Last night, about 3AM, we heard our chickens getting attacked - we didn't lock up the pen properly. We went out and scared the racoon away. All of our chickens lived... but one is injured. Looking at your pen... how did it get in? Do I have to be woried about them somehow making it through the chicken wire?
Michael, if it is actually chicken wire (not hardware cloth) yes you do have to worry, actual chicken wire offers no protection from predators only keeping the chickens contained. The wire on my old pen (what you see in the picture) has holes big enough to allow small predators like minks and small opossums in.
The main problem with that pen was a small gap above the door (just a few inches tall) that a full grown raccoon could slip through. The flaw with that coop was the wood it was made of when it got wet it started to break down and was very easy for a raccoon to rip/dig through.
If you don't mind me doing so, let me recommend Backyardchickens.com/forum and check out the Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance and Predators and Pests sections both will give you lots of ideas on how to deal with predators and how to keep them out of your coop and run. Also they have a Emergencies / Diseases /Injuries and Cures section that might be able to help you with your injured bird. I'm Cats Critters on there.
If you keep going through my blog you will see a lot more issues with predators and what I did about it.
That stinks! I'm sorry you lost your birds.
ReplyDeleteLast night, about 3AM, we heard our chickens getting attacked - we didn't lock up the pen properly. We went out and scared the racoon away. All of our chickens lived... but one is injured. Looking at your pen... how did it get in? Do I have to be woried about them somehow making it through the chicken wire?
ReplyDeleteMichael, if it is actually chicken wire (not hardware cloth) yes you do have to worry, actual chicken wire offers no protection from predators only keeping the chickens contained. The wire on my old pen (what you see in the picture) has holes big enough to allow small predators like minks and small opossums in.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem with that pen was a small gap above the door (just a few inches tall) that a full grown raccoon could slip through. The flaw with that coop was the wood it was made of when it got wet it started to break down and was very easy for a raccoon to rip/dig through.
If you don't mind me doing so, let me recommend Backyardchickens.com/forum and check out the Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance and Predators and Pests sections both will give you lots of ideas on how to deal with predators and how to keep them out of your coop and run. Also they have a Emergencies / Diseases /Injuries and Cures section that might be able to help you with your injured bird. I'm Cats Critters on there.
If you keep going through my blog you will see a lot more issues with predators and what I did about it.