Raising Meat Chickens
Even though the first day of winter was only a short time ago, it is time to start planning to raise meat chickens during the coming spring. If you’re still straddling the fence, I hope this article helps you decide if raising meat chickens in your backyard is for you. Even if you live in an urban area, chances are good you can still raise chickens for meat. First Things First Food processing, whether fruits and vegetables or meat, increases self-reliance. It also ensures your chickens are raised humanely in a clean, cage-free environment. Supplying your family with natural organic meat, free from growth hormones and antibiotics, is essential for raising meat chickens in a backyard. Add the fantastic taste of farm-fresh chicken meat, and you’ll wonder why you never raised your own. Not everyone wants to or can raise meat chickens. Some cities and suburban areas may not allow backyard chickens; if they do, the number of chickens may be limited. Others may not have the space or have neighbors who object to raising chickens. Then, there is the last aspect of raising meat chickens. After putting the work and effort into preparing your chickens for the table, can you process them? You can take them to a processor, but even this might not be easy. I won’t lie to you. The first butchering is hard for most backyard chicken farmers. Some find it more difficult than others do, making it the first and most important consideration before raising meat chickens. If your area allows chickens, you have the space for them, and you’re okay with the emotional aspect of butchering, consider giving it a shot. For many of you, you’ll be glad you did. Let’s Begin Once you’ve decided raising meat chickens is for you, research the breeds. There are different meat breeds and dual-purpose breeds that are good for egg laying and meat production. Deciding which breed to buy is an essential first step. For your first batch of meat chickens, start small, keeping your group to no more than five or six. A good rule of thumb is to buy one or two extra chicks since it is common for a chick or two to die. Keep your choices simple by staying with a well-known breed like the Cornish Cross. They are inexpensive and available at most local feed stores or online hatcheries. The Cornish Cross There is a lot of negative discussion about this breed, causing most first-time backyard chicken farmers to pass them up. I’ve seen many horror stories about the Cornish Cross. There’s a lot of concern over the birds supporting their weight and heart attacks. From experience, if done correctly, Cornish Cross chickens are easy to raise without any health issues. We’ve successfully raised many Cornish Cross flocks and consider this bird a great meat flock for beginners. The two mistakes flock owners make are overfeeding and not butchering soon enough. When our Cornish reaches three weeks old, we only feed them during the day, removing their food at night. If food is left out, these birds continually eat, causing them to gain too much weight too quickly. The Cornish Cross’ constant eating contributes to their rapid growth, making them ready to butcher at eight weeks. Removing their food at night helps slow the growth process. While you can butcher any time you want, we recommend eight weeks. You’ll get a bigger bird by waiting longer than eight weeks and not cutting back their feed, but they’ll also have health problems. The 8-week butchering time frame is two weeks less than other meat chicken breeds and at least one or two months before the dual-purpose breeds are ready. By following these suggestions, you should do great with raising the Cornish Cross. The Cost of Raising Meat Chickens in a Backyard No matter which breed you buy, keep costs under $10 per bird. Costs include the cost of the bird, shipping, and feed. By choosing the right breed, raising meat chickens in a backyard costs much less than you think. If your backyard chicken farm is already set up, the only cost is your chicks, feed, and possibly the brooder. If you don’t have a brooder, you can make one reasonably cheap using repurposed items. Your basic brooder needs are a container to keep the chicks in, a heat light, bedding, feeders, and waterers. For the container, anything with high sides to keep the chicks in and provide a safe environment will do. We bought a used stock tank for $25 at our local feed store. The tank gives us a safe place for all our new chicks for years to come. You can also use plastic kiddie pools or a sturdy cardboard box. Brooder Supplies Whatever you use, all brooders must have the following characteristics: ? Brooder Supplies Checklist ? Enough space for each chick to easily move around Safe from any sharp objects or safety hazards Easy to clean or discard, like a cardboard box (Cornish crosses poop a lot) Easy to move Heat source – I recommend the EcoGlow for low-cost operation Easy to reach food and water* Brought to You by thebackyardchickenfarmer.com ? Water containers must not be too deep because your chicks can drown. For new chicks, I recommend a water nipple system or a drown-proof waterer made explicitly for young chicks, like a mason jar waterer. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases which helps with website upkeep. After Cornish Cross chicks are past the brooder age, about three weeks, you can move them to a larger area as long as they are not showing any signs of illness. For other breeds, usually, six weeks is an excellent time to start moving them. No matter what breed you choose, you must separate young chicks from older chickens and give them time to acclimate with the flock before mixing them. Our chickens are part-time free rangers. However, we rarely let the Cornish free range
