Everything was going along fine for years using our 8'x24' chain link run covered with turkey wire and tarps--(except it's appearance. 
as the coop.) Then, just after planning to make a trip and have someone come once a day, we have a coon(?) hit, finally realizing they can come through old wire top. Since then we've been taking rabbits to garage every night, chickens locked in overcrowded 4x4' coop, and chicks kept inside long past our comfort period. (I also sold some of my birds rather than see them dead.)
To fix this fast before I leave, I could:
1. put an auto door on little coop. That helps the old timers to survive, at least.
2. Keep chicks OR rabbits in new 1/2 "wire hutch I built since the attack---almost done.
3. Use electric wire on chain link run and hope predators don't try the roof.
4. Use electric wire and cut down all the many trees (and at the same time, do away with shade the rabbits need this summer), so coons don't jump from trees to wire roof, avoiding the hot wires.
5. Electrify the roof somehow, too?
4. Use an abundance of cage wire on roof instead of electric, and also bury wire around cage--though we've had no digging.
Auto door?Electric? Cage wire? trees?
other opinions? I know this is going to cost a lot as is, but I don't have much to spend. I can't afford the new shed-coop with auto door that would house everyone.
P,S.
Run is up against the woods to give shade and is almost unmovable since it has a well attached roof of wire. We would have to cut all the wire off and take the chain-link panels apart to move it away from the trees. We own the trees though, and could conceivably cut them down, though I have never cut a tree, before. (Not Dutchgirl)
as the coop.) Then, just after planning to make a trip and have someone come once a day, we have a coon(?) hit, finally realizing they can come through old wire top. Since then we've been taking rabbits to garage every night, chickens locked in overcrowded 4x4' coop, and chicks kept inside long past our comfort period. (I also sold some of my birds rather than see them dead.) To fix this fast before I leave, I could:
1. put an auto door on little coop. That helps the old timers to survive, at least.
2. Keep chicks OR rabbits in new 1/2 "wire hutch I built since the attack---almost done.
3. Use electric wire on chain link run and hope predators don't try the roof.
4. Use electric wire and cut down all the many trees (and at the same time, do away with shade the rabbits need this summer), so coons don't jump from trees to wire roof, avoiding the hot wires.
5. Electrify the roof somehow, too?
4. Use an abundance of cage wire on roof instead of electric, and also bury wire around cage--though we've had no digging.
Auto door?Electric? Cage wire? trees?
other opinions? I know this is going to cost a lot as is, but I don't have much to spend. I can't afford the new shed-coop with auto door that would house everyone.
P,S.
Run is up against the woods to give shade and is almost unmovable since it has a well attached roof of wire. We would have to cut all the wire off and take the chain-link panels apart to move it away from the trees. We own the trees though, and could conceivably cut them down, though I have never cut a tree, before. (Not Dutchgirl)
