The #1 Secret to Protecting Your Chickens from Death by a Predator

Fox in a Chicken Yard by Jean-Baptiste Huet (1766)

One of the topics I see most discussed and asked about is predators. Everyone who has chickens has to deal with different predators native to their specific areas. Across the country some of the more common predators are raccoons (surprisingly nasty guys!), fox, opossums, coyotes and hawks.

Predators attack by land, sea and air. Okay, not sea, but land, underground and air.

For nearly every chicken owner, there’s nothing worse then coming out to see their chickens beheaded or shredded, gutted or just plain missing. It’s traumatic, sad and represents a loss of time, money and energy.

To prevent that, you must always keep in mind your chicken’s safety. The reality is, though, that no matter how secure you think you have your chickens, there’s still always a chance a predator will get in. After all, the predator can return day after day and keep on trying, keep on searching for chinks in the armor. And they only have to get lucky once.

So needless to say, you have to do the basics. You have to know what kind of predators will be coming after your chickens. And then you will have to prepare your coop and run to keep the chickens in and predators out, including using strong fencing and the right kind of latches.

But those aren’t the #1 secret. And before I tell you what it is, let me first tell you this story.

I was speaking to a backyard chicken raiser the other day. He lives in a very developed suburban area in Maryland. There are still a lot of pockets of lush wooded areas. His biggest predators are fox and raccoons. I think he has about 8 chickens, which he has been raising for about 18 months.

For most of that time, he has allowed the chickens to free range during the day, and then locked them up in their coop and pen overnight to protect them from the typically night-time predators.

Well, earlier in the summer, his daughter went out to see the free-ranging chickens during the day. And as she got closer to the area where the chickens were, she saw a fox run off and then found one of their chickens seriously injured…. Like shock trauma injured! The fox — normally a night-time predator — had come early for the Lunch Special.

The point of this story is really the #1 Secret:

Expect the Unexpected from Your Predators.

Your predators will learn and adapt if they believe they can get a great meal out of it. Yes, around where this guy lives, foxes are almost never seen during the day and are really night-time creatures.

But I’m guessing this fox had been eying these chickens night after night. It had somehow come to learn that the chickens were left out during the day, and it struck.

While predators often have predictable behaviors, for many of them, part of that predictability is being unpredictable. And that is what will most likely get your chickens.

P.S. Liked this post? Don’t forget to share it with your friends! And yes, you’ll be hearing a lot more about protecting your chickens from predators soon!

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