Raising Backyard Chickens 101
Many people in the inner city suburbs are starting to realize the benefits of raising backyard chickens. They are easy to take care of, produce fresh eggs for the table, and are a great learning tool about farm life for children growing up in the inner city. This article will give you the inside scoop on raising backyard chickens 101. Raising Chickens in the Backyard Inner city life brings with it a lot of pros: you’re close to the action and work, you don’t miss out on anything, and you don’t have to sit through hours of peak hour traffic, but it also holds you back from having the backyard of your dreams. Many of those who live in the inner city do not have much space in their yards; many only have courtyards, but if you have enough space to install a chicken coup, you get the best of two worlds: city and urban. ? The Backyard Chicken Movement Timeline ?️ Early 2000s: Rise in urban chicken-keeping as part of the sustainable living movement. 2009: “The Backyard Chicken Revolution” book by Gail Damerow boosts interest in keeping backyard chickens. 2010s: Increase in city ordinances allowing backyard chickens in urban areas. 2016: “The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens” by Andy Schneider becomes a bestseller. Present: The backyard chicken movement continues to grow, promoting self-sufficiency and sustainable living. Brought to You by thebackyardchickenfarmer.com ? Chicken Coop and Run A coop and run is essential for your flock of backyard chickens. Plenty of shed companies supply well-sized chicken coups for backyards, so you can benefit from raising chickens while living in the inner city. For those who enjoy doing things yourself, build your chicken coop from any designs found at Easy Coops, like this small chicken condo suitable for most backyards. All the Easy Coops plans have a chicken house design with enough space for the number of chickens they are built for, and all provide adequate light and ventilation for a healthy flock. I suggest having an outside run area large enough to allow good exercise for your chickens. This may mean adding extra space to your plans or building a coop bigger than the suggested number of chickens for the coop design. You can make any of these coop designs using used lumber from a second-hand building store or with pallets. Add a coat of paint, and no one can tell. Your chickens need a bare area to take a dust bath in the run. They rid themselves of mites and bacteria, not with water but dust. They need an area of dust approximately 2′ by 2′ by 16″, either bare ground or a low-sided box filled with dust. If you use the ground in your yard for their dust bath area, you might want to consider one of the moveable chicken tractors. As its name implies, this coop is a portable pen that you can move from one area of your yard to another. These unique coops have wheels on one end and handles or a handlebar on the other. The Cost of Raising Chickens Chickens are easy and inexpensive to maintain, compared to your average pet, and they are your very own chemical-free bug and weed control; they make an excellent fertilizer, and your kids will love them. There are two costs associated with raising chickens: startup costs, like the coop, equipment, and the chickens themselves, and ongoing costs for food and other essential supplies. Maintaining a chicken flock of three chickens or less costs approximately $30 monthly. If you are up for a little nature experiment, you can raise your chickens from an egg by making an egg incubator. You can watch your chicks hatch and raise them from birth to be the big, healthy, egg-laying chicken of your dreams. Your chicks will eat crumbs and drink water from a drip. Encourage your kids to play with the chicks to get them used to being around people from an early age. If you haven’t spent much time around chickens, getting to know them from when they are chicks is a great way to acclimate yourself to them, as it can be a little daunting to start with adult chickens, and it helps you learn the temperament of each chicken. If you plan to raise baby chicks, I suggest using pine shavings for the flooring of your chicken coop. It is non-toxic, making the coop easy to clean, whether you are raising babies or not. Just sweep everything out of the coop and bag it for trash collection, or let it sit and use it in a compost pile the following season. Final Thoughts It is also important when considering raising chickens to check with your local council to see if it’s legal in your area; this may be an issue if you have a small yard, but it may be possible to keep one or two. In addition, if you live under the regulations of a Home Owners Association, you must check their rules and regulations once you have verified your city or county allows you to raise chickens in your backyard. While the government council may say yes, the HOA may look differently at raising backyard chickens.
