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

[BYC Project Manager]

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.

Further Reading:

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

(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[Dhuntington]

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

 

[BDutch]

Where I live there are no raccoons , so I don’t need complicated latches. But we do have foxes now and then, and polecats, marters are a possible threat too (in the night). And sometimes we have birds of pray too. Mainly buzzards but I spotted a sparrow-hawk in the pear-tree near the run once too. Because my Dutch are really small this a real hazard.

I keep the chickens in a coop with much hwc and a run with strong netting and hwc (also buried in the ground). Between the coop (quit safe) and the run (less safe) I have an automatic pop door to keep the chickens safe at night.

They stay in the run most of the day and if nobody is at home. But for their health and joy i let the chickens free range too. There wings are not cut. My Duch are good in escaping to safe places. They fly easily on top of the run or over the hedge to the neighbour whenever they spot a dog.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

My coop is elevated with a lock on the people door. The chicken door is very heavy I’d say around 20 pounds and very hard to lift from the bottom so we don’t have it locked. The run is just a chain link dog pen with a tarp over the top. No wire under the sidesor anything. We have very few daytime predators so the run is less of a concern. Also all gaps in the sides of the coop have hardware cloth to prevent snakes from coming in.

 

[RebeccaRN]

My coop is very secure for night time, but during the day they free-range. I have a very large, loud rooster, a huge deck they run under and holly bushes along one side of the yard that they have hiding places in. I also have a large dog who is in and out all day long. The only predator I've ever seen was a small red hawk but the rooster made such a ruckus it scared it away.

 

[Abriana]

I have a lovely rooster who is actually very on-guard, even though he's not much of a fighter (my boy who passed this summer was both! He attacked hawks several times). I also have an electric fence. It's been almost five years and I have had no ground-predator attacks ever, except for one girl who got out of the fence. I've had a LOT of hawk attacks, this year especially, so I installed twine above my fence. Works like a charm! I have a thread about it floating around here somewhere, it's called "Finally got the twine up!" If anyone wants to look at some pictures of it.

 

[21hens-incharge]

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.

 

[Sycamore Hill Chicks]

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!)

Other: I have hardware cloth dug in a 2 ft skirt around the coop.

 

[ackie]

My coops are definitely lacking on security, but when I have losses, I set up live traps to deal with whatever the problem was. During the day, my birds have a zillion places to hide and I dont think I've had many daytime issues. My biggest risk is broodies on hidden nests.

 

[BReeder!]

A cage trap helps