Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Chickens from Predators

You've covered all the bases here! We border a forest and have everything from bear down to weasels. Dogs and motion lights are the two most effective for us.

Excellent information for all poultry owners who have lost, or possibly face losing a precious feathered friend.

Only thing I have to disagree with is when you said chicken wire is useless against weasels and other predators. I agree that chicken wire will not stop small snakes, or things like bears or mountain lions it is sufficient for 90% of predators. I have used it all my life and my family for as long as I can remember and longer. We have hawks, owls, eagles from above. Weasels, coyotes, raccoons, foxes, bobcats and the occasional wolf. Dogs and cats. If it's built properly it will be just as effective and much less expensive.

This is an excellent, detailed article about many different ways to protect chickens from predators. I do many of these things already for my own coop but I definitely learned a few more to incorporate for any future designs. Thanks for sharing!

Excellent article! I have ducks instead of chickens but all suggestions listed apply just the same, with exception of raising the coop off the ground. I enjoyed reading this & had a feeling of relief (and little bit of pride) being able to say to myself, "glad I did that already." My next step is the electric net because I don't even like seeing the raccoons on my camera coming by and know there's one more thing I can do to keep my babies safe and for that, I thank you for taking the time to write this.

All of these suggestions have prevented loss to a predator. This article is one of the best I've read so far!

Wonderful info. I'm new and need to learn as much as possible.

Extremely helpful! I plan on adding a roof to my run (currently only bird wire) & a motion sensor light!

WHAT ABOUT SNAKES............I HAVE HAD MY ISSUES WITH COPPERHEADS AND WATER MOCASSINS !!!!

good common sense

Wow, what a great article.
Just consider: Do I need all these protections or just a few of them? Of course this depends on you’re specific situation.
E.g. I don’t need complicated locks because we have no raccoons where I live (until now). They are an invasive species here and are shot whenever they find one. And I like the rain coming in into the run. This way its possible to grow plants in the run. Therefore I made strong netting against birds of pray / cat netting on top. Hard ware cloth would have been a better option but more expensive and less nice to look at.

Excellent!