How to predator-proof a chicken coop

Most flock losses I've seen come down to one weak link, not a determined siege — a sagging chicken-wire panel, a latch a six-year-old could open, a feed bag left out on the porch. Five upgrades cover almost everything: ¼-inch galvanized hardware cloth on every opening, a buried or apron-extended run skirt, a predator-rated door latch, consistent night lockup, and vermin-proof feed storage.

The exact predator mix is regional — raccoons, weasels, foxes, hawks, coyotes, neighborhood dogs, rats, the occasional fisher or bear — and this page won't pin a number on which one is most likely on your property. What it does is rank the five upgrades by what a typical backyard coop gets wrong, in the order that matters. Build to all five. Skipping one is what gets a flock killed.

Find out what's actually visiting your yard

Predator pressure varies dramatically by region — weasel-and-mink country builds differently from coyote-and-hawk country. Before you spend money on hardware cloth and electric fence, do three things, in this order:

Neighbors with chickens: what have they lost and to what?
County extension office: they track backyard-flock predation reports and can name the dominant local pressures.
Wildlife trail-camera footageon your own property at night for a week before building. Trail cams cost $50–80 and they're worth every dollar — guessing at what's out there is how people end up rebuilding a run twice.

Rough North American predator profiles by zone — useful as a starting hypothesis, not as a substitute for the trail cam:

Suburban: raccoons (#1), domestic dogs, opossums, rats, hawks
Rural mixed: raccoons, foxes, coyotes, weasels, hawks, owls, snakes
Forested rural: above + fishers, mink, bobcats, occasional bears
Western open: coyotes (#1), hawks, foxes, raccoons less prevalent
Southern: above + snakes (significant chick predator), increased rat pressure

Step 1: ¼-inch hardware cloth on every opening

Hardware cloth is galvanized welded-wire mesh. Sized at ¼-inch (6mm), it excludes raccoons, weasels, mink, rats, mice, and most snakes. Apply it to:

Coop wall vents (eyebrow vents, gable louvers, ridge openings)
Coop windows (replace any glass-only window with a hardware-cloth-screened opening + hinged shutter)
Run sides (full perimeter, top to ground)
Run top (covered runs only — see Step 5 below)
Pop-door when closed (the door itself, not just the opening)

Skip chicken wire entirely on any predator-rated barrier. The 1- to 2-inch hex stuff at the farm-supply store is named for keeping chickens IN, not predators OUT — raccoons rip it, weasels squeeze through it, rats chew the lighter gauges. The cost upgrade to ¼-inch hardware cloth is small ($3–6 per square foot extra) and the exclusion difference is the entire point of the project. If a budget forces a corner-cut elsewhere, cut it elsewhere.

½-inch hardware cloth is fine in lower-pressure regions where weasels and mink aren't active. My default is still ¼-inch — the weasel-and-mink question isn't something most keepers can answer confidently from the trail-cam week, and the price delta to ¼-inch is a few dollars per panel.

Step 2: Buried run apron (or 24-inch surface skirt)

Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and dogs all dig under run fences if there's no buried barrier. Two solutions:

Buried hardware cloth, 12 inches deep. Excavate the run perimeter, drop hardware cloth into the trench attached to the bottom of the fence, backfill. Most-effective long-term solution; only practical at build time before the run is finished.
24-inch horizontal apron on the ground surface. Lay hardware cloth flat outward from the base of the run for 24 inches, secured to the ground with landscape staples. Grass grows through it within a season; the apron disappears visually but stops digging because predators start at the fence base and hit the wire as they dig.

For new builds I'd still trench-and-bury — it's the version that survives a curious dog testing the seam every afternoon for months. For a finished run, the surface apron is the right call; tearing up an existing perimeter to bury wire isn't worth the weekend. For a 12×12 run, 48 linear feet of apron at 24 inches wide = 96 sq ft of hardware cloth, ~$80 in materials, two-hour install with two people.

