You wouldn’t believe it, but I lost ten hens to raccoons when they were foraging in the backyard in the very first year of homesteading.
I disliked roosters and had not installed any security other than a coop, and I didn’t have news about the predators in the area.
Today, I’m a more experienced keeper and try everything possible to protect my chickens from predators. If you haven’t planned yet, find something that best suits your bird flocks.
1. Build a Predator-Proof Chicken Coop
The coop serves as the first line of defense, providing a safe place to sleep and nest for the flock. So, coop security must be the top priority.
Use solid wall or 1/2″ or 1/4″ hardware cloth mesh for your coop instead of chicken wire. Predators (foxes, dogs, coyotes) can easily rip through chicken wire.
Also, a few predators, such as minks and weasels, are super agile and fast as lightning, which can get into the smallest spaces. So, hardware cloth works much better than chicken wire.
Once, I made a mistake of putting sheets of styrofoam insulation along the top of the coop to keep my birds warm. A mink came there and slept during the whole day, and came down at night to hunt my hens.
Set up in a way that prevents animals from digging.
Bend the bottom 12″ of the mesh in such a way that it lies flat on the ground all around the perimeter of the coop. Then, bury fencing 1–2 feet underground.
You need to add secure locks or carabiners to doors/latches. Raccoons are skilled at opening simple latches.
Also, the loose dirt floor can invite reptiles (snakes) or rodents, so you can elevate the coop at least 1 foot off the ground.
2. Install Secure Fencing Around the Run
How do you raise your chickens? Free range or enclosed run?
Both have benefits for birds. When you allow free range, you won’t worry about chicken feed. But at the same time, they can be at risk of being chased down by the predators outdoors.
The run provides some relief to the keeper with a netting fence, which can prevent predators from accessing the birds.
So, the fencing around the run must be reliable. Use welded wire or hardware cloth (not flimsy mesh) and avoid using chicken wire.
Chicken wire keeps the chicken in, but it can’t keep predators like foxes or coyotes out.
If large predators, such as coyotes or bears, are common in your region, consider using electric wire fencing in the free range area.
This can deter climbers, bears, foxes, and coons.
I recommend you install the fence at least 6 feet high. You can start with five strands of electric wire and make sure the lowest strand is six inches or less from the ground so outdoor animals cannot dig under it.
The usual recommendation is a fence 6 to 7 feet high. The recommendation goes down a foot if you use electric wire. Just make sure the lowest strand is six inches or less from the ground, so they can’t dig under it.
Additionally, you can consider a double-layer fence, featuring a physical barrier on the inside and electric fencing on the outside for additional security.
3. Add a Secure Coop Door (Automatic if Possible)
If you want to free-range your birds for a long time, they need to roam around.
For this, you need to allow the flock to the pasture area during the day and lock them in the coop at night. And here comes the problem.
Many keepers forget to close the door at night, resulting in the loss of a large number of the flock the next morning.
Several predators, like foxes, hunt from sundown until mid-morning, so a wooden door with a solid lock is needed.
If you are using a manual locking door, use predator-proof latches (not simple sliding bolts that raccoons can open).
Pick resistance doesn’t matter here because coyotes have paws to unlock it, so you will need to get a weather-proof master lock.
Besides, you can use an automatic door, which opens at daybreak and closes before nightfall. You can use a linear actuator to control the door’s up and down movement based on ambient light levels, and minimize the risk.
The metal automatic coop doors with timers or light sensors are very effective. You can install it in the coop or nesting area.
And solar-powered door on the coop is more sustainable.
4. Cover the Chicken Run with Netting or Wire
When the sky is open, aerial predators like hawks, eagles, and owls become more harmful than ground dwellers.
They can hide under vehicles, low shrubs or bushes, a coop, a trailer, a trampoline, makeshift shelters, and boxes. If you’ve already lost one to them, your chicken will be more alert the next time one is lurking around.
So, keepers need to provide some sort of secure roofing for the run.
I like aviary netting. If the snow is real for you or bothers you, you need to place rafters and columns to support the roofing. The snow will rip the netting down without proper support.
To add a secure top cover, you can use chain link, hardware cloth, or shade cloth. And keep it off the sun.
5. Use Guardian Animals for Protection
The rooster around the flock can’t be good enough to defend against predators.
So, you’ll need a decent guard animal around, which can alert, scare off, and even eliminate the chicken enemies.
You can have multiple options as natural animal protectors, such as geese, donkeys, llamas, and livestock dogs.
The geese are suitable for loud alarms and territorial defense, while donkeys and llamas are effective against coyotes and foxes. Notably, donkeys have a long-standing feud with coyotes and can go against catamounts.