Raising Free-Range Chickens
Raising free-range chickens is a hotly debated topic with many things to consider from both sides. Before deciding what to do, evaluating the pros and cons of letting your chickens roam free is best. Several of our neighbors raise chickens, and most of them do so with coops surrounded by fully enclosed runs. In some cases, they don’t have the 2 acres to homestead with like we do, often only one half-acre, so keeping free-range chickens from straying to the neighbors is much more difficult. Then there are those backyard chicken farmers like our neighbors to the north of us, who breed show chickens and heirloom breeds to sell. The last thing they want is a bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks, mixing with their girls. On our little urban homestead, we raise our chickens differently than many seasoned chicken farmers. We are not experts, and our system is imperfect, but it has worked for us for several years. But as with anything else, it does have its drawbacks. The Benefits There are many benefits to having free-range chickens. When chickens roam free, they are exposed to fresh air and sunshine, which benefits most living beings. But more than that, free-ranging allows your chickens to forage for their food, which is a natural instinct. The Drawbacks While I wish I could tell you everything is great about letting your chickens free range, it’s not. You must consider some negative points before deciding if free-ranging is for you and your flock. A Middle Ground to the Debate The issue of free-range chickens versus a caged run is not so black and white and has several options for both sides. There is a middle ground that incorporates a little of each side of the debate. Fenced In Yard This is the middle ground we chose: the fenced-in chickens. Our backyard is bigger than most. With two acres, we have one acre in the back, completely fenced in, with 6-foot privacy fencing on all sides. This gives our flock lots of room to roam and forage for food. In addition to having a huge, fenced-in area, we only part-time our free-ranging. Even with a fenced-in yard, our chickens only free-range while we are there to keep an eye on them. Sometimes, this may be all day, or other times, just a few hours, and not always every day, though we try to let them out at least a few hours. This is because even in our suburban area, we have a lot of predators like coyotes, raccoons, and neighborhood dogs. When our chickens are free-ranging, we leave the gates to the chicken runs open, allowing them to go inside the run if they feel threatened for any reason. By nature, chickens are homebodies. As much as they love to forage, they have the instinct to stay close to their protected roosting areas where there is protection and plenty of food and water. When the sun sets, they head to the coop without our encouragement, and then we lock the gates for the night. Occasionally, we may have to track a stray down, but that is rare. While this is not a fool-proof way to free range, it works well for us. Unfortunately, our world is not predator-free, and even with all the barriers and being close by when the flock free-ranges, losing part or all of a flock is still possible. Predators can find a way into the most secure areas even when humans are near. The lure of a food source is stronger than the fear of human contact. The choice of free-ranging and how to do it is an emotional decision that needs careful consideration. Using a Mobile Chicken Tractor If you decide to let your chicken free range is not for you, the next best thing is the mobile chicken tractor. A chicken tractor gives the benefits of foraging for their food while being protected in an enclosed environment. A mobile chicken tractor keeps your flock out of the garden and is moveable to new areas daily to prevent overworking one area, keeping your grass and foliage healthier. Chicken tractors can be purchased ready-made in various shapes and sizes, depending on your needs. The cost will set you back anywhere from $150.00 to $1,000.00. You can make your mobile chicken tractors for a fraction of the cost. I highly recommend two resources for chicken tractor and coop plans. One of the most versatile sets is called Green House Style Chicken Coop. Easy Coops offers this fantastic tractor plan and a vast selection of other moveable and stationary coops. They also offer a free basic and deluxe plan that includes material cuttings, additional blueprints and illustrations, and more. These plans are great for the small backyard chicken farmer to the full-production poultry grower. The cool thing about these plans is they are multi-functional for uses other than chickens. In addition to using them for raising meat chickens or egg layers, they work great as a cold frame or a fort for the kids. Conclusion Whether you are raising free-range chickens or not, most backyard chicken farmers can enjoy success. Not everyone can free range because of space, predators, landscaping, or neighbors. Providing a safe, clean environment and enough fresh water and food is all you need for a happy and healthy backyard chicken flock.
