Over the years I have redesigned my chicken coop several times after each attack by opossum and racoons. I have finally settled on a design which minimizes the chance of the birds being pulled off the roost. I got rid of my ramp with notches for steps and replaced it with a stack of blocks about 18" high and another stack about 36" high and 3' away from the lower stack which allows the birds to jump from stack to stack and finally to the roosting poles. this seems to work for opossum and racoon. I don't know how well it would work for foxes but I imagine if a fox jumped on a roosting pole only 2" wide it would have a difficult time trying to grab a bird without falling. All of my roosting poles are 2" to 3" in diameter with bark still attached. This gives the birds a more secure perch even when they are disturbed. All of the poles are 4 to 5 feet above the floor of the coop to prevent the predators from jumping to grab a bird. I also gradually moved my dropping board away from the poles until I settled with lowering it to the floor, since predators could jump on a pole and then drop to the dropping board to make it easier to grab a bird. I also changed my dropping boards from sheets of corrugated pvc to a rubber pond liner floor covering which I roll up like a taco and pull out of the coop for mucking out. I let the poop compost on this liner for a few months before removing because once the initial layer gets loaded with insects and microbes all additional poop is more rapidly composted and since our climate is warm the birds don't spend anytime on the coop floor. The first thing they encounter when they step through the 12" x 12" opening in the bottom of the coop door is the first set of blocks which they just jump onto the same way they work their way up to the top branches of a tree without actually flying. I leave the bird hatch open 24/7 and am no longer loosing birds to predators. Once outside the coop the birds have access to nesting boxes a couple of feet above the ground attached to the top of a pipe to discourage predators from steeling eggs or disturbing a brooder hen.
