To person in Conroe that has lost most of flock due to predators: Have you buried the bottom edge of your perimeter coop fence in the ground? If not, it probably would be a good idea to get a hard wire horse panel, cut it in strips about 18 to 24 inches high & as long as the side of your pen, dig a trench about 12 to 24 inches deep at the bottom of your pen and insert the panel strip in it, attach it firmly to the existing pen wall, then pour in concrete into the trench to prevent varmints from digging under the fence and getting into the pen. If you don't already have it in place, I suggest putting 1/2 inch plastic deer netting over the top of your pen to keep other birds from getting in. If a coon was serious, it could probably rip the netting, but it would take a while. It is pretty tough stuff. I found mine at a local nursery. It is in a roll about 3 feet wide and the netting is folded in half, so when I cut off the length I wanted, I unfolded it and it was 6 feet wide. I just used tie wraps to attach it to the top of the pen, and then also tie-wrapped it together where it overlapped across the top of the pen. My hubby suggested we use horse panels around the bottom of the pen and also the door, then covered the panels and the upper section of the run with 1 inch chicken wire. I figured the bottom part would be where most of the predators would try to get in, and with the netting covering the top, and boards in all the gaps, we have been lucky so far, not to have had any breaches. We live in a rural area and see plenty of ferral hogs, deer and coons, so I know there are also coyotes and civet cats and other nocternal critters that would love a plump hen as a snack. My friend, who got her hens a bit before me, had a coon or something reach through her 2 inch chicken wire and kill one of her hens, so we decided to "double wrap" the bottom of our run and use hardware cloth around areas the hens like to sleep in. Knock on wood, so far we have been lucky. You might also consider a Hot Wire around the bottom of the pen. One of the guys at work says he has one around his chicken pen that he has seen keep snakes out.
To the lady in TUlia, Were you a Tulia Hornet? I went to WTSU, (now WTA&M) and was in the band, back in the '60's. Our Drum Major was from Tulia. I remember it being FLAT, FLAT, FLAT, and could see 20 miles to Amarillo from the roof of our church there. After spending 5 years or so there, I felt a little claustrophobic back here in the Hill Country.
