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

[Tashua]

Now if you can make it move every so often , might just work . Animals get use to things that are stationary. Oh ya pee on its pants , the smell of a larger pred. (man) helps keep a lot of them away .

Lmao how right you are! Should have put that one on the poll list , hubby seems to think it’s a great way to keep preds away as well & pees all around the 5 acres much to my dislike I might add!

 

[TARDIS37379]

I have coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, along with hawks and owls but my biggest problem is dogs. I have multilayered fencing, cameras, covered runs and pop doors that a mechanically held closed at night. All man doors latch securely and are latched.
The coops are secure and I do not have nighttime problems. The coyotes stay away after I killed three of them and left the carcasses laying in the field.
Predator security is a multi layered system that has to make it too hard for a predator to want to find a way in.

 

[jus10inla]

You have info ? Now ya have me concerned

A wild hog will eat anything. there not vegetarian.

heres a good link https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/threads/help-my-pigs-are-eating-my-chickens.312571/

 

[Tashua]

A wild hog will eat anything. there not vegetarian.

heres a good link https://www.homesteadingtoday.com/threads/help-my-pigs-are-eating-my-chickens.312571/

Thanx !!!!
I was really wondering mostly if they could figure out how to break into the pen ? I will read the info

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Greetings All,

Besides the 8 foot electrified perimeter fence, motion lights, hardware cloth, bolts, latches, and plantings for concealment, I also have "Predator Eyes" (solar red blinking lights) hanging outside the perimeter of the chicken pens. The predator eyes do seem to deter raccoon and foxes. But I've had coyotes and bobcats come at all times of the day and night. To prevent digging predators, there are cement pavers surrounding the pens, cemented large boulders anchor the hardware cloth surrounding the pen, and the bachelor pen has chicken wire covered with dirt outside the pen to prevent digging .

My game cam is more of a surveillance tool rather than protection. However, it does allow me to monitor the various land predators. As far as the aerial predators, there are eagles and hawks here, but I haven't had any losses to them. Other than having plenty of shrubbery and trees for concealment, there's not much that can be done. Raptors are protected by law. I do not rely, or consider, the rooster or dog adequate protection for the chickens. Roosters run or get eaten, and dogs are often asleep.

Even with all the measures taken for the protection of my flock, in and out of the pen, the chickens are still at some risk while foraging out on the property. But they have a good quality of life and do enjoy their time out.

 

[little blue coop]

I have chicken wire and patio blocks on the ground all around the coop and run. The run has a metal roof. And of course, the girls are locked up every night.
There are predators around, but not too many. All the neighbors who have chickens use chicken wire, and haven't had problems. Our next door neighbor even lets his free range, though it's not allowed in our township. And he hasn't lost any to predators, including hawks. Maybe it's because we have an abundance of squirrels as prey.

 

[spartacus_63]

I use live traps almost constantly. This has reduced the predator issue to no lost birds in two years.

 

[Flockincrazy]

My chickens yard is predator proof I dug 2cinder blocks deep then put down wire then sand then mulch and around it is hot pepper (ghost peppers) juice and their coops are fort nox according to my husband I haven't had a predator death in 8yrs

 

[Cryss]

My run is chain link dog run wrapped in 1/2 inch hardware cloth, top covered in hardware cloth, and 2-3 foot wide apron surrounding the entire perimeter. The coop has hardware cloth over ventilation under the eaves, over the 2 windows, a 2-3 foot wide apron around the perimeter, covering the entire underside of the coop floor, and wrapped around the entire bottom 4 feet of the walls sandwiched between the frame and the outer walls. I have carabiner type door locks on the run gate, the coop people door, 2 on each window, 2 on the pop door. This spring I need to make some serious repairs to the hardware cloth covering over the top of the run. We just had 2 feet of snow and ice and are about to get 2 more storms this weekend with significant snow. The present snow is causing the hardware cloth to sag deeply and hasn’t melted but rather turned into a Boulder of ice. A tiny birdie has gotten in, the first intruder in 3.5 years. I just can’t do anything about it until the ice boulder melts. Then I have plans for improved supports.

 

[Annalyse]

I have the following security measures in place:

Solid wood floors on all coops
Covered runs
Motion activated light (originally intended to give me light while my hands are full)
Hardware cloth on all windows and vents
Predator resistant anti-dig apron
AND to keep pesky human predators out there are padlocks on all coops and runs. Yes I have had human intruders.

As I am in town and close everyone into the coops at night I am ok with chain link on my big run, cattle panels and chicken wire on the hoop run and 2x4 welded wire with chicken wire on my bantam run.

How do human intruders work? I keep key locks on our coop and was always worried someone may come and just try and steal them or possibly may not like them and kill them. I have an aggressive rooster that only likes me so it's pretty funny when people decide to mess with him. But I'm just wondering what do human intruders do?