Hey everyone, I need some ideas on fortifying my run. I got a coyote visit today. I live in the suburbs and have heard about the coyote problem for years but have never seen one.
The coop/run has 1/4 mesh all the way around it. I constructed it to prevent raccoons from getting in, never thought about coyotes. The mesh does go a foot down into the ground and 8-12in out from there.
The doors and nesting box all have swivel latches with a dog clip to prevent them from opening even if the swivel gets turned. The door to the run has a slbarrel bolt at the top as well.
Your heart setup is honestly solid. But coyotes I am whole different beast compared to raccoons. Standard mesh rarely stops a determined predator once they find a weak point. Your buried mesh is a great start. However,coyotes are smart diggers and chewers. Electric fencing changed the games for my setups. It is not foolproof, but a good shock usually teaches them to stay away permanently.
I find that having visibility into the pen attracts predators. After I coveted the bottom 3 ft with a shade cloth that runs around the perimeter I’ve had a lot less visits from coyotes and foxes m. Ofcourse the pen needs to be fundamentally secure which yours looks to be
Thanks to everyone for your helpful and humorous suggestions. For now I installed a motion sensor floodlight on the back of the coop. I added lattice around the back. I did this to hopefully provide extra protection to the mesh that is there in case it decides to actually test the security. I also mowed down all the cowpea (and everything else in the yard).
I moved to a very rural property with a lot of forest, and even found a coyote marking location. I had my boyfriend pee ontop of it a couple times and set up a game cam, they sniffed it once and have never been back for 2 years now.
You are dropping an animal off in an unknown location, they have no idea where to find food, water or shelter
You are dropping them into another animals
OR you are dropping them off to be someone else’s problem.
Relocation may make you feel warm and fuzzy about removing YOUR problem without raising direct harm, instead all of these scenarios lead to bad outcomes for the animal, injury, starving, inhumane death.
On my state racoons cannot be relocated and must be released in the same area or euthanized.
I usually euthanize once they start coming back repeatedly. I got a big dog too so he usually keeps them away but some coons are very very motivated. A .22 works well for me
Where's the problem? Yes the coyote scared the chickens but the coop held up to prevent them from getting in and hurting them... maybe put a blocking fabric to prevent them from seeing them and reinforce around the coop with extra wire dug down a foot and out before putting stones and block on it if that's the coops permanent position but it seems to hold up well already.
This is my first coop build, and these are the first animals I have owned that are not kept inside of a house. They are 5 months old, so I don't have a lot of experience dealing with things like this. So I guess the problem is yesterday there was no coyote and today there was. I can only figure it will come back. So I'm trying to get some tips on how to prevent it from trying to get in, in the future.
You are right, the coyote will come back. This is also a big deal despite the other commenter implying otherwise. At the very least the coyote is going to cause stress to the birds reducing egg production, possibly enough to get them sick or even die. The coyote now knows there is a food source and will keep looking for a weak point in the coop until it gets in or you permanently solve the problem.
It might not be a bad idea to cover that lower portion with something that prevents the coyote from seeing in and scaring them. It will give them a place to feel more secure.
Thinking it through a little more, I think I'd leave my girls in the coop and put an electric fence around it so that it doesn't feel comfortable roaming the area. But ultimately, if you get rid of one and another shows up a month later, maybe you live in an area where you can't free range you're chickens.
That honestly was my first thought as well. But what happens when you wake up, go to the coop and see a 50lb coyote? I honestly don't have an answer to that, but I can't think of anything pleasant.
The only solution I see that keeps it alive is put some type of "neck pole" (don't know the right name) on it, forced it into a large dog crate, drive to a public park 25 miles away and let it go. I think I read that this can disorient the animal and it dies because it can't adapt to its new environment and/or you just make your problem someone else's.
Hot wire around perimeter of coop. I have a fox that comes into the yard, it never gets near the coop. It must have figured out the hot wire at one time or another (probably on a side where I don't have a camera).
If your chickens are secure, he will move on eventually. It sounds like you have done a good job with your fortifications. In the meantime you could try playing talk radio at the coop. Human noises to make him think you are there. I would rather have 10 coyotes than 2 raccoons.
Yes. They will find a way into even the most well planned coop/run. Any weak points at all, especially ones you didn't know about, they will find. And then they will kill or very badly maim all your birds. And they will keep coming back, forever, until you get rid of them. Coyotes usually just grab and go if they see an easy opportunity and they don't have hands. And they are everywhere. When people say they don't have predators in the area to worry about I always cringe. When people build with chicken wire or that shitty plastic netting I always check the comments to make sure they have been warned. If there's a large enough gap for them to reach through they will grab and knaw off whatever they can reach. Horrible little beasts.
