Predator protection that actually works

The one thing to understand

Hexagonal chicken wire is not a predator barrier. It is lightweight twisted netting designed to contain poultry, and it does that well. Hardware cloth is welded square mesh in a heavy gauge, and it is what actually stops an animal. The names imply the first is the poultry-protection product; it is not.

Extension's predator management guidance is specific about why. Least weasels can squeeze through holes as small as a quarter inch and typically get through chicken wire. Chicken wire's openings are large enough to let ground predators reach in and injure birds through intact mesh. And because it is twisted rather than welded, a dog or fox worrying at it opens the twists.

The standard recommendation is to wrap the lower half of an enclosure in half-inch, 19-gauge hardware cloth, with ordinary poultry netting acceptable above — because the netting is enough for birds and flying predators while hardware cloth does the work where ground predators reach.

The five measures that cover nearly everything

1. Half-inch hardware cloth on every opening and the lower half of the run. Covers weasels, raccoons reaching through, rats and snakes.
2. A two-step latch on every opening — a gravity latch or spring bolt, not a hook. Covers raccoons, opossums and skunks, which routinely open simple catches.
3. The door shut at dusk. Covers raccoons, foxes, owls, skunks and opossums, which between them account for the large majority of losses. The highest-value measure there is, and it is free.
4. An apron or buried mesh around the perimeter. Covers foxes and dogs digging.
5. Overhead netting on the run. Covers hawks, which are a daylight problem nothing else addresses.

Add electric poultry netting if you free-range over an area — it is the only measure that stops a fox, coyote or dog before it reaches the coop at all.

Match the measure to the animal

Barriers and deterrents are not the same thing

Worth being precise about, because most of what is sold in this category is the second sold as the first. A barrier physically prevents entry and works while you are asleep and on a hungry animal. A deterrent makes the location less attractive and works until the animal decides the food is worth it.

Flashing solar lights, motion sprinklers and scent products are deterrents. They are a legitimate additional layer on a coop you have already hardened, and they are not a substitute for one. A hungry raccoon in February will test any of them.

The cheapest high-value upgrade

A steel self-locking gravity latch, costing less than a bag of feed. It replaces the hook-and-eye catch most coops ship with, and the two-step action — lift, then pull — is beyond most raccoons. Do every opening, not just the main door: the pop-hole, the nest box lid, the cleaning hatch, the run gate. Raccoons find the one you forgot.

Aprons beat burying

UNH Extension suggests burying hardware cloth at least 12 inches to deter diggers, and that works. A 16-inch band laid flat on the surface, pinned with landscape staples and grown over by grass, achieves the same thing with no digging — because a digging predator starts at the base of the wall, hits mesh, and does not reason its way further out. How to fit one.