The most reliable one is livestock guardian dogs.
The Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherd, and Maremma are some notable breeds known for chasing away small and mid-sized predators, such as raccoons, coyotes, and cats.
Sometimes, they can get even bigger predators.
They are not ordinary dogs but are meant to live outside and roam around the livestock and property.
Donkeys and all non-canine guard animals don’t attack the predators unless they are provoked or made aggressive. And farm dogs require training (hunting training) to perform their tasks effectively.
6. Add Motion Sensors, Lights, and Alarms
Predators such as owls and raccoons are often nocturnal and are scared off by light and sound.
So, you can use tripwires with bells around the fences to secure your chickens. For an advanced solution, you can set up motion-detect alarms (with specific cameras).
Motion detectors come with features, such as lights or sound.
Place a solar-powered motion light around the coop. For light, consider predator deterrent lights, especially those with red blinking lights, which mimic the eyes of predators at night.
As it is a solar-backed device, you don’t need to pay the electricity bill.
The light only stays on for about 45 seconds, but it’s enough to make critters uncomfortable and leave. Additionally, a pair of motion lights resembles large eyeballs.
Having been around the outside of the coop can really deter nighttime predators.
The following options can be motion-activated sprinklers or alarms. The water sprayer works well to deter animals from hurting the chickens and doesn’t harm anyone if it is triggered by accident.
Also, Motion sensor noise produces a ring, music, or an alarm that can be a stopgap till you can figure things out.
If you want to install a camera, consider trail cameras to identify problem predators.
7. Practice Safe Free-Range Management
If you’re only raising batches of meat chickens that you harvest the second they reach market weight, you might need to withhold the feel-good natural chicken tractor.
Chickens love roaming, but free-ranging comes with more risk.
So, having a chicken tractor is more secure than stationary runs, where predators can locate the region for the day at least.
Tractors are designed to keep the coop moving and allow the birds to fertilize, aerate, and access fresh food sources. The birds inside the tractor are safer than having no coverage at all.
When transforming chickens into a mobile tractor, you need to take care of the layers.
While a small tractor can pull a lawn mower to clean the meadow, the larger tractors easily hold nest boxes and perches.
I recommend you build a skirt for your chicken tractor. For this, you can use 1/2″ hardware cloth or 12″ wide wood frames made from 1×2 cedar planks.
This helps prevent predators from digging under your tractor.
Also, make sure you latch the door or walls of your tractor. Don’t rely on gravity or luck to hold your chickens closed.
Chicken tractors offer supervised free-ranging, and you can let them out when you’re around. In your absence, you can assign your farm dogs.
Also, provide overhead cover such as trees, tarps, or netting to protect against hawks.
8. Eliminate Attractants and Secure Feed
Sometimes, food leftovers around the coop attract predators. (The food chickens never fail to pick, but sometimes it happens, when transporting or in such incidents.)
So, don’t leave feed outside overnight, which can attract raccoons, rats, and opossums.
Also, spoiled feed from sacks or easily tearable packets of feed is more than a treasure for rodents. So, you need to store feed in metal bins or thick-coated containers with tight lids.
Chickens and eggs are easy targets for snakes and skunks. So, you need to collect eggs daily.
Here, skunks are real opportunists, but they dislike certain odors. You can make homemade repellents using castor oil, cat litter, and citrus peels to repel skunks.
Keep compost secure, as some predators scavenge there.
Besides, don’t throw kitchen scraps or food leftovers around the chicken coop.
9. Maintain a Clean Coop and Surroundings
Predators often create hiding places around tall grass, brush, and woodpiles. They wait until chickens and other homestead birds come there.
Many times, chickens encounter snakes and weasels hiding in the grass.
Therefore, the coop and run should be free from growing grass and vegetation.
Also, there should be a clear and clean free-range area.
For this, you need to mow the meadow, trim vegetation, clear hiding spots, and keep the surroundings tidy. The space should be visible with the boundary and fence until privacy fences are installed.
Also, clean the coop regularly to avoid rodents, which attract larger predators like cats and others.
Final Thoughts
Many chicken predators can climb very well or jump very high, such as mice, rats, fishers, bobcats, weasels, mink, raccoons, foxes, and coyotes.
And aviaries such as hawks, eagles, osprey, and owls fly down to the chickens.
Therefore, you may need to install one or multiple security measures (oftentimes) to protect your chickens from predators.
For example, locking your chickens up at night in the coop, using an electric fence, and assigning a big guard dog can be reasonable solutions. Individual, and if not, combined.
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