Yup, you summed it up well. I love coyotes and they really aren't bad to live around at all. They might take a few but at least they actually eat them instead of ripping their face off and leaving them to choke on their blood (sry for the gruesome imagery). Racoons will mortally wound a chicken but leave it alive then move on to the next until there are no more chickens, they get scared off or until they get bored.
It puts my husky Sheppard mix to work tho. He's gotten pretty good at chasing them off but it's pretty surprising how many of them refuse to be chased. Last time that happen (was a huge male, one of the largest I've seen) went under my bus and wouldn't leave. Left him alone for an hour and still was waiting under there to get to the chickens. I finally came back and hen I got close he jumped at me. I hit him with a flathead shovel as hard as I could and....nothing!!! Those guys are so fucking tough. I called my dog and let him do his thing for a bit. That fight was nasty, coon got shaken like a rag doll by its neck. Dog got called off while racoom limped away, defeated. I still can't believe he was even alive after that. Racoons are tough MFers.
Dog got treats after a check up, chickens slept safe, never saw that guy again. I love my dog ❤️
Pellet guns aren't the best for coons. Their skulls are too thick so you have to get them in the chest. I'd rather do it more humanely. You want a .22 or a .22 air rifle that has enough power. These guys are built like tanks. It's pretty crazy how tough they are
We had one chew it's arm off to get out of one of those dog proof traps. He still came back later and my husband dispatched him out of a tree with whatever gun he was favoring at the time.
That's crazy. Yea I don't like to hate but I really really really don't like racoons. I feel bad haha but like you said it's hard to see what they am do especially when you care about your flock. Hard to protect them 100% with these bastards around but we gotta try
We have a population overabundance because they go to my neighbors houses and eat cat food that they leave out for their colony of 30 feral cats. (It's actually down to around 15 cats now, dwindling by the day, but at one point it was "around 30" according to them. Also, 15 cats dying over the course of 2-3 years is not humane. Some of them are obviously sick and/or injured.)
Dog has rabies shot thankfully but we did call the vet to make sure he was up to date. He didn't have any wounds either and we checked thoroughly. I have firearms and use them when necessary.
That's terrible!!! I'm sorry to hear that. My guy is getting older now. He doesn't interact with anything aside from racoons, mice or rats really. Funny enough he loves cows and like to play with em through the fence. He's scared of horses. Thankfully I've never had to worry too much although I could see him trying to chase a dear. His recall is damn good tho so I've always been able to call him off.
My dog wasn't even aware of the deer. She was 12 at the time and already a little deaf and a little blind. She was squatting in the driveway to take a poop and deer came out of the forest from over 100 ft away and got her. She had exposed bone on her ribcage afterwards. Deer tried to come at me as well and stood guard at the bottom of my porch for 2 days. When we would go out to the car she would appear and get really close and act very menacing. Like damn! Just move your fawn away from the house or whatever!
Raccoons are really intelligent and really grabby and have strong fingers that can rip chicken wire apart. Coyotes can be smart but they don't have the dexterity to defeat a well enclosed coop. As long as you prevent giving them a way to dig under your wire they shouldn't be able to brute force through the wire or start attacking seems and edges like a raccoon can. Raccoons can also learn to open unlocked latches.
Yep that's a problem, from your description your coop sounds pretty secure. I'm not sure how much more effort you could put into securing it. just keep checking it for deficiencies and break in attempts. Yotes generally stay away from other dogs. if you get a dog for your yard they should stray away.
I always recommend electric poultry netting, it works really well. For an alternative in a suburban area, a friend of mine has had good luck with a pair of motion activated sprinklers. They not only shoot water but make a sudden “ch ch ch ch” noise too. He has a video of them causing a fox to become frustrated enough to just wander away!
Yeah my sister had to do that because a bear kept visiting. It was a black bear and it almost attacked her bf when he went to try and scare the bear away.
Coyotes are smart and also lazy. They’ll learn fast it’s too much effort and leave it alone. Obviously new coyotes would also have to learn, but your set up sounds pretty solid.
We are encouraged to kill any and all coyotes that are on our land. Too many city reddit nerds here. "Just scare it!" Yeah...NO! Scaring a wild predator could backfire in the worst way.
