Protect Your Chickens From Predators

There's nothing worse than having your chickens or other poultry attacked by a predator - and it seems that nearly every wild creature, and many domestic ones, can appreciate a delicious chicken dinner. So, how do you protect your flock so you don't have to worry about losing hens to raccoons, dogs, weasels, hawks, and more?

Potential Poultry Predators
If you're new to raising chickens, you might not even be aware of just what predators are around. Or you may think that since you live in the surburbs or within city limits, you don't have to worry about predators. But domestic animals can be chicken killers, too.
So, who are you worried about?
Here are the most common chicken predators:

neighborhood dogs
chicken hawks
weasels/ermine/minks
foxes
raccoons
coyotes
feral and domestic cats
bobcats
owls
snakes (chicks)
rats
fisher cats
Some predators, like snakes and rats, are only likely to eat baby chicks or half-grown pullets, not full-grown birds. Others, such as skunks, will just eat chicken eggs, leaving the hens alone.

Coop Security
There are some simple steps you can take to protect your precious hens from predation. The first order of business is to have a secure coop with a door that shuts securely at night. Some other tips:

Dig a trench 12 inches deep around the entire coop and bury hardware cloth there. This will prevent digging predators.

Elevate the coop off the ground to help prevent mice, rats and weasels from getting into the coop.

Inspect the bottom of the coop and patch any holes where predators could gain entry.

Put lights around the coop at night; motion-sensor lights work well.

Keep your compost pile far away from the coop and don't allow food scraps to linger - clean up any food scraps that the chickens don't eat before nightfall.

Keep the area around the coop mowed and clear - an open field without cover is a deterrent to predators.

If you have serious problems with hawks and owls, consider covering the chicken run with hawk netting.

Poultry Protectors

There are other ways to protect poultry and some of them will work for any animal on the farm. Dogs are great protectors of the small farm or homestead, and will keep everything from sheep to cattle to baby chicks safe from marauding predators - usually including other dogs.

Still, there's a catch: some dogs just love to chase and tease chickens. They will often kill them without even realizing or intending it. If you get a livestock guardian puppy, be sure to supervise its interactions with your chickens when it is young, and deliver a correction any time it gives chase to your feathered farm animals.

If you're not up for getting a dog, guinea fowl are also great guardians of the flock. They will chase off everything from the mailman to coyotes - but beware, their protection comes with a noisy price. Guineas are not quiet animals, and you can't just train them to pipe down like you can with (some) dogs. Still, they have an added benefit: they'll eat every bug you can imagine that might plague the garden and barnyard, from ticks to flies.