[kev]

What is the best way to secure a chicken house from predators?

My wife and I are having a carport put in that we are going to turn into a chicken house.

For the past 2 years chicken house security has not been a real issue as the chickens are totally enclosed. The current chicken house is up on legs, the floor is hardware cloth and has a trap door that is closed at night.

Video about the current chicken house that is now attached to a chicken yard instead of a run.

On side of the new chicken house will probably have a hotwire on it.

The front doors, where the open side of the carport is going I am thinking about burying a 4x6 treated timber. The timber will also give me a foundation for the wall.

A buried 4x6 is only 5 1/2 inches down. That is probably not enough to keep a fox from digging under the wall.

A buddy of mine suggested burying cyclone fence about 3 inches deep and about 2 feet out from the chicken house.

 

[cranky1950]

Why don't you put cyclone fence under the whole hen house and run it up one foot under your side sheathing and put hardware cloth over that to keep out smaller things then lay whatever your'e using for floor joists on the hardware cloth and build your flooring. We used to cover the bottoms of pigeon coops with sheet metal to rat proof them.

 

[convoy669]

what my grandparents did on the homestead was build a sturdy chicken fence with a brick foundation and run it 1 1/2 foot below the surface. On top of that 6 inches away they ran a double hot wire.

This basically deters ground based predators though flying ones still can get at them so basically give them somewhere to run under(bush's etc).

 

[dmas]

Rats are difficult, they can chew through concrete board siding and squeeze thru really small holes. However they are not a problem everywhere. And they can be eliminated with traps and poison.