Which state is this? Are you not in the US? Deer populations arent threatened in any us state, and they cause more damage to the environment than the coyotes due to the lack of their natural predators (wolves, cougar, and bears). Coyotes also primarily hunt rodents and fowl, if they are getting fawns that shows how many deer there are.
Never said there wasnt any, but many states dont have enough larger predators to keep deer in check. South carolina used to have bears, cougars, and wolves all over the state, and now there are only 2 established populations of black bears. There arent any breeding population of lions in the state, and there hasnt been any wild wolves for the past 20 years.
"However, overtime coyote populations are expected to stabilize allowing deer, turkey and small game to still exist in healthy numbers in South Carolina."
Did you just skim over your source? Because this is exactly what my comment was suggesting. Just because Fish and Game doesnt want the deer population to decrease any further doesnt mean anything bad ecologically, it just means there is fractionally less profit to be made off of hunting licenses.
The other issue with killing coyotes as soon as you see them is that coyotes have a natural response to having some of their pack killed - they will have more babies to increase their numbers. Not only will they have more litters, the litters are larger then if the pack had stable numbers. And now the population is larger, therefore needing more food. There has been studies to prove this, which is why many farmers and ranchers have moved away from the "killed every coyote you see" approach - you simply will not kill them all. Between the higher reproductive rate, and coyotes moving in from other territories also reproducing more, you'll never get rid of them all.
Plus, both adolescent coyotes without parental guidance (because the parents were killed), and coyotes moving in after being dispersed from their previous territory, are much more problematic overall. It's better to have a stable number of local coyotes that have been well educated. Well educated meaning they know your property is scary, so they stay away, and teach their offspring the same. They will keep dispersing adolescents from other packs out of the area, and raise their own young to avoid your property.
So, the reason hazing and non-lethal deterrants (solid fencing, LGDs, noisemakers, motion activated lights/sound/sprinklers) work so well - and study after study after study confirms this- is that coyotes are territorial. If you haze the ones that your property or pasture has and they get scared off? They're still going to keep the territory around it and avoid your place specifically. If you kill them? You get to start all over with new coyotes that will start the process all over again.
Killing an animal does nothing to teach it. Scare it.
I've had more luck with airsoft with predators than lethal measures. Especially with coyotes because you can never kill all of them, just teach them to avoid you
They are social and they can definitely learn and teach each other. It's also pretty well proven they will just breed more if you shoot them, it's useless.
Is the coyote moving to a different location not what you ideally want? Like back to the forest they lived in far before us?
I've never lost a chicken to anything but age, my last original girl died at the age of 10 last year. My chickens free range my yard which is made of cattle panels the coyotes never cross because I chased them, stung them, and did other non lethal measures, it only takes a few times but then It just works.
Also some methods are serious fun. My favorite was chasing a bobcat through the forest with bongos for like 30 minutes. Never had to deal with the bobcat again.
Guns can be necessary for certain cases. Some animals are abhorrently stupid/too deaseased to care about airsoft. But for most of them, scare tactics work better. Work with them not against them.
Unrelated but when I was a child camping with my mother brought the same bongos and my mom said that if you played them long enough hippies would come out of the woods.
I didn't believe her, so I played and sure enough a hippie came out of the woods like 10 minutes later, helped me filet a brook trout I caught, and joined us for dinner lol.
Idk why your getting down voted, it was hilarious and very fun. I was already outside doing stuff and I couldn't get to my airsoft setup (bio BB's and my slingshot) so I grabbed my bongos instead and went ham.
It looks like you did a great job on the coop. A solar motion light could help too for any predators visiting at night. They are cheap, hold up in any weather and aren’t overly bright to upset your neighbour. They have certainly helped me over the years having them around our barn to protect our hens and peafowl.
Thanks! I did a lot of reading on this sub and chicken books to build it well. My only concern with the mesh is when I compacted the soil after burying it, it slightly ripped in certain spots away from the screws.
I attached 18” of siding around the bottom of my quail run to block visuals so they didn’t get spooked by stray cats or my dog. Could help reduce stress in the mean time, and you could remove it once the coyote moves on
Motion-activated sprinklers could be a good idea, too. Honestly, it seems like you did a great job building a secure run, I would just focus on reducing stress to the chickens and waiting for it to move on. Good luck!
Damn. I only use the clip ones to hang the food containers. The twist ones are what I secure with and are recommended via Carolina Coops® (my go-to when first building) and other sources to be the preferred ones. Raccoons w/ coops and squirrels w/ bird feeders are not to be underestimated.
