Protecting our flocks is the number one concern for every chicken keeper. Everything wants to eat them, including us. While it’s impossible to protect them from every danger, we can take steps to prevent most attacks on the coop and flocks. If you are located in an urban or suburban area, your list of predators will be smaller than your rural counterpart. In a rural area, we face larger threats to keeping your flock safe. During daylight hours, there are different potential predators than there are at dusk or dark hours. The first to come to my mind are hawks. While the night brings dexterous animals and hungry owls looking for an easy food source. We have coyotes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, snakes, bobcats, foxes, panthers, wild hogs, and birds of prey like hawks, eagles, and owls. We even have the occasional dog passing through that can do more damage in a short time than all other prey animals.
Our birds are free-range so they have the opportunity to run and hide. Animals in confined areas are more vulnerable since they have limited places to hide and run to. 1.Train your flock to come to a feed bucket! When you are ready to count tail feathers, you can easily get them to return to the safety of the coop and fenced area at dusk. 2.Use a mobile coop. By having a mobile coop, your flocks’ water, feed, and laying boxes are always close by providing them with the safety of the coop. A mobile coop sits high enough off the ground to discourage rats, skunks, and snakes from taking up residence underneath it. It cuts down on the egg stealing, keeping chicks or young hens safe. We put rabbit wire under the floorboards and over small ventilation openings. This also makes it easy to clean out.
