geez,thats awful for you...we have coyotes and raccoons ect but no bobcats. I would imagine that you're idea would be sufficient..make sure the bottom is wired too...there's no stopping a predator that's already attacked and succeeded usually,but your idea a frame sounds good.

good luck to you...I feel for you :(

My son & I just built a chicken coop we thought was predator proof. Sounds just like the one you are considering. They have only been outside one week. Last night something came in and killed them all. Just ate the heads off all the chickens. We have standard chicken wire & we thought no gaps anywhere. Chicken wire even in the hen house. We think it is maybe a weasel. Don't know what we did wrong. No spaces I can find anywhere. Do they get through standard chicken wire? Is there such a thing as a predator safe coop. My 9 year old son is devastated. I also want to build this "predator safe" coop. If you make it give me some info when you are done. Good luck.

WE live on seven acres have a coop off the ground only a small entrance hatch with ramp everythings been great for months, then this morning our rooster who was over two feet high and super mean was found this morning without his head. the entrance is too small for coyotes to get in and out of.. could it be weasels? and how do we prevent this?

If you leave the hatch open at night you might as well be ringing the dinner bell. All kinds of critters love a chicken dinner. :(

I'd guess a skunk, weasel, raccoon, possum, etc. Chickens need to be VERY securely, 100% enclosed at night when they are most vulnerable. Our coop/run is made from hardware cloth, NEVER use chicken wire (poiltry netting). Chicken wire is to keep chickens out of a garden, not to keep predators away from your birds.

Velvet ~:>

I'm living in my new house (actually an old farmhouse) which has a chicken house behind the garage. Everyone that comes by to visit gushes about chickens and asks when I will be getting some hens. I've learned the hard way not to put anything tasty outside without an extreme predator proof coop. Meat eating animals have nothing else to do except figure out a way into a coop. They will chew on chicken wire for weeks to get in. You can't just patch it and walk away. Since I can't see your coop I have no way of knowing if it is built predator proof but I can tell you that losing an entire flock is something every chicken owner goes through at least once.

Don't be surprised if the bobcat turns out to be a feral housecat. When I used to live way out in the sticks, stray dogs and feral cats were my biggest problems.

Velvet Sparrow said it best. Lock your chickens up at night. During the day all my chickens are in a enclosed pen (top bottom and sides). At night everybody goes into our chicken barn and are locked up. I used to let our chickens free-range during the day until the chickens were fussing one day and I walked up to the coop and came face to face with a coyote. Bugger ran off before I could get my gun and shoot him. Alerted the neighbors and a couple of them were able to take a couple of shots at him. Haven't seen him since but......................Needless to say the chicken don't free range anymore!

No, not all chicken owners have lost their entire flock to predators....

We have 2 means of keeping our chickens safe. The first is livestock guardian dogs that keep all our animals safe including chickens and ducks. Of course this means the dogs have to have access to the birds, meaning wing clipping would be appropriate for free rangers.

Our chicken coop is predator proof, 'cept maybe a bear if one had the notion. It has a cement floor, 2 windows with both 1x2 welded wire & hardcloth 1/2x1/2 wire. The entrance exterior door (for inclement weather) is solid wood, the interior entrance door (for nice weather) is wood frame, with cross-braces and hardwire 1/2x1/2 wire. This wire has been inplace for at least 15 years probably much more. There is evidence something has tried to get in, but has not succeeded as it is stapled well, and the cross braces on each corner & across the center keep it from being pushed in. Works extremely well.

Your A-frame sounds wonderful, given a proper floor, but I think I would opt for a design that would utilize the sidewalls better as the bottom corners would be unuseable on an A-Frame unless it was on a high base.

Just a thought.

Brendasue

I would like to see more concern for the predators... for example, how many critters must die a painful death in a leg snare, including cats, to justify a chicken dinner.... Come on people...build that chicken coop like YOUR life depends on it, especially if you are taking on the responsibility of life and death.

None of our vicious predators suffer, only the chickens suffered from being torn apart while alive. There is absolutely no aggression on our part against the predators, no leg snares, etc. Only a gentle, lonely surviving chicken remains who lost her siblings to a painful death thanks to a raccoon, and later, a bear. Kudos to my son who perfected the 'fortress' in which she lives within a fenced enclosure.

I have just finished rebuilding my entire run and coop. Coop has concrete floor, concrete between the studs for 1 foot up, new fencing with posts concreted in and will now bury a wire skirt 1 foot around. Plus, the entire run is covered with welded wire. run is 25 X 35 feet, with 6 foot walls and covered with welded stucco wire. There are also two motion lights that face the neighbouring woods. We have problems with racoons, mink, bears, and even cougars. I have shot more racoons than anything as we live on a river. This fall a mink chewed through from a greenhouse and killed all my layers...thus, the rebuild job.

One suggestion: I bait a live trap often. I catch racoons in them, usually. You can either relocate the coons or shoot them. Careful, many racoons carry rabies.

paul_stahnke, how do you use the motion lights? Is the purpose to startle predators, and does it work?

We researched motion lights last week, and I wasn't sure if it will work. Our problem is bears and raccoons. We're planning to set up a second heavy steel cage with a coop within for a new flock, but we're keeping both mobile.

It sounds like you've built an impregnable chicken vault! Quite impressive. :)

All birds killed, it's either racoon, weasel or dog. Everything else will grab one bird and glut or take it away.

My chicken coop is a 15x20' building. Around that is 10'x6' dog kennel panels. Before putting the pannels up I layed down 4' chicken wire on the ground so there is 2' on the inside and outside. That stops the diggers. a strand of electric fence along the outside at the top stops the climbers (if you don't have electricity to your coop use a solar unit). I also have a rather nasty pair of geese.

raccoons do not eat chickens, they only bite the heads off.

Raccoons are omnivores. They will eat chickens. Granted, they do not usually consume the whole bird. They seem to go for the crop and heads. They don't just stop at one bird but will decimate the whole flock.

Our henhouse is part of a tractor/feed barn, the hen house part is 12x16 and the runs 10x20 the house is made out of siding with 3 windows, we took off the regular screens and put rabbit wire over them on the outside, it has a metal entrance door to the house and a metal entry door outside to the run, we keep them both closed, and the chickens use a doggie door to go in and out of, and the run is made out of goat panels covered in the small size chicken wire from top to bottom we dug trenches around the perimeter and put tin in, so if somthing wanted to dig in it would be a chore, plus we have 4 goat dogs in close proximity to the hen house, so far no varmints except mice and a chicken snake, and we can add onto the run as needed...free rangers wouldn't have much of a chance around here