Chicken Coop Necessities
Happy, healthy chickens need proper housing, but knowing the chicken coop necessities may seem daunting. Don’t let choosing the house for your chickens intimidate you. Meeting the needs of your flock, whether building your chicken castle from scratch or buying ready-made, is easy and should provide for four basic needs. The Components of a Chicken Coop As I wrote in my Free Range article, chickens have an innate homing instinct, keeping your flock close to home. Our feathered kids are such homebodies that even after free-ranging all day, our chickens are perched in the coop every night before sundown. You don’t need a poultry castle for your chickens to come home to. Chicken coops come in many shapes, sizes, and designs, from fancy to plain. Believe it or not, your chickens won’t care what the coop looks like if it provides the above four basic needs. With that said, before deciding what coop you will buy or build, you must determine what coop features are needed that most closely conform to a chicken’s natural behavior. Hopefully, I can help you understand what you need to buy or design and build your chicken coop. Below, you will find what I consider the chicken coop necessities. The Basics Let’s start with the basics. Chicken coops need a roof, four walls, and a doorway for entering and leaving. The design and the materials used for the chicken coop are up to you. Your choices are endless if the coop is primarily draft-free (you still need healthy ventilation). The number of chickens you plan to house determines the coop space. A good rule of thumb is 4 square feet of floor space per large chicken and 3 square feet for the smaller bantam breeds. Also, consider the ease of cleaning when choosing your coop design; you’ll be glad you did. Security Making a chicken coop predator-free is the most crucial part of building a home for your flock. You must secure the coop’s top, bottom, and sides. Consider all angles for security when looking at any pre-made coop or chicken coop building plans. You should consider not only coop security but also yard and run security. We recommend steering clear of standard chicken wire when choosing the wire for your run and coop. While it works well for keeping your chickens contained, it’s not entirely predator-proof. Because the holes in the standard chicken wire are large, coyotes, raccoons, and foxes can still reach through the mesh, causing harm to your chickens. Always use a small hole wire like hardware cloth with ½ inch openings. Another consideration when building the chicken yard or run is airborne predators like hawks. You must include covering the top of the run as well. Our chicken runs use the same size mesh fencing on the top as the sides. Finally, there are predators from below, such as rats and mice. These critters are attracted to the feed and droppings and burrow under your coop. Protect your chickens using a coop with a floor built into it or burying small mesh fencing below it and extending it about 12 inches on all sides. The Outside Run All coops need a connecting chicken run or pen. Chickens need access to the outside to do all those “chicken things,” like dirt baths, catching bugs, scratching dirt, or just relaxing in the sunshine or shade. Your chicken run should ideally have 10 square feet of ground space per full-size chicken. The smaller bantam breeds require less, about 7 square feet per chicken. If your chickens free-range most of the day, you can get by with less space. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases which helps with website upkeep. Laying or Nesting Boxes If you want eggs, you need laying boxes. Make your boxes as fancy or plain as you like, just as long as they are about 12″ x 12″ and raised off the ground a few inches. You need one box for every four laying hens. Boxes should comfortably fit the chicken and have low enough sides for the hens to step over. Be sure to keep your boxes lined with clean straw or other bedding. Roosting Perches All birds roost, including chickens. Your coop needs a roosting bar or something off the ground that your chickens can perch on. We strongly suggest having perches inside the coop and outside in the run area. When figuring roosting pole size, you need 5-10″ of space per chicken and 10″ between each pole if you use more than one. Multiple poles also need grading like ladders, so the farthest pole is several inches higher than the next. There are many shapes, sizes, and styles of chicken coops to choose from. Making the right choice for your needs is essential; all coops must contain all the necessary elements. Bottom Line Regardless of how big or fancy you make your chicken coop and run, knowing the basic chicken coop necessities is the first step toward raising a happy and healthy flock. You can add many other additions for your chickens’ pleasure, but the above five items are standard for any chicken coop and run.
