There’s nothing more devastating than waking up to chicken carnage. Chickens are so wonderful, sometimes it seems like every creature wants to eat your hens. Unless it’s time for the stew pot for an old layer, chances are you don’t want them eaten! Make predator proof chicken coops when designing you birds’ home to keep your ladies safe.
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How To Predator Proof Your Chicken Coop
There are myriads of animals that think chickens make a nice snack, but the most common ones in a city setting are going to be raccoons, rodents, and dogs. Thankfully, 1/4 inch hardware cloth will stop both of them. Make sure there are no holes in the coop larger than 1/4 inch to keep mice and rats out.
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Staple down your hardware cloth across vents and windows, then drill strips of wood across the edges. I’ve had raccoons move concrete blocks to get to my chickens. Those things are strong and can rip staples right out!
Raccoons are also smart. Basic latches aren’t going to stop them. If you can put a padlock on your chicken door that should stop them for sure, but at the very least use a latch that requires several different motions to open. Here are the type of latches we used on our first coop.
Our current coop has a similar style. Both work great. What you are looking for is a latch that requires multiple steps to open.
To discourage rodents it’s best to have your coop raised off the ground, but make sure the space underneath doesn’t become a cozy home. It seems to be a delicate balance of height there. I think the perfect chicken coop for me would have a concrete floor, but that’s not happening any time soon.
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- The Best Chicken Coop For Hot Climates
- 55 Best Chicken Coops For Practical People
- What Is The Best Chicken Bedding To Use In Your Coop
- How To Clean Your Chicken Coop The Right Way
Nothing is Foolproof
Perfect predator proof chicken coops only works if you remember to close the door! I forgot to close our coop door one night and woke up suddenly to the hens screaming in panic. My husband rushed outside into the dark and looked inside. It was too dark to see, and I ran for a light and passed it to him.
He flashed the light inside and was eye to eye with a raccoon. I think it was the scariest moment of his entire life. There was actually an entire family of raccoons in our yard, but miraculously we didn’t lose any hens that night.
Predator Proof Your Chicken Run Too
Daytime predators are most likely going to be hawks or dogs. Put sturdy fencing around your property (or at the very least your chicken run) to deter dogs. Placing bird netting over the top of your run will protect your hens from hawks.
If you can’t do that for the whole area, have a more secure inner yard where the flock can spend time when you aren’t available to watch, and let them range farther with supervision. Also, if they have trees, or bushes to hide under they can avoid being snatched by a hawk.
What types of chicken eating critters hang out where you live?
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If you have a picture you can post on what hardware cloth looks like and what your setup is.
considering I am very new to this I would like to learn from others before I get down and dirty.
I saw a video about using fishing line the top part of the coop.
Considering you are so small area Chicken tractors won’t work.
Vicki S.
Thanks for mentioning it! I updated the picture to show what hardware cloth is and how mine is anchored down. I’ve also included links to product descriptions so you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about.
I believe fishing line will help the birds not to jump out, but it won’t deter a really hungry animal.
Our first coop was a chicken tractor, but it wasn’t my favorite design. Even with tractors you need to anchor the wire mesh down.
what is hardware cloth?
It’s the metal mesh pictured in the top picture. Here’s a link to the Amazon description (http://amzn.to/2EhgOiS), but you can buy it at most hardware and feed stores.
What about keeping SNAKES out of the coop? I live in the country, and our coop is 16 x 16 x 8 ft. Hardware cloth is a bit pricey for that much coop. Snakes love to come steal the eggs, and peeps if you have any. We have chicken wire on ours.
Try to find some marble or wooden eggs. The snakes (if any) will eat them and stay still until you find them and kill them. The marble ones are retrieved and reusable. Sounds gross, but my great-gma swears by them (drepression era baby). I’ve also found these as a deterrent for hens that will eat their own eggs. They’ll stop pecking the real eggs if the fake ones won’t crack open.
@Ami, please do not kill snakes of any kind! It is a cruel death forcing an animal of any species to choke on things in order to suffer until you kill them, and that is if you even find them. Rather take a moment to find local wildlife volunteers that are available to help safely remove snakes.
Snakes can come in tiny spaces, so try to fill any gaps that are smaller than 1/4 inch. Hardware cloth will work, but yes, it is pricey. Here are some other ideas on how to discourage snakes: http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/08/snake-in-duck-house-6-tips-to-repelling.html
I’m sure a concrete floor would be nice. My retired carpenter hubby says that another option for a solid floor is used bricks. You can usually get them pretty cheap, you can sometimes locate excess new bricks through local contractors.
He says you can lay a good brick floor by packing them in tight, no need for mortar.
Brick sounds like an economical and fairly easy DIY floor.
One more tip I’ve picked up over the years is bury a strip of chicken wire six inches down and twelve to twenty-four inches out all the way around the coop. This keeps critters like weasels and dogs from digging under your coop. And my G-ma swears by crystallized predator urine to keep cats, raccoons, and (depending on the kind of crystals) coyotes away. Acts as though the predator has marked its territory, and some animals will avoid the area. She uses Wolf crystals, but there are different ones that will repel different pests, so you may want to research some before you buy.
Thanks Ami, those are great ideas!
Nice article. I live in PA, we have every kind of predator minus cougar, bear, & wolf. Trial and error led to a predator proof run and coop. 6 x 12 chain link dog run, hardwire metal cloth for 2.5 feet for bottom half all around perimeter, and chicken wire top and bottom encloses. Being a chicken tractor it moves so fresh grass for the 5 australop.
Nice! Sounds like a great set up.
I just have a question—-We live in the city & have had a raccoon attack our coop twice. We had 4 younger girls (bought as chicks) & only 1 survived (Bunny-as we got them @ Easter) & the following year our 2nd round of 4 was attacked,same as last time but my husband killed the raccoon & saved 1 of the girls. She was severely injured & very close to death but we nursed her back & happy to say Noodle (her name cause I’m a chef) is just fine! We got them at Easter as well, but still no sign of any eggs. Could the attack prevent her from ever laying??? She’s an ISA Brown & Bunny, her older sister is a Rhode Island Red. Which BTW, she stopped laying too! Not sure what’s happening but would love your input!
Thanks!
Stress can cause chickens to temporarily stop laying. I’ve never heard it causing a permanent stop. Maybe they’re hiding their eggs really well?
This is one of the best articles by far regarding predator-proofing chickens’ house and runs! Hardware cloth is the greatest element one can use and do bury it 6” all around edges or wildlife will dig around anything to get inside. If it’s too expensive then perhaps people need to seriously consider whether or not they are committed to keeping backyard chickens. It only took a few 1/2” openings we did not cover properly for “our” black snakes to discover the building is not 100% fool proof. Corners and narrow spaces between the roof, walls and doors are a challenge for us as we are working with existing corrugated metal and hardwoods so wherever we did not properly attach the hardware cloth is now going to be re-attached as described here to cover such small spaces and gaps. BTW if you must do more please do not ever kill any snakes. It is beyond cruel to put a snake through the slow tortuous death after swallowing a golf ball or other items. Also do some research for local wildlife volunteers through your state wildlife resources who will help by removing the snakes to safe property. Facebook has snake-ID pages, for example. Thanks for your well-written relative articles based in experience and factual information!
Thank you! Sometimes a determined predator will still find its way in despite our best efforts, but we should always do as much as we can.
Thank you so much for sharing. Keep it up and update more information.