Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Predator Proofing

This weekend I worked on predator proofing my chicken coop foundation. This may not seem like a  big deal but it turns out anything will eat a chicken. Rats, dogs, raccoon, hawks etc. Not only do you have to make sure that every crack is sealed but you need to make sure that nothing can dig under ground and make tunnels into the outside part of the chicken coop. If an animal dug a tunnel and then came up through the bottom of the coop they could very easily eat a couple chickens for dinner and then scurry off. I decided, in an effort to prevent this from happening, that I would make a predator proof foundation. First I dug a hole the same size as the chicken coop that was 12 inches deep. I then leveled the bottoms and sides and laid rat wire on the bottom. I then laid cinder blocks around the edges and filled in back up with dirt. This involved a lot of physical labor and took over 8 hours to complete. But, by designing it this way it will hopefully make sure that no predator can find its way in to feast on cute little chicken morsels.
Leveling the foundation


The foundation before we put the dirt back in 

We dug up 40 square feet of dirt!

I had a little problem when filling the foundation back up with dirt! 

Next weekend (November 9th) I will be visiting Faith Farms and this Saturday I will be visiting the farmers marker. Stay tuned for posts about those and more pictures and updates about my own urban farm. 




















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