I have not had any preditor problem and I am a stay at home mom and outside all the time, plus my dogs keep away any preditors if there ever becomes a problem I will for sure have the chicken wire( havea bunch I can use). We have no racoons here just mink, wolverine,fox, and martins. My whole property is also fenced so they have to get into two fences to get to the chickens. I also lock them at night in the coop when most of the preditors are out. Ty for the advise,
Yes we are insulating the walls and roof, we also have 2x4 for thier roosts and useing hay, wood shavings for beding and warmth I will have a 100w light bulb above the roosts when it gets colder then -20 the coop will be opened up during the day and locked down at night cause that is when it gets the coldest. We are going to put up to vents on each side of the slanted walls so air can curculate. Since this our first coop and first winter with chickens everything will be trial and erer hopefully we have thought about everything and have a good winter .