Will our coop design be secure enough? Tired of losing chickens!

[artist chick]

We just came into possession of the body of an old cow trailer and we're converting it to a chicken coop. It is a steel tube frame, with the tubes spaced not more than 8" apart horizontally. It has framing for a wooden roof on top. The structure is 6' tall, 16' long and 8' wide.

Before now, we've lost chickens to weasels and dogs, and we are determined to make this one as secure as possible against predators.

Our plan so far is to wrap the bottom 4 feet with hardware cloth, burying the bottom 6" of that in the ground, with the remaining height and roof covered with regular chicken wire. Will this be sufficient to protect them from racoons, weasels, or any other predator? We plan to build a sheltered nesting area inside the structure at the end opposite the door.

How does this sound? Any suggestions? Thanks so much for your input and advice!

 

[Momo]

Sounds like a great thing! But I'm afraid it's gotta be hardware cloth all the way to the top; otherwise the raccoons will just climb up the side and rip open the chicken wire or the weasels will climb up and slip through ...

 

[crazyhen]

I hate to say it but raccoons can bite through the chicken wire and they all can climb. I know how tired you must be. When we built mine my hb said are we building fort knox. Hard ware cloth is good but must have a angle at the bottom and extend out to the side to prevent them from digging down and under. I was told a weasel can go through a 1 inch hole. Maybe make just part of the coop secure for now and shut them up in it at night. I shut mine up in the building everynight. There are weasels, raccoons, possum, dogs, coyotes and cats here. ugh, snakes too. Sometimes it feels like a losing battle but eventually you will get it done. Jean

 

[nailjack]

I took some old wooden planks 2x12 and buried them about 6 inches in the ground while tacking the wire to them. The wire runs another 6inces deeper. then I placed some old rail road ties around the perimeter on the outside of the wire. Any coons will really have to work at it. Though I am sure that if they really want it I am sure that I would notice any activity before they can succeed. But who knows?

 

[artist chick]

Thank you all so much. I'm disappointed knowing we'll have to spend another couple hundred dollars on an already zero budget... but we'd rather do that than lose any more chickens.

Thank you all for being so helpful!! I hope you have a terrific Christmas!
Leslie

 

[BeckyLa]

Oh, Leslie, your avatar is beautiful. Did you draw it yourself? If so, you have quite a wonderful talent.

 

[artist chick]

Thank you so much, Becky! Yes, I painted it myself.

 

[Dandelion007]

Wow, beautiful picture. You should post some of your work. I'm sure everyone would really enjoy it.

 

[artist chick]

Thank you!

Most of my work is a variety of subjects, and I don't know how interested people are. You can visit my flickr and click through the images, though, if you'd like to see some of it. I have some sketches of our chickens when they were little, but I keep trying to take good pictures of our chickens now to use as painting references for more actual paintings. Silly things won't stand still!! LOL!

Anyway, my artwork is on both my blog and my flickr, links to which are in my signature. Thank you for your comments!

 

[artist chick]

Well, if I were going to post a couple of paintings, how would I do that? Hm. Let me try... if this doesn't work I'll do a search. The first is a collection of fall leaves I did, intending to cut them apart. I liked them all together, though...

The second is a painting I did a couple months ago of a boathouse in Mentone, Alabama. It's been there for as long as I can remember from visiting there as a child.

There you go! I hope that worked... if it didn't, can someone point to the way to post a picture?