Okay adventures in predator proofing
Some critters will dig under… so I learned to put bricks around pens… best is brick floor at least where house is… buggers can’t dig in anymore!
Fencing… yep the critters looking for take out can reach through chain link or even chicken wire and pull sleeping chicken heads through and chomp decapitated chickens… prevents critters (including chicks) squeezing in and out. I always have chickens that hate houses… so they are the most vulnerable to this sort of thing.
Boards, wood, metal, what ever closer to ground level so it’s a wall along side of fencing, additional smaller wire. Put Perches in the middle of the pen, do not run side to side connecting to fencing… instead put it between two something’s (bricks, wood logs, milk crates)… you want the perches away from sides so again chicken head does not get pulled through while they sleep.
Housing, if this is part of the defense, doors that can be closed after they roost in house… tighter closure the better… rats and snakes only need an inch clearance. Bigger things can get in. I thought we where good but most recently a raccoon proved he could unlatch the door got in and killed a lot of my birds! He trapped himself (door latched behind him) but he wiped out our whole breeding program… we are having to start over.
Hawks and Owls, death from above… so be aware of them… and they are bold enough to land outside a coop or house that is covered but door open and walk in the door (seen video footage of them doing it). I know they will land in my yard and try to trick any free ranging chickens into coming out of hiding.
Dogs will climb over fences not just dig under, had that happen a few times… watched the dog do it.
People… in 2021 the media here had the suburbanites all worked up over food supply issues with Egg and Meat. I came home from work one day to discover most of our flock stollen, only our most antisocial (might actually attack a stranger), flighty, panicky birds where left… They stole my beloved first hens from when I could finally start keeping chickens again, the EEs in my my profile picture, we had them for a very long time. Locks on outside gates to larger yard now… I put screening up and then grew vines on the side of the big enclosed chicken area that can be seen from street… camouflaging where my coops and houses are is now a thing making them look like garden not chickens…
I hope something here is useful… I am building new steel pens this spring.
