If you live in an area with lots of hawks and owls you will need to place a cover … You might also want to check out my most popular post: DIY Chicken Coop Plans (That Won’t Get Your Chickens Murdered at Night). Most people would want to have a solid roof … While it may be a little less hygienic than ammonia, spraying predator urine (typically collected from animals like dogs, coyotes, large cats like panthers and cougars, or wolves) around your coop is an almost surefire way to make raccoons thinks twice about coming closer. And please note that raccoons can squeeze into very small holes. Cover any gaps and vents with hardware cloth. They were eating out of our garbage cans every night, ripping the … Some might want to chase the chickens around. To deter digging predators, dig a 12″ trench all the way around the … Raccoons and other scavengers are animals that will mostly come out during the night. Securing Your Chicken Coop. If the head of a raccoon can fit through a hole, they can squeeze their body through it. Dogs can be some of the best protectors against raccoons. Most predators are nervous about crossing a yard with little to no place to hide. You don’t need to make your chicken coop into a fortress to protect your chickens from raccoons, but it helps. I appreciate wildlife, including the black bears who occasionally visit. Different predators are active at different times of the day and th… However, they will make a lot of noise and sound a warning when a predator is near. Your dog doesn’t have to be a trained guard dog, but if it shares the same space as the chickens, its scent can sometimes be enough to deter a threat. One extra thing to take note of is the natural sleep cycle of raccoons. Bury it or put an Apron on It. Instead, try using small-mesh fencing material. If your coop is reinforced to protect against a tunneling raccoon, you may want to make sure your fence is reinforced the same way. Take Precautions: Defense. If trapping and relocating wildlife is illegal in your state, my recommendation is to contact a wildlife organization (such as wildlife rescue or animal control) to see what your options are at this point. For this reason, it’s very important that your chicken coop is easily visible from your house, so that you can respond to threats quickly and effectively. Use a strong padlock openable only with a key. Many friends who have small flocks have purchased live traps to protect their birds but are unsure how to use them, or what to do afterward. If a raccoon has targeted your chickens and you’ve bought or borrowed a live trap, here are several steps to take to safeguard your birds. Guard Geese are territorial and can help protect your flock of chickens. Similar to the above entry, this is less about protecting your chickens in their coop and more about protecting them by making sure raccoons have no reason to be hanging around your house to begin with. I attached four of these little devices around my chicken coop, facing out in all four directions. These predators typically are able to kill, pick up, and carry off an adult chicken.Hawks typically take chickens during the day, whereas owls take them during the night. Raccoons are primarily nocturnal, but, as they adapt more and more to human presence in their habitats, they are starting to hunt more during the day. I have 5 chickens now and they run free in the yard but when the chickens are out in the yard, the raccoon goes in there house and eats the food. And I couldn’t be more pleased with them. Make sure to collect all eggs in the coop and surrounding areas. Especially as raccoons adapt to human habitation, an unsecured trash can serves as a welcome mat for a hungry raccoon, and so they will be far more likely to return to your yard and check for any other easily available sources of food. So it’s a good idea to leave the area around your chicken coop free of bushes, trees, or anything raccoons can hide behind or under. They’re also extra challenging because they can climb and dig very well, and their front paws are a lot like human hands, which is both creepy and cute. Do not let your chickens … Make sure to correct your dog any time it seems to be disturbing your chickens. Cover Their Coop. Galvanized hardware cloth is available at most home improvement supply stores, and the welded edge of the wires will make it far more difficult for raccoons to gain access. Smooth internal edges protect animals from injury. Changing Your Routine Keep your chickens in a secured location at night. Raccoons and other predators might still be hunting early in the morning. Of all the natural predators that chickens have to deal with in the wild, there are few that are as determined as the raccoon. Click to see full answer. Raccoons will also use your chickens’ waterer to wash their food. Raccoons and other predators can tear right through it like tissue paper. Be especially careful to remove all eggs before nighttime. If birds are dead and not eaten but are missing their heads, the predator may be a raccoon, a hawk, or an owl. How I protect my chickens from predators in my context. In addition, to make sure that your yard is safe from any predators that might be passing through the neighborhood, try to get rid of anything that would attract a raccoon to your yard in the first place. Raccoons may be clever, but they are still wild animals, and, like most wild animals, can be easily startled or frightened away by the presence of a human guard for the chicken coop. Good Night, Chickens Finally, it should go without saying that chickens must be tucked safely up in protected coops for the night. Raccoons also have a highly developed sense of smell, which can lead them directly to your chicken coop, but can also provide a way of warding them off. Because I live in a secluded area with many predators, my chickens only free-range when my dog is with them during the day. Protecting them