with filling their run with lots of leaves and brush for them to pick through. I guess if I can't always bring them outside I can work on bringing the outside to them

 

[petrel]

Cheeka, I was all pumped up feeling great with the mindset that I will simply allow them out while I am outside with them and then today a beautiful sunny day 75* and I was 25 feet away in their coop and my husband was 15 feet away from them and wham in flies a hawk! No body injured but boy did those girls holler. The speed of the hawk was incredible. By the time I turned around the hawk was back in the air on the other side of the yard. 

That hawk was bold. My husbands eyes never left the chickens and he was only 15 feet away and there was nothing he could do. 

Of course I did an immediate head count and panicked only finding 9. Must husband went to the basement and there was Pumpkin on a ledge in the cellar...she went right down the bulkhead stairs for safety whew!!!e

Lesson learned....if there out its a risk.  Its that simple.... I'm glad they have a sizable run and a comfortable and secure coop. I think I'm going to focus on bringing the outside to them for a while with filling their run with lots of leaves and brush for them to pick through. I guess if I can't always bring them outside I can work on bringing the outside to them    

Sorry for your scare, but thanks for posting this. I'm trying to convince my DW that our chickens are not safe because we have so many hawks around. I will probably make a welded wire tractor extension for pretty days, but I think free ranging is out of the question for us.

 

[tenhens]

Good idea on the tractor extension, I was thinking about making one of those too...although I will probably wait until spring.

Funny, I thought it was the neighbors dog that was or biggest predator, or even a racoon. I knew hawks were possible but they weren't my biggest concern. I still can't believe we were right there when it happened.

 

[cheeka]

wow tenhens, that's seriously close! their strike will kill, not that it would have gotten away with your bird with DH right there, just landing on it is enough... I'm glad all are safe! bringing the outside in is a great method. when it's used throughout their run, it's known as the Deep Litter method. I use it. they make phenomenal garden dirt from everything you give them - they eat lots of the clippings and things I bring in, but they can't possibly eat it all, what is left is slowly churned and composted over the year. I will only clean out my dome once a year, I just completed my first clean out... but I do turn it with a pitchfork, sections at a time, each week, if you don't, it hard packs quickly... maybe a covered run would be best for your situation, tractors are portable and can be moved to new spots for fresh grass and bugs.

 

[Too Fast]

^^^all above are great comments about predator proofing your chickens.

cheeka, thanks for the props about our chicken fort. I do wonder if I should wrap it more with hardware cloth. I have the 2x4 welded wire wrapped with hardware cloth where the girls sleep outdoors to prevent racoons from reaching in then.

colburg, I've read about animals going thru hardware cloth also, so that's why I've done the 2x4 welded wire combo on the 2 feet horizontal and 2 feet vertical. Got a 4 foot tall roll for that. You can see how we were burying it on post 591. Much harder for something to get thru, it *should* deter a large dog.

tenhens, I do worry a bit about ariel attacks, but so far nothing has happened here. We did have a red-tailed hawk family 1 year ago nest on our small .6 acre lot, it was cool then but would not be so cool this year. This is our first year for fowl. I will have to live with that concern, and if it happens I won't be mad at the hawk. They are quite bold from what I've read, and your attack sounds typical. Happy to hear nobody was lost on that. We do let our 7 girls free range for about 6 hours/day, about half of that is unsupervised.