In Praise of Poultry Staples

poultrystaple

A neighborhood chicken tragedy involving a coyote reminded me of an important coop building detail worth repeating:

Use galvanized poultry staples not staple gun staples to secure your 1/2 inch hardware cloth (and don’t use chicken wire–the gaps are so big that raccoons can reach right in and eat your poulrty through the wire). Poultry staples are nailed in with a hammer. I use a pair of needle nose pliers to hold the staple while I hammer it home. Regular staples rust and are not strong enough to keep out predators.

A last detail is to periodically inspect coops for possible weak points. I’m overdue for this. I’ve scared away a coyote twice now this year in our backyard (during the day!).

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10 Comments

    • That’s a great idea! We definitely had fewer critter problems before our doberman passed on. While he spent most of his hours relaxing on the couch, he did keep raccoons and coyotes away. Skunks not so much. I bet a llama would be even better.

  1. If any one gets one inch hardware cloth, the raccoons can still reach through. I have seen those staples, but thought they were called something else. I just put three 10 week old chicks into the chain link pen. I hope a raccoon does not reach in and get one.

    Would a heavy duty stapler work? That is what I was going to use, but I can change my plan. Actually, I was having doubts about the heavy duty stapler.

    Coyotes in the daytime? Is that normal? I thought they were nocturnal.

  2. I think times are hard for the coyotes, so we’re seeing more of them, and seeing them in less likely places. We’ve seen them in our yard very, very early in the morning, but we’ve seen them on the street later in the morning.

    I’d advise against the stapler and look for these fasteners if you want to keep the critters out.

  3. Hold them with pliers??? I feel like such an idiot. I smashed my fingers so many times….

  4. Chicken wire or poultry netting was meant for keeping chickens in, not varmints out. I have a neighbor that feeds raccoons, so I have heavier gauge 2X4 inch welded wire all over the enclosure, and and 1/2X1/2 inch welded wire 3 feet high, and both pieces splay out 2 feet underground at the bottom to discourage digging. I had to build a fortress because the raccoons use my yard to get the neighbor’s all night eatery.

    I call it ‘Hensdeep’. Sorry.

  5. Which of your cats is more likely to do a convincing Doberman imitation? Or, is the solution to make a Doberman suit that all three would wear? Then all you have to do is teach them to work in concert.

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