is like protecting your chickens. If you wait until a mink has discovered your chicken coop, then you … By predator-proofing your chickens’ coop, maintaining a clear, well-lit line of visibility, and keeping the area around the coop free of any potential hiding spots, you can keep these crafty carnivores from devastating your flock, and keep your chickens healthy and safe. You don't want to know! Identifying a chicken that was the victim of a raccoon attack is easy. Your chickens are likely to be safe roaming during the day, but they won't be so safe when the sun goes down. But protecting your chickens from raccoons is a little more difficult than protecting them from other predators. I spent the whole day Monday setting up a solar electric fence to stop raccoons from getting to my chickens and my garden. Similarly, many pet supply stores or online retailers offer predator urine for purchase. Again, because raccoons have an above average level of manual dexterity, and because they are relentless predators, they have often been observed to tear away at any chink in a coop’s defenses until it is large enough to slip through before making their way inside and feasting on the defenseless chickens and their eggs. However, if you want to spray your entire yard, it may be best to search for a natural pest repellent that you can use without frightening your chickens or any other pets you have at home. If you have fruit trees, nut trees, or berry bushes on your property, check for and pick up ripe and fallen fruit. Using a motion detector light at night is a possibility, although raccoons will quickly become used to it. Raccoons will also use your chickens’ waterer to wash their food. This is because the raccoons are among the smartest of predators. However, because raccoons are small and agile, there are more factors to take into consideration that could be exploited, including: Raccoons may not have opposable thumbs, but they do have an unusually high number of sensory receptors in their “hands” (actually just extremely sensitive front paws), which allows them to perform extremely delicate actions like opening door or unhooking latches. Do Guard Geese Protect Chickens from Hawks. Raccoons are yet another predator that you need to look out for when it comes to protecting your chickens. Protecting chickens from predators starts with building a secure hen yard: Make your hen house unappealing to predators. I hope this post about how to protect chickens from raccoons helped you out! If everything else has failed, you might also be able to humanely trap a raccoon. … A raccoon’s clever nature and manual dexterity make them as much a threat to a coop as larger, stronger predators, and the fact that they carry diseases like rabies makes them as dangerous to humans as they are to chickens. Basically, the goal is to make sure that your coop is secure from every possible angle. It’s an alternative to burying fencing material into the ground 12 to 18 inches and it works great (and it’s easier to make). Dump out water bowls that are left outside each night and put away any uneaten chicken feed. Protect your chickens from raccoons Raccoons are nocturnal and opportunistic and will be attracted to food and water left out overnight. They cannot fight against larger predators such as Coyotes, large cats, or raccoons. Think of raccoons as burglars. Ultimately, the best way to keep your chickens are safe from raccoons is to make sure that a raccoon cannot get into the coop. Raccoon, fox, hawks, bears, bobcats and the neighborhood dog, are all capable of wiping out a flock. But raccoons are notorious for killing the chickens they can grab through chicken wire. So, how do you protect your flock so you do not have to worry about losing your poultry stock to raccoons, dogs, weasels, hawks, and more? Obviously a fence around the backyard is a much larger undertaking than the walls of a chicken coop, but if possible, extending the foundation of your fence can go a long way towards making your yard safer for your chickens and any other animals you keep at home. Your email address will not be published. To proof against any dedicated diggers, make sure the walls of your coop extend at least a foot below the surface of the earth. This will make sure that your line of sight remains clear, but will also prevent raccoons from being able to hide during the day or access the coop from a different angle at night. You should also wait until later in the morning to let the chickens out. Even the scent of a dog is very frightening to most predators, so they will likely leave your chickens alone. However, there’s a potential problem with having a guard dog. Some dogs are very playful. Areas, where raccoons are prevalent, will often offer light systems specifically to deter raccoons–motion activated alarm systems that will switch on a blinding light that should be enough to send the would-be coop-raider scurrying back for the safety of the darkness. Taking steps to protect chickens from predators should be on every chicken owner’s mind. In addition to keeping the area between the coop and the house free of any large plants where raccoons can sleep and hide away, there are various measures you can take to make your yard as a whole less appealing to raccoons, including: As mentioned above, scents like ammonia or the proteins found in predator urine are extremely repulsive to raccoons. Then, I have an automatic chicken door opener for my chicken coop that lets my hens out into their run (they free-range, but only when my dog is out to keep an eye on them). You don't need to make your chicken coop into a fortress to protect your birds from raccoons, but it helps. Potential Poultry Predators If you are new to raising chickens , you might not even be aware of what predators are around. Raccoons have paws that work a lot like human hands and they’re very smart when it comes to opening your