Back Yard Chickens and How to Protect Them from Urban Predators

An Easy Checklist for Safeguarding Your Chickens

One of the dangers of raising chickens in the city is threat of urban predators. Feral cats, raccoons, opossums, skunks, stray dogs, and foxes eye a backyard flock as an easy meal and will go through great efforts to break into a coop or hen house.

To protect your flock from urban predators, it takes some careful thought and planning. This checklist will cover some of the ways in which your chickens can be kept secure.

#1 Provide a secure hen house

At night is when chickens are at the highest risk of being attacked. While us owners are sleeping, those predators are busy at work trying to break inside. The only way to keep those chickens safe at night is by always locking them into a hen house as they settle down for the evening.

A hen house can be a specially constructed building, or converted from an existing shed or outbuilding. It should be constructed of thick, solid lumber and free of holes or gaps which might provide entry from a predator. We've discovered that even a tiny gap in the wood can quickly become enlarged by a determined animal, as he tries to claw and chew his way into the coop. Both doors and windows should also be secured at night with a predator proof latch.

The hen house can either be elevated three to four feet off the ground or have a solid wood floor to prevent animals from digging beneath the walls. If the hen house rests on dirt, some sort of additional barrier must be installed. Chicken wire provides the best barrier, and should be trenched beneath the walls to a depth of at least 18 inches. Metal floor plates around the exterior of the building will also work.

Equally important is securing the roof. An aggressive raccoon can rip the shakes off a roof, and climb down into the hen house at night. Roofs should be solidly attached to the walls, and loose shakes or shingles must be replaced or securely hammered into place. It's also a good idea to remove low overhanging tree limbs to discourage animals from climbing onto the roof for access.

#2 Providing a roost