What I have found is that you can not consistently protect your fowl using a single line of defense, especially when they are exposed to environment in some way. Dogs help with many mobile predators but predators can get in and out before dog can get there. Fences can be pretty good against dogs going after livestock but a LGD can make the fence a much more respectable barrier to parties able to get past it otherwise. Good roosting accommodations can afford a measure of protection at night from mammalian predators and sometimes even owls. Cover and refuges can help during daylight where poultry have some ability to evade predators. Best option for me is a combination of methods with realization no single one is fool proof. The discussion here has been restricted to predators but sometimes the protection measures themselves can threaten birds. You LGD can sometimes be a threat, fences may actually promote birds from going beyond protective range of otherwise effective LGD, roosting arrangements may cause heat or cold stress, refuges / cover may also help some predators do there thing, or protection measures simply cost too much. There is no perfect system and some level of loss is to be expected. Sometimes loss is not in birds, but rather in cost to prevent losses which can very often exceed every other cost associated with keeping birds.
