Skunks killing chickens

[McChooky]

You're right about hook and eye latches.

With my hens in their coop for the night, door locked with hook and eye latch, it's very unlikely anything will open that door. For one thing, the hook is difficult to put into or take out of the eye. Also the coop is elevated 18 inches off the ground. In addition, the coop is entirely within the run which has hardware cloth on walls and skirting.

The door to the run is also hook and eye (high up the door) which means a predator has to manipulate TWO hook and eye doors to get at the hens.

The door to the run needs improvement. At present I'm adding a concrete block at the base of the door to discourage prying it open. I need to add something like a bolt latch.

This whole set-up is within a backyard surrounded by 6 ft. high privacy fence in the middle of a neighborhood where I think every residence includes as least one dog. haha.

In 3 yrs. I've lived here, never seen or heard of raccoons in the area (desert). Saw one fox in the outskirts. I built the coop/run with foxes, coyotes, snakes, hawks, etc. in mind.

My brothers got dog kennels lined up across the street and more beside his office. They've all got dogs in them. It still takes an electric fence to keep the predators out here because we've got bob cats,coyotes and bear along with the rest. I split an order of chicks back in the spring with a friend and still have them all but my friends only got 2 left.

 

[JTHawk]

Update:
We have caught 6 SKUNKS so far! Wet dog food did the trick. Didn’t kill them, my husband released them in the mountain a couple miles away, hope they don’t make their way back… we keep covering the edge of the barn with rocks and they keep digging a new hole. We will need to either try the electric fence or the cement and wire protection this weekend. Thank you for your replies

In Wyoming, at least, it is illegal to relocate a predator. That means killing trapped skunks and raccoons.

I've also fought the predator wars. In one area where they were digging under the fence I took some old boards and ran long screws through them pretty close together, then put the boards along the base of the fence with the screw points facing out and up.

If I take the chickens back to that place I will first trench in front of the fence and bury chain link fencing three feet or so deep, then bend it over at the top and tie that into the bottom of the fence. I'm also considering digging out my old pet-safe electric fencing. It's not as strong as livestock fencing and is easier to handle. I've also thought of scraping the ground down a few inches if I find a lot of used chain link fence and laying the fence flat and covering it up. I don't know how far out from the chicken fence they will dig to try to get under it.

I feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.

My fenced area was really big, and my chicken room was solid, so my automatic chicken door meant the chickens were safe after dark, which was good because in spite of my precautions I did trap two skunks inside the fenced area and had indications that others, or coons, had also been in there. But I didn't lose chickens.