Predator proofing

Ever since Ash's demise, we've been on a mission to predator proof the chicken runs as much as possible. For us, this meant fully enclosing the run. We had two choices, use bird netting over the top or chicken mesh. As we had no idea what took Ash, we decided on the the mesh.



I asked on the local chicken forums in Adelaide what could possibly have attached Ash, and the answers were mainly fox or cat. Foxes apparently do like to bite the heads off chickens, it is a bit of their calling card and that was the first thought that came into our head when we found her. What is unusual for a fox is that the other birds were left alone. Apparently, if foxes can get one, they try and get all of the others. Feral cats, or owner's pet cats have also been an issue with chicken owners, with one person reporting that a cat managed to kill 30 of her chickens in one day!

Inspection of our fencing didn't show any signs of animal entry. There is rubble at the base of the fence, and none of it was disturbed, meaning something got over the fence. The top of our fence is rather loose and our weldmesh fence has small openings, making it quite hard for a big animal to climb. I wouldn't put it past a cat being able to climb our fence, but there was no bending of the fence at the top. Unless it was a small cat, which makes sense for it to attack the smallest chicken.

The only other alternative would be a bird of prey. In the past few days, I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of wedge tailed eagles. Yup, those massive eagles with a 2m wingspan! But again, I'm ruling this out as such a big bird would have taken Ash out of the run, not leave it. And I think the wedgies like to hunt in a bit more open environment. That leaves owls (no as the attack happened during the day) and smaller birds of prey such as kites and hawks. These make more sense as they would have had trouble carrying out a body. Needless to say, fully enclosing the run was the only option that would give us peace of mind. In case it was a cat or a fox, a metal roof would prevent them from chewing through it.

So our plan included buying 1.8m x 30m of chicken wire for $80 a roll and 2.4m high timber posts ($14 per log) which are to be used as the central columns holding up the mesh. To provide guides for the mesh, we just used 13mm poly pipe leftover from the irrigation system.

I estimate to complete both Penguin and Buffy's run, it would be $400. Not bad for peace of mind.

In the meantime, we have a small fox trap. Baited with a dead pigeon we found and some cat food. No luck with this so far. It's been a week and no interest so far and the pigeon is starting to stink to high heaven.

And here is Penguin's run all covered. Made harder by the blasted apple tree.

 Mesh was suspended over the tree using the poles and tubing as support and guide. The tree needed a trim anyway.

I hope Penguin appreciates all our efforts. He didn't get as many cuddles as usual these few weeks as we were busy putting the netting up.

Penguin says "buk buk!" (night night!)