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>loitered around the coop when I replaced them and strenghtened the structure of the coop. How does one bear-proof a chicken coop? I once saw a port-o-potty t

>loitered around the coop when I replaced them and strenghtened the structure of the coop. How does one bear-proof a chicken coop? I once saw a port-o-potty that was literally torn in half down the middle. It looked like a car after an accident. When I asked the ranger what happened to it she told me that a bear cub had fallen in and the mother bear just ripped the thing open like a cardboard box to let her baby out. In other words, seems to me like a sufficiently determined bear could probably make quick work of anything short of a bank vault no?

gascan 8y ago
What kind of bear/where in the country was this? It's grizzlies & kodiaks that you'd want for breaking into bank vaults. Black bears are comparatively a little less adept at the whole can-opener thing, though I'm not surprised a portapotty (aka plastic box) didn't stop a bear, regardless of breed.
- j-c-hewitt 8y ago
  Black bears are pretty small for the most part. Athletic, but on the smaller side.
kingbirdy 8y ago
Good lumber should do the trick just fine - a couple inches of wood will do a much better job stopping claws than the 1/8" plastic that port-a-potties are made of
j-c-hewitt 8y ago
My chicken coop is not a great example coop. It's a shed the previous homeowners converted into a small coop. In round 2 of reinforcement that has lasted for two years without incident I used heavy 2x4s drilled into the wall to cover the hatch that used to be there. Round 1 I used some thin plywood to cover the hatch that the previous homeowners had installed. That was destroyed by a bear (and before people ask I used a night wildlife camera to see what was happening). The guy just ripped it off. They have not bothered the heavier duty reinforcement. Other people in the area have had bears kill chickens but the highest kill count I have heard about came from minks, which was over 2 dozen in one night. Apparently at some point in the past someone was trying to run a fur farm with minks, and when they went belly up they released all of them into the woods. Minks and similar small predators are really effective at breaking into buildings and killing helpless/dumb creatures. Black bears are tiny dudes compared to grizzlies. They are pretty strong and very athletic, but they are not huge dangers to people unless you do something really stupid. They are more hazardous to livestock, dogs, and property. Deer and moose are more actively hazardous to people and far more numerous because they don't really understand the whole concept of looking both ways before crossing the road.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
  This is surprisingly only the second time I've heard of minks going after chickens. The first was when I was commiserating with a cashier at Tractor Supply after my neighbor's dogs found a weak spot in the fence around my coop and killed all but one of the flock. The cashier had lost one chicken a night to a mysterious predator that he finally tracked down. It turned out to be be a mink living in a hollow tree.
HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
How does one bear-proof a chicken coop? My feelings exactly. I thought it was bad enough having to guard against racoons, possums and the occasional pack of dogs breaking into my chicken coop. Bears? Would be like Game Over, Man!

gascan 8y ago

What kind of bear/where in the country was this? It's grizzlies & kodiaks that you'd want for breaking into bank vaults. Black bears are comparatively a little less adept at the whole can-opener thing, though I'm not surprised a portapotty (aka plastic box) didn't stop a bear, regardless of breed.

j-c-hewitt 8y ago
Black bears are pretty small for the most part. Athletic, but on the smaller side.

kingbirdy 8y ago

Good lumber should do the trick just fine - a couple inches of wood will do a much better job stopping claws than the 1/8" plastic that port-a-potties are made of

j-c-hewitt 8y ago

My chicken coop is not a great example coop. It's a shed the previous homeowners converted into a small coop. In round 2 of reinforcement that has lasted for two years without incident I used heavy 2x4s drilled into the wall to cover the hatch that used to be there. Round 1 I used some thin plywood to cover the hatch that the previous homeowners had installed. That was destroyed by a bear (and before people ask I used a night wildlife camera to see what was happening). The guy just ripped it off. They have not bothered the heavier duty reinforcement. Other people in the area have had bears kill chickens but the highest kill count I have heard about came from minks, which was over 2 dozen in one night. Apparently at some point in the past someone was trying to run a fur farm with minks, and when they went belly up they released all of them into the woods. Minks and similar small predators are really effective at breaking into buildings and killing helpless/dumb creatures. Black bears are tiny dudes compared to grizzlies. They are pretty strong and very athletic, but they are not huge dangers to people unless you do something really stupid. They are more hazardous to livestock, dogs, and property. Deer and moose are more actively hazardous to people and far more numerous because they don't really understand the whole concept of looking both ways before crossing the road.

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
This is surprisingly only the second time I've heard of minks going after chickens. The first was when I was commiserating with a cashier at Tractor Supply after my neighbor's dogs found a weak spot in the fence around my coop and killed all but one of the flock. The cashier had lost one chicken a night to a mysterious predator that he finally tracked down. It turned out to be be a mink living in a hollow tree.

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

How does one bear-proof a chicken coop? My feelings exactly. I thought it was bad enough having to guard against racoons, possums and the occasional pack of dogs breaking into my chicken coop. Bears? Would be like Game Over, Man!