Same thing happened to us. A predator got in by digging under the chicken wire and killed the rooster, who was standing in front and trying to protect his hens. We put in a chicken wire floor to the coop, and when the chickens went inside for the night, we locked the coop. Hawks and sometimes foxes are daytime predators, but raccoons, skunks, fisher cats, and coyotes all come out at night.

The raccoons can chew & rip chicken wire. And the weasels fit through the holes of chicken wire. I made the coop with hardwood floors. And i made a huge run with 1/2:inch 19 gauge hardware cloth. The run is all covered with the same strong hardware cloth. And it is all boarded & rocked into the ground. Just a note about the floor of the coop: if you don't put a wood floor then you will need to put a really thick layer of bedding because the chickens' instinct to scratch the ground eventually will damage their feet & toes. I hope it helps.

I appreciate your willingness to network with neighbors and the practical ideas you have through good and bad experiences. Keep on keep'in on!

Chicken wire to keep chickens in, hardware cloth to keep predators out.

right idea.....wrong wire. Chicken wire will rust. We used hog panel, 2 foot high and attached to base of coop with hog nose clips, so wire extends 2 foot from base of coop. Since our coop was stationary, we poured concrete on top. If you want a mobile coop, use spikes to hold down. We have had a couple of cougars, some bobcats, fox, coyotes, and stray dogs try to get in with no luck. We also have hog panel as the bottom 4 feet of coop, covered with hardware cloth attached with hog clips. We do have feral hogs in the area and never lost a chicken or rabbit. We used chicken wire in beginning, but a few years later, ended up pulling up all the rusted wire and having to do it all over again with the panel.

Use construction sand on the coup floor. It cleans up like kitty litter. Rake the top and use a litter scoop to sift the sand from the poop. Easy and very clean.

Just a FYI, opossum's can get through chicken wire. I found out with a game cam. It takes them about 30 min, they can chew right through it. Also I thought opossums didn't bother chickens . False....I found out , they do. I stopped it. I bought a couple of 20ft rolls of 16 gauge wire at lowes , stapled it around the coop, overlapping the corners and no more opossums, period. There is a video here on youtube called "How to install a predator apron" that explains it all. In no way am I trying to discredit your vid but I just want everyone to know.

It looks much better. Next time consider using the smaller gauged mesh fence though. It's much stronger. You could also place some plywood on top, to make raking out the coop easier

Good luck with the improvements to the new coop.

You need wire fabric or rabbit hutch wire as rats, snakes and raccoons can come through or chew through chicken wire

Yes I had those red lights and a fox noise deterrent and I think that the foxes thought it was a disco ...they loved it and came all the time even licking the fox deterrent machine.....so No they don’t work...

Pretty smart, bud. Looking forward to seeing how it works. Liked and subbed.

I have the flashing red light "eyes" also and the possums and raccoons totally ignore them even though I move them and alter the hanging height

I wonder whats going through the mid of a chicken when a predator is tryna kill it. "I still gawt 400 egg left in meh!"

That zinc house is too hot and airless for the chickens.

good ideas but it has been my experience that whatever predator will try to dig under is usually strong enough to tear through chicken wire.

looks like your coop is predator proof but where is the ventilation? I bet it gets hot in that thing especially in the summer.

I only have a dirt floor only problem I have is the dam squirrels . Raccoon are around and never dug under, During the day the chickens and Ducks run loose in yard, just hide from eagles and Hawks,

You could use plastic coving over the chicken wire then it be easier to clean out great video..!

yep predators are defintily a worry, you could of just made a apron around the cooop on the ground, you put the fencing about 2 feet total along the ground and put rocks or yard staples, into it to keep predators from even able to dig at all, my run is not predator proof as I would like so this spring it is time to put the apron on, and put extra fencing including hardward cloth and reinforce the aframe top since I seen a video of how well foxes can climb/jump up on high places. raccoons are good climbers too. I hope your chickens are safe now, remember foxes can still get into the run and they are out sometimes in the day, which is my worry here but so many around here have dogs they have transverse through their yards but I still want to predator proof the run this spring just in case the coop itself is predator proof except for perhaps a tiny weasel might manage to get in.

my impression is that is going to be a bear to clean, but, i don't know that from experience. I guess you will know soon enough :-)

We don’t have the range of predators here in Aust, just foxes mainly. Forget the chicken wire & fortify the coop with reinforced steel mesh all round & underneath. Anything that thinks it can chew or dig its way through that is going to be disappointed.

Thx, I find it so logical and it's as good as bulletproof in my opinion, got a bunch of chicks now and they tend to get trough the fences,this might be a solution, have a good one.

Good video - we lost our chickens last night to coyotes 😢

Hope it works. I would not set a coup floor on the open ground. But that’s just me.

you have a dog, kick it's but outside at night. it will love doing what it's meant to do. My girl is ten. she has a flap to come inside or out, and she prefers to be out at night and laze around during the day.

Dig a trench around the coop and pen/run fill it with broken glass place the wire back over anything that tries to dig will cut up their diggers