Predator Proof Your Chicken Run and Coop

A predator proof chicken run needs four things: small-mesh hardware cloth on every wall, wire that goes underground or lies flat at the base, a roof, and latches a raccoon cannot work. Add a door that shuts at dusk and a nightly headcount and you have the plan. Predation is the most common cause of death in small flocks, so I would do this before buying another feeder or heater.

Each predator beats a different weak spot, which is why one fix never works alone. Raccoons reach through large openings, coyotes dig under surface fencing, hawks and owls strike from above and rats move in beneath a low coop. To protect chickens from predators, you cover all of those at once. Oklahoma State’s advice is blunt: prevention is the key, and trapping comes after the structure is sound.

The short version

• Mesh: hardware cloth with openings under 1 inch. I’d buy ½-inch, 19-gauge, galvanized.
• Base: bury the wire at least 12 inches and turn it about 6 inches outward (Penn State), or lay a flat apron around the run.
• Roof: cover the run. It keeps birds of prey out and stops raccoons climbing in.
• Latches: two separate moves on every door, lid and hatch.
• Night: shut the birds in before dark and count them. Owls may strike just before dark.

Where to start

Begin with how to predator-proof a chicken coop. It names the six layers, matches nine common predators to the layer that stops each, and gives burial depths, roof options and latch advice from extension services.

Then buy the mesh with the hardware cloth guide. It covers mesh size, gauge, the galvanizing and the roll math for your coop and run.

Some of the work sits in other hubs. Size the run itself with the chicken run for your coop guide. Take the feeding station out of the rat’s reach with a rat-proof chicken feeder. If you want the door to close on a schedule, see the best automatic chicken coop doors and read why auto doors fail first.

Which predator guide should you read first?

• You have not predator-proofed yet. Start with how to predator-proof a chicken coop and work through the layers in order.
• You are about to buy wire. The hardware cloth guide has a mesh-size table by predator, a table of where each mesh goes and the roll math.
• Rats are eating from the feeder or living under the coop. Take the food out of reach with a rat-proof chicken feeder, check the base of the coop against the predator guide, then follow how to get rid of rats in a chicken coop for safe trapping around hens.
• The run needs to be bigger or tighter. The run build guide covers sizing and the wire.
• You forget to lock up at dusk. See the best automatic coop doors, and read why auto doors fail before you buy.