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

[Rangergord]

I have foxes, hawks, Ravens, weasels, bears, and dogs BUT it is too cold for Raccoons Yay! I use chicken tractors and fencing to protect my food forest from the chickens, which has protected them from predators. No losses ever over several years now. Also I don’t eat chickens so if someone else does, well I don’t want to run a retirement home so I won’t worry if it happens once in a while. I have a fox checking out my new coop right now but there is a fence and a locked door that is causing him problems.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

In addition to the above, we have a large Embden gander named Tony as our guard goose. I like to call him Fat Tony as he’s got a sweet personality and his gentle with his large mixed flock. But there’s no question who’s the top dog. Even our psycho black Orpington rooster Lamar doesn’t screw with Fat Tony. Lamar does have a go at us though occasionally. We keep Lamar because of predators. Tony is more of a pet than anything else but is an excellent lookout and only aggressive if he thinks there’s a danger or predator. I had a plastic hawk scarecrow I placed to keep some wild birds from eating some clover seeds. Tony sounded the alarm and flew down to deal with it. I hid it before he got to destroy it. I cannot stress how valuable geese are as guards and s’s protective animals. We also buried steel hardware cloth all around the coops and run two feet out in all directions to deter burrowing predators. Our coop door is steel and we put hardware cloth in frames around the screen in the windows. Because we have every predator up here but bears. We have: cougars, raccoons, weasels, foxes, hawks, owls, rats, bobcats, ravens and probably a few more. I attached a picture of Fat Tony on a trip to Mountain Farm Supply in Ben Lomond California. He’s a regular there and loves the drive. Tonight there were families with kids there getting Christmas trees and Tony enjoyed all the petting and attention.

 

[Boomerwaffen]

thought i would post a picture since we are adding a second 10 x 10 run. It is zip tied to the bottom of the fence and pole

Not sure where you’re at but you might want to upgrade your chicken wire to hardware cloth. Lots of predators can defeat chicken wire. Especially the digging variety. A fox defeated our friend’s chicken wire and promptly murdered all their chickens. Foxes can climb as can raccoons. We are in the Santa Cruz Mountains and have everything up here but bears.

 

[BDutch]

That's wonderful

It worked for many years but… A few months later a fox entered the run before sunrise. He/she got up the coop an has bitten through the rope that attached the netting. The fox could get into run that way, but couldn’t get out again. Luckily I heard stange noises from the hen house and checked wat was happening. The fox only killed one hen who probably was the first who got out the coop through the pop door.
To enforce the run more HWC is applied.

 

[PeepOverlord]

Coyotes attacked twice this year, I have cattle around my property. The first time they took a huge piece of skin from my dogs leg (took more than 2 months to heal!) and the second time they killed a bunch of chicken. So I had to fence with cyclon and put blocks under so they couldn't dig. What a problem, they eat EVERYTHING - except for ducks for some reason they don't like them - and they have no predators.

#1 coyote predator are farmers/ranchers. I'm rly sorry about your poor dog. If possible, consider multiple dogs and some motion perimeter alarms (and a .22 rifle). Electric fence units have gotten ridiculous expensive. Coyotes usually need to pack up to be brave enough to go after a dog or domestic cat. They prefer defenseless prey. They're cowards.

 

[GunnyBun]

I chose covered run, fenced in area, and guard roosters. I also chose other because we keep the opossums away by regular trapping, also raccoons. We haven’t had a problem with coyotes, but if the chickens are free ranging then sometimes our dog will get off of his line and might kill one, but most of the time not because we can normally catch him before he does too much damage.

 

[GeeseMama]

I have scarecrows in use around the pen. They're are landscaping blocks around the outside and inside of the fences just in case a rodent decides to bore a hole. Makes it a lot harder. Have only had one hole so far. Mink love rodent holes. And we have tons of mink unfortunately

 

[nasber32]

I live in a relatively urban area. My biggest threats are raccoons, Turkey Vultures, and the occasional hawk, fox, and during mating season coyotes. My coop is elevated so no snakes, or critters can get through. I installed hardware cloth all the way around the run, + on the windows that open. I have light sensors that flash when its dark to prevent nocturnal predators like coyotes or raccoons. Proper latches for all major entrances to the coop to stop those grabby raccoon hands. Bushes for the hens to hide in when there are predators in the sky.

 

[Magic man]

Predators are one of the greatest fears a chicken farmer has. They can be cunning, fast, and very sneaky. Your chickens will be drawing in predators from the next county over! Well, maybe not that far, however somewhere back in these predators' ancient memories they have eaten wild chickens at some point and will come snooping around for a meal day and night. So keeping them safe from predators should be on every chicken keeper's top priority list.

How Do You Protect Your Chickens From Predators? Place your votes above (you may select more than one)

Feel free to share any other ways you keep your chickens safe in the comments section below.

View attachment 2517029

Further Reading:

Top 10 Chicken Predators
A Checklist To Avoiding Casualties In The Flock
Predators & Pests

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

I have a fence in yard and my chicken are in a 50 x 15 enclosed and chicken wire on half the top and net on the other it’s a open coop where they lay on top of my little chick coop until the grow old enough to put with the big hens very carefully lol hens can be bitches too lol but they perch 10 feet up and only if you fly you can’t get on lol but I stand a good possum is a dead possum!!

 

[Jason Bourne III]

Predators are one of the greatest fears a chicken farmer has. They can be cunning, fast, and very sneaky. Your chickens will be drawing in predators from the next county over! Well, maybe not that far, however somewhere back in these predators' ancient memories they have eaten wild chickens at some point and will come snooping around for a meal day and night. So keeping them safe from predators should be on every chicken keeper's top priority list.

How Do You Protect Your Chickens From Predators? Place your votes above (you may select more than one)

Feel free to share any other ways you keep your chickens safe in the comments section below.

View attachment 2517029

Further Reading:

Top 10 Chicken Predators
A Checklist To Avoiding Casualties In The Flock
Predators & Pests

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

I have a cool thing called a Ruger 22 rifle with a 25 round magazine