Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. For a week, I’d repair the coop by day and he’d bust back in that night, until, you must have guessed by now, he discovered the chickens and ate all but one in a single night. Learn how your comment data is processed. The very first flock of Bantams we had nested in the trees about four feet off the ground. That encounter reminded me that I needed to do a few things differently. A dog can make a lot of noise and scare a bear off, but there is a fine line between barking from a safe distance and actually approaching the bear. Change ). With some help from the grant, our past recipient Rosalinde Mutch of Pitch and Arrow Farm, plans to build a bear-proof chicken tractor on their farm as a safe and sustainable solution for adding chickens in bear country that will help reduce pests and provide fresh, local eggs. Home. Thanks for taking a look. May 30, 2018 April 28, 2020 by vjppoultry, posted in New Silkies. If hawks are prevalent in your area a good alternative might be to free range your birds in a chicken tractor to give them added chicken predator protection while they graze. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Building a Safe, Secure, and Predator-Proof Chicken Run. We kept our Rhode Island Reds in their coop but they would occasionally escape which was never a problem. As seen on "America Unplugged". ( Log Out /  This A-frame option is lightweight and can be easily moved around, but bear in mind that this is designed for free-range chickens. From then on, as soon as it started to get dark, the remaining Bantams would start climbing our tall fir trees, talking all the time as they jumped from branch to branch. For the chicken run walls, hardware cloth is a better option than chicken wire for creating a predator-proof run. I rarely turn it off if I need to do work around the coop and end up getting the occasional shock myself. Seriously beautiful work! Penelope was a rescue chicken who escaped from a chicken farm so she has had a bit of freedom. Contents. IThe octagonal chicken yard with our first tenants, Beulah and Viola. Predator-proof the run. Hardware cloth and a Chicken Guard automated door is a step in the right direction. May 20, 2020 . Well lets just say the bear did not successfully break in but he found another way to get his way. I’ll be doing a post about hawks and chickens tomorrow so stay tuned. Having the house off the ground was the best innovation. Once the legs were in place I hung the entire structure from a center pivot made from an old truck axle so I could spin the cage and weld each segment without dragging the welder around the circle. There are lots of designs out there, you just have to pick one! The summer of 2004, while building my studio, Barbara and I had a brown bear cub wander onto the property and adopt us. What can one do? Best Selling Chicken Coops in the year 2019. 6 By 8 -Portable. Learn to Create a Bear Proof House. What a lovely, lovely coop! Titan 8 Inch Overall Diameter Flat Proof Replacement Wheel 300 lb Load Capacity, Gray/Black; 1.2 2. I have coop envy . Share: Chickens need a safe place to spend their days. Whether chickens free-range or are primarily confined to the coop and run, protecting them from predators can be one of the most challenging aspects of backyard chicken-keeping. We have standard-size chickens (Wyandotte & Rhode Island Red), which are too heavy for hawks to carry off. Since we have plenty of sun during the summer season, that option should work even off-grid and out in the field. One day, he discovered the chicken coop and you would think that would be the end of our four chickens, but for a while anyhow, you would be wrong. I love to watch wildlife, but when a 450-pound black bear crosses your path at 9:30 in the morning, it’s a little disconcerting. Get a livestock guardian dog or two . How to build a coop/run. 235. I would really love to have them run free but it’s just not possible. $399. I sawed the thick walled inch and a half steel tubing, then swedged each end, drilled holes and bolted the twenty or thirty segments together into what I hoped would be a geodesic dome. Bears are looking for a quick meal. Beulah has always been in a coop. Predators are probably the number one cause of chicken death in backyard flocks. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The second problem has to do with the challenges of design and construction. 5' Tall Portable Chicken Coop for 4 - 24 Hens. Winter was coming and since the old coop was made of rotting posts and twenty-year old rusted chicken wire, hardly a consideration for a growing and insistent bear. Any recommended designs for a good predator-proof, warm, nesting box enabled chicken tractor? It aims to turn a novice into an expert, with advice on everything from feeding and hatching, to predator deterrents and health-checks. 