chicken coop door! Raccoons don’t like the scent of ammonia (and neither do most humans). The main problem you are going to face is actually protecting your chickens from the raccoons. So, if you get a dog, be sure to supervise them at first. I also personally don’t use chicken wire to protect the run because predators can easily tear through it. Train your birds to return to the chicken house every evening – and be sure to close it up. The coop itself is the strongest source of protection for your chickens, and if it’s strong enough, it should do most of the work in deterring predators like raccoons from preying on your flock. So long as you make sure the inside of the coop is sealed against light so that your chickens can get a good night’s sleep, a blinding light can startle predators like raccoons into beating a hasty retreat. Install a Roof. Make Them Vulnerable. To make sure your yard and coop is a less attractive place for raccoons, dump out any source of water. As long as the gap is closed or made small enough that a raccoon can’t get even a single “finger” through to the inside of the coop, your chickens should be safe. how to keep predators from digging under the chicken coop, (That Won’t Get Your Chickens Murdered at Night). Bushes, large grasses, decks, and overhangs can be a perfect place to take shelter. If something is attacking your chickens, the first thing you need to do is figure out which predator is to blame. If wildlife is hungry enough, they’ll work day and night to get at your chickens. Take the same precautions to keep raccoons out of attics, barns, and crawl spaces underneath decks and porches. I really recommend you replace any chicken wire with 1/4 inch hardware cloth because it really works to keep a variety of predators out. Another vital step is covering the coop. So you’ll need a complicated lock, a padlock with a key, or a combination lock for your chicken coop. In the fall, raccoons are especially hungry at this time because they need extra calories to fatten up and prepare for the upcoming cold temperatures. I have a raccoon problem and I was wanting to know if the Guard Night light works. So, they become a bigger problem for your chickens. BSTOOL Chicken Wire Net for Craft Projects,3 Sheets Lightweight Galvanized Hexagonal... Havahart 1045 Live Animal Two-Door Raccoon, Stray Cat, Opossum, and Groundhog Cage... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZ9eHXiwic, Raccoon attacks chickens (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZ9eHXiwic), How to Easily Determine What Killed Your Chickens, How to Stop Chickens from Pecking Each Other. Raccoons can often be found rummaging around near chicken coops and will look for any opportunity to strike at a moment’s notice. Yuck. How Many Chickens Can Share a Nesting Box? Other than that, my chickens stay in their very large run or they’re locked up in their coop at night. Don’ts for Protecting Chickens from Predators. Be especially careful to remove all eggs before nighttime. Keep an eye out for raccoons as you would for any other predators, but also keep in mind that they are the most common carriers of rabies in North America. The smell of ammonia or bleach is highly repulsive to raccoons, and can be purchased at any home supply store and spread around the coop in order to frighten raccoons away. How to Protect Chickens from Raccoons Your best defense against raccoons is to have a loud, obnoxious dog that hates raccoons. This is the perfect time for you to check your coop and run for any gaps. If you're interested, you can read my story, 11 Methods to Protect Chickens from Raccoons. And please make sure to visit the trap often! Proper identification of the predatory threat is key to implementing the right solution to this problem and keeping your hens safe. This can include pet food or even chicken food, which raccoons can smell from a great distance, and can actually invite them to consider your yard as a potential food source for up to three years later. Make sure any garbage that you put outside is fully sealed and taken away regularly so that nothing is left behind to tempt a hungry raccoon. If you have reason to suspect that a raccoon might be rabid, your first priority should be to get yourself, your family, and your animals out of harm’s way before you go to deal with the raccoon. As mentioned in the entry regarding roofs, a raccoon’s physical build makes it able to take advantage of unorthodox routes, and one of those routes is directly beneath your chickens’ feet. I personally do not recommend this way of preventing raccoons from coming into your yard. Raccoons can open many latches, so use a latch you can padlock to keep the windows, doors, and other openings on your coop securely locked … Steel wool should be used instead of chicken wire to fill in gaps in your coop, but for lengths of fencing, you should be using something like hardware cloth fencing, so that raccoons can’t sneak their hands through the links and break into the coop. LaySomeEggs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for websites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Another easy way to discourage raccoons from visiting your yard is to stop giving them food (intentionally or accidentally). On a similar note, any weak spot in the coop’s walls or surroundings can easily be exploited by a raccoon. Please, don't ask me how much this all costs to protect chickens from bobcats, mountain lions, bears, raccoons, weasels, mink, coyote, raccoon, fishers cats, etc. We had a big raccoon problem when we first bought our house. It scares them and makes them stay away from your yard. So in this post, I talk about the ins and outs of how to protect chickens from raccoons. Even suburban flocks may be prey for opossums, foxes, and raccoons. In some states, it’s very illegal to trap and relocate a raccoon. 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