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

[TheRealWitwiki]

I have had an open top duck pen for a year now and have not lost one to a raccoon or opossum. We did lose two to a fox which the ducks escaped at night and were eaten. Our raccoons and opossums usually hang out at our back porch eating cat food. I trap them and relocate them. Our chicken pen is totally enclosed but I haven’t gotten around to enclosing duck pen. Try what works best for you. Maybe put out some cat food to distract them lol

 

[Cryss]

Personally I wouldn’t use any wire that had a 1 inch opening including one with 1/2inX1in. Raccoon hands are small enough to reach through 1 inch openings. My coop and run are covered, walls, run roof, 2foot wide apron, windows, and vents, with 1/2 inch hardware cloth. A pop door that empties into a protected run doesn’t need to be 4 foot high which I think is far too high for birds to jump from without foot or leg injury sooner or later. I don’t trust automated pop doors. I open and close mine manually and use 2 locks and run a bolt through a hole that goes totally through the top of the pop door and the wall behind it.
Pictures of your coop would help us see your week areas.

 

[centrarchid]

Neighbor killed a 51 pound buck coon last summer. HUGE thing.

How long was it not including tail. Heavy raccoons like heavy humans do not make good jumpers.

 

[Cryss]

How long was it not including tail. Heavy raccoons like heavy humans do not make good jumpers.

No but those buggers can climb! I watched a big boy scurry his way straight up a tree that was at least 100 feet tall and only had branches at the top.
Don’t believe that a species of critter doesn’t live near you just because you never see any. That’s called survival. They can’t survive if you know they are there so they don’t let you see them.

 

[Howard E]

To the OP......I think the premise of what you would like to do, while I understand the concept......is a recipe for disaster.

First off......if you are free ranging in an area with even a normal predator load, the birds are already at great risk. Not a question of IF, but more than likely only WHEN. I have not included all of them here, but I'm now up to about 10 threads on the BYC predator forum that I know of....in just the past 6 months alone......all of which share the same basic theme......"help, my flock was wiped out".....followed by the words "I like to free range". Then it's on to how to stop a dog, fox, bobcat, coyote, hawk, etc, blah, blah, blah.

You stop them by excluding them from having a free shot at the almost defenseless birds to begin with.

To introduce yet another risk factor......an open access into what should be a secure coop offering 100% protection at night.......is simply compounding the felony. If I was indifferent as to the plight of my birds.......didn't care if they lived or died......I'd probably do what you are proposing.

 

[50-45-1]

the automatic doors did not work out for you.
i here that alot here.
So...what is the problem with manually opening them in the morning and closing them at night?
this is what i do. it involves twice walking to the coop. i actually walk out there many more times than this. i take them fresh water daily, and treets and table scraps, and to gather eggs. sometimes just to visit. when i go to work early in the morning, my husband or my daughter will let them out for me.
i free range during the day, and have very few losses as i have 3 guardian dogs, and guineas to sound the alarm if something dangerous shows up. my coop is closed securely at night tho. i loose -0- at night.
leaving an opening in your coop an inch or bigger is inviting disaster.
i know all our circumstances are different and what works for one is not going to work for everyone.
Oh, and if you are in the states, you have fox and all the other common predators we all deal with.
the fact that you never see them, means nothing. they are predators.... they live by being stealthy and not seen.

 

[WthrLady]

How long was it not including tail. Heavy raccoons like heavy humans do not make good jumpers.

He would have been a terrible jumper! LOL. He was like a striped beach ball! He was stealing from the cattle creep feeders all winter and living in a pole barn loft, there was no ladder, so he was scaling the wood beams and poles to get up there. He was pushing 3 feet all dead and laid out and missing half his tail.

He didn't even bother keeping the hide. Old guy had seen his share of battles. They didn't even butcher him, he'd have been too tough. I think they just let the hounds have him.

I'm sure he was scrappy in his day, but he found easy living and got too big.

 

[centrarchid]

He would have been a terrible jumper! LOL. He was like a striped beach ball! He was stealing from the cattle creep feeders all winter and living in a pole barn loft, there was no ladder, so he was scaling the wood beams and poles to get up there. He was pushing 3 feet all dead and laid out and missing half his tail.

He didn't even bother keeping the hide. Old guy had seen his share of battles. They didn't even butcher him, he'd have been too tough. I think they just let the hounds have him.

I'm sure he was scrappy in his day, but he found easy living and got too big.

When he hunted raccoons actively for pelts, we sometimes went to Iowa to hunt draws along cornfields where we got into raccoons far larger than those we got along the Ohio River Valley. Location will be important with respect to size of raccoons OP is likely to be dealing with. Everywhere I know that supports Raccoons and Opossums also supports Red Fox and a big part of those areas which are more heavily wooded also support Grey Fox. That is why I still wait for OP's response on location.

 

[WthrLady]

Agreed. We grow 'em big in the cornfields of Nebraska and Iowa! They troll the field all summer and in the winter the downed stubble fields with the cows, helping themselves to not only anything out there for the taking, but also the creep feeders, and the high protein mineral buckets.

 

[Bwing10]

I might not be visualizing your plan entirely correctly, but I would never bet on ANY open-topped run when it comes to opossums and raccoons. They are both excellent climbers, and can walk on the top edges of fencing easily. Raccoons are incredibly good at problem solving. Nothing but sturdy 1/2 x 1" wire for me. Good luck, though!

Definitely agree!