chicken cage/coop

[Tesi]

hey guys, im in the process of planning the chicken cage thing but the problem is, i live in an area where raccoons, bears and such would be a big threat to pets, just wondering what extra precautions i need to keep out sneaky, strong creatures yet let my chickens roam in a reasonably large area during the day. Id have to keep them in a chicken run but i dont think its enough to keep out the preadtors. My family are all over me and telling me that theyll die soon after i get them :evil: theyre really mean. :x

[lovemychooks]

When we built our chicken coop and run, we bought a large bird aviary and put a concrete pad under that and also ran concrete rat walls all the way round the entire run. My hubbie went a little overboard as the ratwalls are about 9 inches wide by 3 feet deep - took a lot of concrete and then we used strong fencing wire on the run covered by a strong fine chicken mesh. We took these precautions because we have a german shepherd dog who would be determined to get in and also because there are wild dogs and foxes in our area. Hope this helps :)

[nuthatchinator]

We used hogwire instead of chicken wire, and the latches are hard to open.

http://mountainnut.com/page.aspx?353