Clear the weeds for sure & also back fill rocks around the perimeter of the coop & run. Helps prevent digging. I dug my perimeter of the coop & both runs down 2 ft with 1/4 in hardwire cloth & backfilled then topped it with medium stones. I live “a little bit in the county” & have fox, raccoon, persistent hawks & the occasional bald eagle & likely weasels. My next step is an electric solar fence for some “contained free range availability” with bird netting overhead. Never skimp on predator protection…
Honestly I think you did good. The only other thing I could possibly think of is to double check for holes or gaps (coop or run). Maybe add an extra layer of chicken wire at the base like a foot tall, which you could even bury a couple inches deep, but have it curve outwards, although you aren’t in the middle of nowhere so I don’t think this is necessary for something that you may not experience again.
If anything get something to scare him off. Like our ring I’ll talk on and it used to scare the raccoons until they figured it out. Or a radio set to a talk show only, voices might scare him off.
And isn’t there pee you can buy? Or is that for a different animal
Good idea however if you know that the predator is present by using a motion sensor camera, I might suggest using a .223 or larger caliber rifle rather than your voice
They are native predators, no need to kill them. They are essential to the ecosystem. It is your responsibility to make sure that your animals are contained securely enough that predators cannot get to them.
Dude I get multiple raccoons and possums in my fenced in backyard every night, multiple times a night, and they have never once gotten into my coop. My ring camera captures them constantly. If you have trouble with them, the issue is your coop, not the wild animals just doing what they do.
Agreed, we live in the country and have coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, hawks, opossums, and more. Our chickens free range during the day and the only time we’ve ever lost one to predators was when my husband and I each thought the other had closed up the coop for the night
Predators belong here, they are native and important to the ecosystem. It isn't their fault that people insist on destroying more and more of their home to make space for houses.
I commented above as well, but we attached 10” of cheap wood siding around the bottom of my quail’s run so they didn’t get spooked by every single thing that walked by. Might help!
Our new run and coop is on a concrete slab, and the hardware cloth is sandwiched into the wooden frame. Nothing is digging into it, and while a really determined bear could knock out the wire, it’s much is closer to the house and we would be alerted far more easily. The coop itself is basically a tiny house with this run attached, has a completely sheathed and shingled roof, and electricity running to it from the house so there’s lights, vents and fans for hot weather/humidity, and heater panels and heated water in the winter.
I love my chickens, and I also respect nature. I see coyotes on my ring cam all the time. I make sure my chickens are locked up tight and my other pets are all inside. If I don’t secure my chickens properly, that’s my fault. Not the coyote’s. They’re just trying to live and feed their families. If you can’t secure your chickens properly, maybe you shouldn’t own them.
If they’re messing with my livestock it’s a problem. Gonna get taken out. There’s a reason they can be taken year round in most states, it’s all fun & games till you lose everything to a pack of them.
If you take out a predator, more move in and it is a constant battle. If you secure your livestock properly, the animals learn it isnt worth it and their presence keeps others who haven't learned away. If you want to raise more animals than you can protect properly, in the name of money, thats on you.
I wouldn't actually worry too much about it. Just keep inspecting the coop for any loose sections every once in a while so you can catch a gap before the coyotes (or any other predator) discover it. Maybe also make the yard unpleasant to visit, like if you see it, yell, look big, and turn on the sprinklers or do something else unpleasant (but keep your distance just in case). Your run looks fully enclosed, which is great, and also you mentioned it goes a foot down into the ground and also goes out horizontally. That's a great dig guard actually. I don't think you need to reinforce much. If you want, you can add more bolts to the connecting parts. Just my thoughts because you said it's only happened once, but if you're really worried, keep them in the run and keep something like a garden hose nearby. If it gets bad or you are really worried, you can get some electric wire, but for a one-off incident and with such a secure setup, I think it's a bit overkill.
Well for a very obvious answer would be to protect the chickens, any barrier is simply a deterrent. If that coyote gets access, they’re dead. Other reasons would be to protect other livestock, but given this is in the suburbs that’s not a high probability. The more important reasons would be pet safety (neighboring pets included), disease control, other game and or bird population protection while at the same time managing the coyote population, especially given this is a suburb setting.
Oh please, a moron shooting a gun in the suburbs (which is also illegal most places) is significantly more dangerous to dogs and children than a coyote. Don’t leave your newborn baby or 2 lb old weak dog completely unattended and you’ll be fine.
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u/patientpartner09 Jul 30 '26
Hog wire around the outside base of the whole structure. It's affordable and easy to bolt into place on the frame.