It turns out, my coop's run isn't very predator proof. I purchased poultry wire, instead of the 1/2 inch square galvanized wire, so its not very strong and the larger holes make it easier for smaller varmints to enter the run. Mostly this more intense wiring is used for raccoons, as they can stick their arms through and kinda beat through this thinner poultry wire. As there are no raccoons here in Juneau, Alaska, I started to think about the local predators. The ones that would come by air, like Ravens and Eagles, would be detoured enough by the poultry wire. There is probably no need for the better wire for these guys....but the ones coming by land are a bit different.
Dogs can probably get through by digging underneath, so burying some below the ground level would help with that. As for Bears and Minks. A Bear can probably shatter through most any light construction, so if there is ever a bear problem, it will have to come to perimeter electric fencing. Minks are very sneaky. They can crawl through very small spaces, chew through wood, dig tunnels and more than likely, very abundant in population. By process of elimination, this is enemy number one on our farm, the mink.
I don't think there is any way of stopping a mink, if it decides to get into our run, outside of re-wiring the whole thing. So for now, I will play the odds that the mink will not attack by day, and keep my chickens in their metal hen house at night. I feel pretty good about the hen house, once I beef up the bottom of it with some more metal sheathing it should be pretty tough for a mink to crack. So for now, I can only beef up the run from dogs by burying some poultry wire about 8-10 inches around the perimeter of my run.
I started digging and realized this would be a perfect time to get some drainage around my coop as well. I dug a trench around the three high sides of my run about 8-10 inches deep. I put in some temporary boards I had laying around to sort of raise the sides to maybe hold more litter in the run. I then stapled some poultry wire to those boards and ran it down into the ground. I had some 4 inch black drainage tubing laying around the house so I perforated that, and stretched it out around the trench. I decided to fill the trench with beach rock, rather than filling it with the removed soil. Beach rock is very abundant in Juneau, and is good to have near the chickens for grit and they peck at the shells found in it for calcium....oh, and its free. So the removed soil was relocated and the trench was filled with beach rock.
We loaded up my Jeep with 4 buckets and a shovel and drove the 2 blocks to the beach and filled them up with some small-ish gravel we found at a local rock skipping spot. Nicholas skipped rocks while I shoveled away...3 trips and we had it filled. There is so much available I may even create some paths to the egg door, that will make for easy snow removal. I also am thinking of going ahead and continuing the trench all the way around as to promote high and dry soil in the chicken run.
(I have to bury wire over there anyway) This will aid when they are dusting up and seems like it will work, but as winter slowly approaches, I really can't predict too far ahead. Im just going to take it one day at a time.
Dogs can probably get through by digging underneath, so burying some below the ground level would help with that. As for Bears and Minks. A Bear can probably shatter through most any light construction, so if there is ever a bear problem, it will have to come to perimeter electric fencing. Minks are very sneaky. They can crawl through very small spaces, chew through wood, dig tunnels and more than likely, very abundant in population. By process of elimination, this is enemy number one on our farm, the mink.
I don't think there is any way of stopping a mink, if it decides to get into our run, outside of re-wiring the whole thing. So for now, I will play the odds that the mink will not attack by day, and keep my chickens in their metal hen house at night. I feel pretty good about the hen house, once I beef up the bottom of it with some more metal sheathing it should be pretty tough for a mink to crack. So for now, I can only beef up the run from dogs by burying some poultry wire about 8-10 inches around the perimeter of my run.
I started digging and realized this would be a perfect time to get some drainage around my coop as well. I dug a trench around the three high sides of my run about 8-10 inches deep. I put in some temporary boards I had laying around to sort of raise the sides to maybe hold more litter in the run. I then stapled some poultry wire to those boards and ran it down into the ground. I had some 4 inch black drainage tubing laying around the house so I perforated that, and stretched it out around the trench. I decided to fill the trench with beach rock, rather than filling it with the removed soil. Beach rock is very abundant in Juneau, and is good to have near the chickens for grit and they peck at the shells found in it for calcium....oh, and its free. So the removed soil was relocated and the trench was filled with beach rock.
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