Open-Air Coops – Depending on where you live and the sort of predators lurking about, you may be able to get away with an open-air coop (if you don’t have weasels or rats, for example). Bottom line, everywhere where a weasel or rat could chew through needs to be protected. Even better, run and staple narrow lengths of it along the floor where it meets the walls (on the exterior to stop predator chewing before it starts). Holes and Weak Spots: Cut pieces of number 4 hardware cloth (the galvanized steel kind with 1/4 inch squares) to size to securely cover any holes or spots that might provide access to small predators like weasels (who can fit through a hole the diameter of a dime!) and secure them with sturdy construction staples.The idea here is that if anything tries to dig beneath the building, the creature will hit the wire and eventually give up. Dirt Floors – If you prefer a dirt floor (many do), dig a trench around the entire perimeter and run the chicken wire walls down into the ground around 12 inches, then splay it out away from the coop another 6-12 inches.Wood Floors – Ideally, the floor should be thick wood, with hardware cloth sheathing underneath, and absolutely solid so no predator can chew through.Problem is, an old building will likely be full of holes or weak spots where a poultry predator could dig or chew through, gaining access and obliterating your stock.Įither build a brand new, secure building for the chicken house OR secure the existing old building. I thought it myself – we’ve got a perfect one here. I mean, why not use that neat old shed? Seems like a logical thought. It’s a common thought to want to ‘repurpose’ an existing building for use as a chicken coop. So how do you keep your chickens safe from predators? The House With the cost (in time mostly) involved in raising chickens for eggs or meat, you really don’t want to lose even one bird. That wasn’t necessarily the case here, but I’ve seen some pretty rickety set-ups that are just massacres waiting to happen. This happened to my son’s teacher recently, and it got me to thinking about the buildings people use for chicken coops, thinking ‘they’ll do’ against poultry predators. A gory end to a family’s pets – and food supply. You come home from a fun, barn dance/Halloween party with your young family to find your livestock slaughtered in their pen, blood spattered everywhere, corpses ripped to shreds.
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