WHAT ANIMALS BURROW UNDER GROUND TO GET CHICKENS AND EGGS?

[Fawn and Fam]

I know skunks do. What other ones do?

 

[enola]

do you mean dig under fences or under buildings to get to the chickens?

dogs
foxes
raccoons
coyotes
probably possums

depending on where you live, wolves, badgers

 

[cypressdrake]

Mink, fox, coon, opossum, coyote, will dig to get to it's prey. These predators often dig in rabbit holes to get to the rabbits.

 

[Alaskan]

The entire weasel family, even the tiny ones.

Rats.

 

[Fawn and Fam]

Will weasels or rats harm chickens or just steal/eat the eggs?

 

[enola]

weasels are almost mass murderers of chickens

 

[Bullitt]

Will weasels or rats harm chickens or just steal/eat the eggs?

Yes, weasels will kill chickens. Rats can kill young chickens.

The way people keep animals out is to put about a foot of chicken wire skirting flat on the ground around the coop and run. Then cover the wire with dirt. An animal will dig and hit the wire, and then try another spot.

If you are having problems now with animals, I suggest getting a live trap and baiting it with food. The raccoon size trap is most popular. Sometimes the local Animal Control will allow you to borrow a live trap also.

 

[Fawn and Fam]

We are not having any problems w/ animals however we are building our coop and run. We were planning to bury 1ft. of hardware cloth underground. We are not able to get the mass amount of hardware cloth we need this time of year (wish I would have known that or I would have purchased it in the spring). We are going to do a small temporary run for the winter hopefully using what we had on hand which is chicken wire instead of hardware cloth. They will be locked in for the night so it should be okay. What I'm wondering is this: We have some 2"x4" hardware cloth that we were thinking of using for the 1 ft. buried underground (just temporarily till spring). I'm wondering if that size will be safe for us here in Michigan against burrowing predators. My husband is an outdoorsman and has never seen a weasel or rat here in MI (though we have lots of mice). We live on one acre and are surrounded mostly by homes, a school and a church. We do see skunk, possum, groundhogs, moles, and gophers on our property on a regular basis. I presume that means we probably have raccoons around as well, so is 2"x4" going to work underground?

 

[aart]

A 18" piece of 2" x 4" welded wire fencing laying flat on the ground and attached to bottom of coop and run walls will deter most diggers.
Burying is a waste of time and energy as most things will just dig under it.

edited to add graphic:

 

[cypressdrake]

Dawn. They will kill every bird in the pen before they leave. I have never seen a live bird from a weasel or mink attack. They don't eat, just suck the blood from the neck, they kill for sport. Territorial.