This predator wants to eat your chickens. Photograph of fox courtesy of Acradenia.
Imagine being startled out of your peaceful sleep in the middle of the night by the sound of a commotion in your back yard. As you slowly awaken, you realize it is the sound of chickens screaming bloody murder.
As you throw on a pair of shorts and grab your three D cell aluminium flashlight you remember that you forgot to close and latch the chicken door that evening. Leaving out the back door you begin to run towards the coop.
The ruckus of the hens has begun to taper off. The sound of the back door opening and the bright light of the flashlight has scared off the predator. Your heart racing, you begin scanning the tree line with the flashlight. The beam of light reveals two pairs of beady eyes.
It turns out it was raccoons that had raided the coop and made a meal out of all your baby chicks. The rest of the flock was helpless, aside from sounding the alarm. You feel awful at the loss of these chickens that are under your care.
Chicken Keeper Reality Check
I don’t have to imagine this scenario because it happened to me one night with my first flock of bantam chickens. I have never met a chicken keeper that has not experienced losses due to predation.
It is easy to romanticize keeping a backyard flock of chickens but it is not all eggs, fluffy baby chicks and antics.
The sad fact is that there are many predators out there that enjoy eating chicken. I have taken one step to make sure that this never happens to my flock again.
Never Forget To Close The Chicken Door Again
Automatic chicken door installed in coop.
My solution to night time predators has been to install an automatic chicken door. I built my own using the Add A Motor D20 but there are prefabricated doors available as well.
The door I use runs on a simple timer. The same kind of timer that can be used to turn lights on and off in the house. This has the added benefit of convenience as I never have to go out in the morning to let the chickens out.
Don’t wait until predators come for your flock to close the chicken door.
Related Pages
- Automatic chicken door conversion, phase one.
- Automatic chicken door conversion, phase two.
- Chicken coop 2.0.
- Baby chicks.
- Chickens love to take dust baths.
- First eggs!
Are you considering using an automatic chicken door?