Will this idea work to keep out raccoons / possums??

[cmom]

Definitely agree!

 

[cmom]

I have seen coons around and get them on my game cameras now and then. I have electric wire around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and heavy duty netting covering the pens. They have not penetrated as of yet. I don't close the pop doors in the coops. I have heard predators come in contact with the electric wire. My fence charger is 1.2 joules. It will make my heart skip a few beats when I have accidentally touched it when I have forgotten to turn it off when working around the coops. I'm sure I weigh quite a bit more than most predators and I have two feet with shoes and socks on where they have four feet so they would feel it because of being more grounded. Once they get bit with the electric they don't test it again.

 

[Howard E]

If a person isn't able to open doors in the morning and and shut them at night, a setup like Mom's with secure pen or run attached to the equally secure coop seems like a good plan. Electric wire around that is like a belt plus suspenders.

Neighbors down the road have theirs setup similar.....except no electric wire. Run covered with metal roof, and sides secured top to bottom with chain link fence, with chicken wire over chain link. They did the latter only to keep out sparrows and starlings.

I have documented several attempted breakins, with sections of chicken wire rolled up at base, but nothing has gotten in that I'm aware of. Would not be secure from a weasel and probably not even a mink, but they haven't seen any of those........yet.

 

[NatJ]

My chickens have no problem jumping/flying to the top of my 4 foot chain link fence, so I had this idea.

If I cut out a door in the coop wall that is 4 feet off the ground, and nail smooth sheet metal all around the door. I am thinking that this would keep a coon from climbing the wall to the door. And I doubt that a coon or possum could jump 4 feet straight up from the ground to get to the door. The coon also could not come down from the coop roof, as I plan to put a metal roof with a 2 foot overhang above the door opening.
Anyone ever seen or tried anything like this before? Or any ideas on how to build a coop that will allow the birds to freely come and go, while keeping out the coons/possums?

If I understand this right:
You want to make a hole in the side of the coop, 4 feet up, and keep coons from getting to that hole.

You know the chickens can fly 4 feet up, because they sometimes sit on top of a fence that is 4 feet high.

Sounds like a clever idea to me. I've read of people putting birdhouses and dovecots on top of poles to keep raccoons from getting to them, and I've wondered if one could do something similar for chickens.

I might worry about the chickens trying to land on a small space--so maybe a big door, or a landing pad/perch outside it. (But then the raccoon might jump of the roof onto the landing pad and go in, so maybe not.)

Unfortunately, the only thing I know about raccoons is what I've read on the internet, so I can't tell what their abilities are

 

[hayley3]

I had to put my blue bird house on a 8 ft post and then grease it to keep the raccoons from climbing up and eating the eggs.
The first time I realized raccoons were my chicken killers, was I watched them walk along the narrow edge of a 2x4, up to the top of the barn rafters which was a good 20 ft to the top, and then back down and there they dropped down onto my chicken coop.