Your fortress has never been breached? What are your safety measures?

[Wink]

I'm nearing the end of my coop building phase, and I'm pretty darn impressed with my 99% solo work on it (husband was available for 1% of work due to his overtime hours getting in the way of coop building!). My girls have NOT spent a night yet, although we're close to that phase.

However, I've hit that point where I'm certainly nervous for their well-being due to my fledgling coop building skills. I look over my coop and question security, not necessarily because of my techniques, but just the reality of determined predators. I had to laugh grimly to myself when I already found raccoon tracks on the roof of the coop!

My coop thus far:

*elevated
*3/4" plywood, windows covered in HC cloth
* swivel hasps on doors with accompanying locks
* Dutch door to run, each half has a swivel hasp, plus adding some sort of bolt slide/hook eye closure/something at the lower corner edge so predator can't pry bottom part of door open.
* fender washers/screw combo every 8-15 " for HC cloth (unless it lower down or on windows, then I added more washer/screws)
* 1 ft vertical wood running along base perimeter of run/coop, both to hold in the sand and sandwiching HC cloth between two pieces of wood
* guillotine pop door, no bottom exposure of door so greedy paws can't pull out door or slide it up.
* Enclosed/roofed run, 19 gauge HC cloth with 2 ft "apron" extending outwards. Semi fenced floor of run (it was leftover garden fencing I
just threw down just because I had it)
* flagstones placed on edges of HC cloth apron, to conceal edging
* r-panel metal roofing, need to seal up smaller openings with HC so snakes/weasels can't squeeze through the areas where the ridging doesn't quite meet the wood
*exterior nest box with both locking hasp, and hook closure.

I plan on locking my girls up every night....it gets wicked hot here in Texas, but I think I have decent ventilation, hopefully well protected by HC since windows will be wide open. I'd like to think it's pretty fortified, but I get the willies thinking that a predator has ALL night to work on a weak spot on my coop. I'd like to consider electric fencing, but I'm not sure about the expenditure, or if it's semi useless since a raccoon can hop over my single strand to climb?

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to hearing what you consider the strong points of your coop....mine hasn't been fielded tested yet so I'm curious to know how your design/idea etc have kept your flock safe!


*

 

[splinter]

Sounds like a good fortress. We raise from 200 to 300 chickens at all times and never lost one to a predator. Our secret is since our coops are quite a distance from our house we actually leave a radio on at all times and switch stations periodically.

 

[featherbaby]

24 hour security guards with night vision goggles and assault rifles+++++++++++++++++




Hee Hee....just kidding (unless the reader is a low down chicken thief, then I'm dead serious).

 

[teach1rusl]

It really gives peace of mind knowing you "did it right" from the get-go, doesn't it?? I have a nightlight inside my coop. It's tiny and really barely gives off any light, but many think a small light helps deter predators. We also have a motion spot-light (just a cheap-o) aimed down into the end of our run that's connected to the coop housing. That's alerted us before (although a time or two it just alerted us to one of our cats walking around on top of the run

).

I'll admit to leaving my pop door open sometimes in the dead heat of summer to allow more airflow. Although I feel our run set-up is pretty daggone secure, it still makes me a bit nervous.

Congrats on your coop build! I love to read about women taking things into their own hands

 

[elmo]

I feel the same way you do...I'm very paranoid about predators, and since our chickens are our beloved pets, I would be heartbroken if anything got to them.

If your chickens are locked inside the coop at night, then you can focus most of your attention to the doors of the coop and its windows. They say raccoons are able to open any kind of clasp that a child can manage, so for peace of mind you could use a little padlock with the key on a hook next to it. I've never read about a raccoon figuring that out. I would not trust a slide bolt or hook and eye arrangement, though.

Guillotine style pop doors would make me nervous if there was nothing other than gravity to hold them closed. I'd add some kind of lock or latch. The pop door in my big coop closes from the inside of the coop and is latched closed two ways, once with a spring loaded clip fitting inside a door latch, and secondly with a board that slides down to block the opening of the door. To get to the pop door from the outside, a raccoon would also have to manage to break into a welded wire run, too.

Your windows sound very secure, but it doesn't hurt to periodically check the fastenings of the wire to the frame. Someone else pointed out here that the strength of fastenings are dependent on the length of the screws used, which immediately made me wonder about the door latches I'd used (they came with tiny little screws in their package, which I went ahead and used), but the same point applies to the fastenings of the wire. On my list of improvements to my coop this spring is to reinforce the vent and window coverings with board lath on top of the existing screws.

Because of the expense, I used 19 gauge welded wire for the run but 16 gauge to cover the vents and windows, and used wire with 1/2" by 1/2" spacing so there could be no grabbing through the wire.

Since you know there's a raccoon already prowling around, I'd do something to address that proactively. You could borrow one of the Havaheart traps from animal control and try to trap the critter, but then you'd have to deal with disposal of it. You could get some coyote urine and apply it around the area of the coop and run.

http://raccoon-x.com/repellant.htm

If you have pet food outdoors or bird feeders, move them or empty them at night, because these attract raccoons. Also check the covering on your trash cans. If there's no readily available food source, raccoons are less likely to prowl around in your yard, and you certainly don't want them already there to discover your chickens.

Brace yourself for the summer heat, though. This will be my third summer keeping chickens in Texas and it gets very uncomfortable for them. If your coop is in natural shade, that will help immensely. Otherwise, you'll likely need to rig up some artificial shade in the form of shade cloth, etc. You might want to check out the coop in this page for some neat ideas about how to create artificial shade for the coop:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638

 

[Wink]

Thank you for the replies, I'm going to add the night lights.....might have to skip the assault rifles, though.

I beefed up my screws to all the exterior grade stuff, but those smaller screws that came with the packaging were used in the building of the coop, but I think for cosmetic purposes, but now I'll have to double-check. And thanks for the added tip about the pop door.....I'm going to brainstorm about a slide-lock-from-the-outside board! Wheels turning!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

It sounds like you've done a great job. Putting things together with screws, instead of nails, makes them a lot more secure. Make sure your hardware like hinges and hasps are screwed in, too.

 

[Talihofarms]

Your desighn sound real strong.
We have had predetor proofed our runs pretty much the same as yours with the addition of hot wires 6",12 and 36 around the fenced in areas.
24/7 security cameras and a Rhodesian Ridgeback, have kept us free from all 4 legged preditors for 6 years.

Best of Luck

 

[theoldchick]

This is an early photo of my chicken fortress. Not how the windows are nearly invisible when closed. All my latches are on the inside. The pen is chicken wire reinforced with 2x4 welded wire on the lower portion. There is welded wire apron along the ground and reinforced with rocks and grass.


Here is the finished product.

Please share photos of your fortress!

 

[aprophet]

19 gauge wire is kina on the thin side most of my pens is either 14 or 16 ga some is even 12 lower number is heavier wire if a big coon really wants to get through 19 gauge it might take them a night or 2 but they usually get to eat this is why during trapping season I dispatch as many as possible less preds = easier defending my birds the ones that are left are a lot more scared of coming in after the birds too they will move on to where they do not see each other in traps