1. We turned a old building into a coop. Make sure to use material that is dog, wolf, coyote, and bear proof. I have been using my old Chicken Tractor for 4 years, and overall it has worked great. Thanks very much. The next spring we got more chickens and by mid summer, just about the time they started laying, he found and ate them. Get the details here. Because we get a lot of rain during the winter I put a piece of poly over the top of the yard so that the chickens have a dry yard to play in. An awareness of coop security basics goes a long way towards keeping backyard pets safe from unwelcome, hungry visitors 1. Continuing the original dome shape was out of the question and after long hours of deliberation, I decided to give the structure some legs and make it into a bell shape. Bury it a few inches below the ground's surface. 2. Free Shipping. One night a raccoon came by and picked off one or two and panicked the rest. ( Log Out /  We also had a flock of Bantam chickens who were always allowed to run free. Much bigger by late autumn, we saw less and less of him as he spent more of his time out in the thousands of acres of wild lands just beyond our property. The first problem is that if you live on loose, sandy soil, predators can dig under them (we have more about this in a previous article, along with suggestions as to how to deal with the problem).. Very quickly I realized that my calculations were slightly off and the eighteen-foot dome I had envisioned would end up being eight feet and that wasn’t going to get it. The chickens have been able to have dust baths all winter. It absorbs smells and moisture, provides a bit of a dust bath for the chickens and is great in the garden when I do a clean out. Normally we don’t cotton to animals taking advantage of us no matter how cute they are, but the little guy was so helpless and forelorned, Barbara and I took to feeding him scraps and goodies scrounged from the back of grocery stores in town. I hope they appreciate their digs. Bears can and will break into log cabins, they do it quite a lot actually. The Bantams nested in our flower boxes and under nearby bushes and twenty-one days later produced a new batch of chicks. Maybe it would have to be big, but then it would not be a tractor at all, it would be a big cage. Tag: bear proof chicken coop How to Protect Your Chickens By Keeping Predators Away. During the night if they sensed anything climbing the tree, they would all jump, squawking the whole way down, and then lie absolutely still and silent in the dark. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Some chicken tractor plans are painted pretty or left rustically charming! As mentioned in my ‘Bear’ posting, the voltage isn’t harmful – more of a surprise. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Despite all the advantages of chicken tractors, there are some potential problems. Put a roof on it. Bear-proof chicken coop The summer of 2004, while building my studio, Barbara and I had a brown bear cub wander onto the property and adopt us. They were excellent egg sitters and we would use them as foster mothers for the Rhode Islanders who seem to have had the brooding instinct bred out of them. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm, but I didn’t want to give him a chance either. Details. If you live in bear country, you’ll need electric wires around your chicken coop and runs, because bears can demolish sturdy structures, if the reward is a chicken dinner. 2020 Grant Recipient – Pitch & Arrow Farm. Bears, coyotes, racoons, bobcats and hawks all started to take advantage of our “food bank” but we really missed having chickens and fresh eggs so I decided to give it another go. A bear will destroy even an above-average chicken coop, and will kill and eat your chickens right there. This is my DIY bullet-proof chicken tractor. I can see it is quite tricky to have chicken tractor without regular maintenance. Thus, “the bear proof chicken coop” idea was hatched. Ample room for two chickens. Your blog looks wonderful and I look forward to reading your posts. We tried again the next spring, but then gave up and for the next two years the coop was left empty and for the first time in thirty years I didn’t have at least a few chickens around. Bury the chicken wire or hardware cloth 12 inches deep all along the run to add an additional barrier against burrowing predators. I think the biggest concern will be predators slipping under the tractor. it allows them to have fresh eggs and natural chicken on their How to predator proof your chicken coop - about, Protect from above. $1120. Since the ground isn't always flat, this is a particular concern. With a dog outside with your hens, nothing will dare approach. Steelex D2580 Swivel Heavy Duty Industrial Wheel, 6-1/4-Inch Straw goes in the nesting boxes to the right. Fifteen minutes later they would end up twenty or thirty feet off the ground. I was so sick of cheap and poorly made tractors. We have two dogs, which I think gives the predators pause. 7. Take a good look at each chicken tractor plans and designs and decide which one would work best for you depending on the size of your flock and property , …