Step 3: Pick a latch a raccoon can't open

Raccoons defeat simple gravity latches, sliding hooks, and rotating barrels. The shorthand I use: if a latch can be operated by a six-year-old, a raccoon will eventually figure it out. The hardware store sells plenty of latches that fail this test, and they're the most-overlooked failure point in an otherwise tight coop.

What I'd use, in order of preference:

Carabiner clip through a hasp eyelet — cheap, foolproof, requires opposable thumbs. The default for daily-access doors.
Two-step latches(slide bolt + secondary spring latch). Each step alone is breakable; the combination stops everything I've seen on a trail cam.
Padlocks on permanent installations. Overkill for the door you open every morning, right answer for the human-sized coop door at night.

Step 4: Lock the birds in every night, no exceptions

Most predator activity happens at dawn and dusk — close the pop-door at sunset, open it at sunrise. The honest answer about manual close-up is that it works perfectly until the one night it doesn't. If you've ever forgotten to take the trash out on collection day, you'll forget to close a coop door, and a persistent predator only needs one open night.

Manual close-up.Free, fine if you're genuinely consistent and home every evening. I'd still pair it with a phone alarm.
Automatic pop-door with light sensor ($80–180). Closes at dusk based on ambient light, opens at dawn. Battery-backup models cover power outages. My default if you travel or work irregular hours — the light-sensor version is worth the $20–40 over the timer variant.
Automatic pop-door with timer($60–120). Same idea, time-based. Cheaper, but it doesn't track the seasonal shift in sunset, so the birds get locked out 20 minutes early in October or 30 minutes late in May.

Whatever pop-door you pick, the close-mechanism matters. Spring-loaded sliders with steel pins defeat raccoons; cheap gravity-drop guillotine doors get lifted from below by anything dexterous. I'd skip the gravity-drop versions entirely — saving $30 on the door that's the last barrier between the flock and a hungry raccoon is the wrong place to economize. Test whatever you install by trying to lift it from outside with your fingers; if you can defeat it, a raccoon eventually will.

Step 5: Lock the feed up before the rats find it

Stored feed attracts rats and mice — rodents eat 1–2 lb/day per rat from open feeders, contaminate stored grain, and breed fast. Store opened feed in a galvanized metal trash can with a tight-fitting lid, in a dry spot, ideally inside the coop or a separate outbuilding. Skip the plastic bins. They're convenient, they're what the big-box store stocks, and a determined rat chews through them in a week. The metal can with a bungee-corded lid is the version that actually works.

For aerial predator pressure (hawks, owls), cover the run top — and if the same site has raccoons or fishers, the cheap-netting answer isn't a real answer:

Bird netting(1×1 in plastic mesh, $40–80 for a 25×25 ft section). Light, easy, stops hawks. Doesn't stop anything that climbs — raccoons chew through it given a season or two. Treat netting as a hawk-only fix on a site with no climbing predator pressure. Plan to replace every 3–5 years regardless.
¼-inch hardware cloth top ($200–400 for a 12×12 run). Bombproof against everything, but heavy (50–100+ lb) and needs a structural frame. The right answer for sites with multi-vector pressure (hawks and raccoons).
Solid roof(corrugated metal or polycarbonate panels, $300–600). Adds summer shade and winter snow shedding plus full predator exclusion. Where I'd default for a permanent walk-in coop+run setup, even ignoring predators.

When to add an electric fence

For sites with known coyote, fox, fisher, or bear pressure, electric fence stops being a nice-to-have. A single hot wire 6 inches off the ground around the run perimeter, plus a second wire at 18 inches, deters most ground predators without harming the birds. Solar-powered chargers ($60–120) make installation manageable. It doesn't replace hardware cloth — it's a second layer that punishes probing predators and trains them to go elsewhere. For confirmed coyote pressure I'd call this approaching mandatory; for suburban raccoon-and-dog pressure it's overkill.

