Official BYC Poll: How Do You Protect Your Chickens From Predators?

[Animalfisherwoman]

In addition to what's listed, i use welded wire kennels and coops wrapped in chicken wire for runs around my coops so that predators can't reach in and grab a bird, plant mint and use peppermint oil soaked paper towels as a rodent deterrent (raccoons are rodents) when I see them sniffing around on my game cam, spray anything with bear spray when I catch them out back and keep the runs near my bedroom window so I can hear my birds at night if they're being bothered.

Not an actual rodent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon

But the bear spray is intriguing. Did this get them to go away?

 

[VirginiaFarmerGirl]

Not only is my dog a bird Guardian but he also helps with moving them form the coop to the run

 

[itsasmallfarm]

i think the best thing is a good defense, i use hard ware cloth, electric fence, covered roof and buried the wire 2 feet out from the bottom.

i also trap weasels, coons and mink that try to get in.

 

[MomJones]

I just bought a realistic looking mannequin to keep away the hawk that recently attacked.View attachment 2517668

This is too awesome!

 

[MomJones]

Down here in South Carolina it's rats, snakes and hawks. The first couple of years we killed every snake-- rat snakes, timber rattlesnake, copperheads. But the most frequent visitors were rat snakes. We learned about running cheap bird netting all along the base of the coop and run and soon we were catching rat snakes frequently. With them gone, the rats were free to come in and steal baby chicks right out from underneath the mother. Horrifying! So now we're learning to live with the rat snakes-- the venomous rattlers aren't that plentiful but when one does show up, it's dead (sorry).

Moral of the story: we need to protect our girls from rats first. The snakes aren't really a problem, we've decided. Photo shows a medium sized rat snake after I removed the bird netting from him.

 

[argosnikki]

Not an actual rodent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon

But the bear spray is intriguing. Did this get them to go away?

Thank you. I have always understood that they were!

With the bear spray, yes. Wear a mask and safety goggles while doing this in case the wind shifts direction. I spray toward the offenders if I catch them in my yard which is really effective. They hate the smell. I must be some kind of weird giant skunk to them. I've driven off entire raccoon families. Chili oil spray works well for the ground around an enclosure as well. I'm obsessed with natural repellants. I accidentally spilled peppermint oil in my basement once and didn't have any rodent activity for months. I use garlic spray to keep carpenter bees away from my porch and citronella plants for mosquitoes. Some people can't stand some of these odors but I'm fine with all of it.

 

[argosnikki]

Down here in South Carolina it's rats, snakes and hawks. The first couple of years we killed every snake-- rat snakes, timber rattlesnake, copperheads. But the most frequent visitors were rat snakes. We learned about running cheap bird netting all along the base of the coop and run and soon we were catching rat snakes frequently. With them gone, the rats were free to come in and steal baby chicks right out from underneath the mother. Horrifying! So now we're learning to live with the rat snakes-- the venomous rattlers aren't that plentiful but when one does show up, it's dead (sorry).

Moral of the story: we need to protect our girls from rats first. The snakes aren't really a problem, we've decided. Photo shows a medium sized rat snake after I removed the bird netting from him.

We had the same problem when my mother in law killed all of the snakes on the property. She could not stand them. I kept trying to move them away from the house but we eventually did wind up with a rodent problem. She has since passed and our gopher and garter snakes are coming back but it's slow going.

 

[SentryFE]

 

[SentryFE]

Have not lost chick in 6 years

 

[chickencoop57]

I have a 4'x8' enclosed coop and after the chickens go in for the night, I shut the trap door and nothing can get into it. I also have a partial run that has hardware cloth wire all around it and a skylite roof, in case they need to make a quick dash in it for protection, but other than that, I havent seen many predators, other than a red fox and a couple of chicken hawks, in the past 2 years.