When a predator does get in

A successful attack is not a one-time event — it's the start of a return-visit pattern, and the response in the first 24 hours decides whether the next visit lands. Work in this order:

Find the entry point and repair before nightfall. Usually obvious — torn cloth, a dug hole at the apron, a defeated latch. The predator will be back tonight; if the breach is still there, the rest of the flock is exposed.
Don't bury or compost the dead birds on-site. Most articles tell you to compost or bury. Don't — the predator will dig them back up and learn the coop is a reliable food source. Bag and trash, or burn. The training-the-predator problem is the trap most predator-proofing guides miss.
Trail-cam the coop nightly for the next week. Predators that succeed come back, typically within 1–7 days. The cam tells you what came and when — guesswork at this stage is how you upgrade against the wrong species.
If repeat attacks land despite the repair, escalate. Add electric fence, hire a wildlife-removal service for the persistent individual, or move the coop to a less-accessible spot. Repeated losses to the same animal mean the upgrade ladder is mismatched to the threat — keep climbing.

Common questions

What predators are the biggest threat to backyard chickens?

Raccoons (smart, dexterous, can defeat chicken wire and basic latches), weasels and minks (small enough to fit through 1-inch openings, kill entire flocks in one night), foxes and coyotes (dig under runs, jump 6-foot fences), hawks and owls (aerial, take birds in unprotected runs), domestic dogs (can dig and tear), rats and mice (eat eggs, chicks, and feed). Predator pressure varies by region — talk to neighbors and your county extension office to confirm what's active in your specific area.

Is chicken wire enough to keep predators out?

No. Chicken wire is for keeping chickens contained, not predators out. Raccoons rip chicken wire open; weasels squeeze through ½-inch openings; rats chew through it. Use ¼-inch galvanized hardware cloth for any predator-rated barrier — coop wall openings, run sides, run top, and the buried apron skirt. The cost difference vs ½-inch chicken wire is small ($3–6 per square foot) and the predator exclusion is far better.

How deep should I bury hardware cloth around the run?

12 inches deep, OR run a 24-inch horizontal apron extending outward from the base of the run on the ground surface. Both work — the apron is easier to install on existing runs and sufficient because most digging predators (foxes, coyotes, raccoons) start digging at the base of the fence and abandon when they hit the apron. Deep burial is more bombproof but requires excavating the run perimeter at build time.

Should I lock chickens in the coop at night?

Yes. Most predator activity happens dawn and dusk. Close the coop pop-door at sunset, open at sunrise. Automatic pop-doors with light or timer triggers ($80–180) automate the routine. The pop-door must close securely — predators test latches. A spring-loaded pop-door with a steel sliding pin defeats raccoons; simple gravity-drop doors don't. Manual close-up works fine if you're consistent.

Will an electric fence help?

Yes, especially against persistent diggers (foxes, coyotes, raccoons) and bears. A single hot wire 6 inches off the ground around the run perimeter, plus a second wire at 18 inches, deters most ground predators. Solar-powered fence chargers ($60–120) make installation simple. Doesn't replace hardware cloth, but stacks with it. For sites with known coyote pressure, electric fence is approaching mandatory.

What about hawks and owls?

Cover the run top with hardware cloth or plastic netting. Hawks and owls take birds from open runs — they don't enter covered runs. Bird netting (1×1 inch plastic mesh, $40–80 for a 25×25 ft section) is the cheap option; ¼-inch hardware cloth across the run top is bombproof but adds 50–100 lb of weight that requires structural framing to support. Aerial predator pressure varies by region; talk to local keepers about whether covered run is necessary in your area.

By Jimmy L Wu. Reviewed 2026-05-02. Hardware-cloth sizing (¼-inch for predator exclusion vs ½-inch and chicken wire), apron skirt depth, electric-fence configuration, and regional predator-profile framing reflect practitioner consensus across hatcheries and 4-H poultry programs. Material costs reflect 2026 retail availability at standard big-box and farm-supply stores. Not veterinary advice — for attack injuries on surviving birds, consult an avian or livestock veterinarian.