Best Laying Hen Breeds
When we started raising backyard chickens, we put a lot of thought and research into the best laying hen breeds. Learning which breeds were best for our purpose saved us time and money by avoiding buying chickens unsuitable for what we wanted. Twenty years later, we know which breeds work best for us. So which is the best chicken for laying the largest eggs? Below is my pick for the 5 best laying hen breeds. Backyard Laying Hen Breeds All hens produce edible eggs, but which ones are the best egg-layer chicken breeds? I prefer brown eggs, so I base my breed choices on ones known for laying brown eggs. However, brown eggs are not healthier than white eggs: I just like brown eggs. The chicken’s diet controls eggs’ health benefits, the yolk’s richness and color, and the bird’s overall health. Many people argue that you can’t taste the difference between store-bought eggs and fresh eggs—I say, “baloney” – because the yolks are richer, more nutritious, and have a better taste than any eggs in the grocery store. Raising chickens organically and cage-free produces healthier and tastier eggs and meat. Once you try organic meat chicken, free of antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals, you’ll never want chicken from the store again. Treats for Your Girls – They’ll Love Them 5 Best Egg Layer Hens Rhode Island Red: This is my favorite layer due to their medium-sized brown eggs and above-average laying rate. Being cold and heat-hardy, Rhode Island Reds are suitable for any climate. They are easy to care for because they adapt well to a penned or free-range environment. Reds are aggressive, so be careful what breeds you place them with. This dual-purpose breed is well-known for both egg production and meat. If you want a do-everything breed, the Rhode Island Red is the one to pick. Leghorn: These chickens lay extra-large white eggs, producing over 300 a year. Even with their smaller size, they make an excellent dual-purpose chicken, using them for meat once their laying production declines. If you want a meatier chicken go with the Plymouth Rock. Their egg production is lower but they are a large chicken, with an average weight of 10 pounds. While I prefer brown eggs, I always include a few Leghorns for their terrific laying rates. Buff Orpington: This breed has above-average production of large brown eggs. Their friendly nature and cold weather hardiness make them excellent beginner chickens. The Orpington is a good brooder and a wonderful mother if you plan to raise chicks. They also make good pets; I wouldn’t have a flock without one or two Orpingtons. However, other birds pick on them because of their docile nature, so they don’t do well with aggressive breeds. Black Star: The hens are above-average layers of large brown eggs and begin lying around five months. They are a hardy breed and easy to raise. These hybrid chickens are a cross between Barred Rock hens and Rhode Island Red roosters. The chicks are easily color sexed, meaning you identify males and females by color. The males are black, while hens have gold plumage on their necks and breast. The Black Star is another good beginner breed with a calm nature, making them good pets. Ameraucana: Also known as Easter Eggers, these backyard chickens lay eggs in shades of blue, blue-green, green, and cream. These easy-to-handle birds lay medium-sized eggs, are winter hardy, and have average to above-average egg production. Ameracuanas adapt well to confinement or free range and are calm and non-aggressive, making them good family chickens. Your kids will love collecting the colorful eggs. ? Best Laying Hen Chicken Breeds ? Chicken Breed Egg Laying Stats Rhode Island Red Approx. 200-300 eggs/year Leghorn Approx. 280-320 eggs/year Buff Orpington Approx. 180-220 eggs/year Black Star Approx. 240-280 eggs/year Ameraucana Approx. 180-200 eggs/year Brought to You by thebackyardchickenfarmer.com ? Our Conclusion Try various breeds for your backyard flock. Finding the best egg layer hens starts by understanding your desired results. If you want meat and egg layers, I recommend including dual-purpose chickens like the Leghorn and meat chickens like the Plymouth Rock. A flock of three to four hens gives a family of four an adequate amount of eggs, but I always have a flock of ten, usually more.
Raising Laying Hens
During my many raising adventures in raising laying hens, I found myself in a position I didn’t like. I had to do it and wouldn’t say I liked it. Five days before my family arrives for a holiday, I am standing in the dairy aisle of Sprouts Farmers Market. As I reach toward the gray paper pulp carton, my hand freezes, and a cold sweat covers my forehead. I am slightly over-dramatic, but it irritated me as I snatched the egg carton from the cooler shelf. Molting came early, usually starting the second or third week in December. I put off buying eggs until the last minute, hoping for fresh organic eggs to serve my guests. It wasn’t meant to be. The carton of eggs went home with me. Molting is one of the most irritating problems when raising laying hens and the most common reason your hens stop their egg production. But when they stop laying outside the molting season, other issues may cause your lack of eggs. 1. Improper or poor-quality food 2. Low Calcium 3. Lack of clean, fresh water 4. Dirty coop and nesting boxes 5. Illness and injury 6. Parasites 7. Housing that’s not secure 8. No space to roam Raising Laying Hens and Keeping Them Laying When raising laying hens, the main goal is gathering lots of delicious, organic eggs. But sometimes, flocks take a break from their regular laying schedule, leaving us wondering what to do. Here are eight tips for keeping your hens in top laying condition, delivering you many eggs throughout the year. 1. Use Top Quality Feed Feed is one area of raising chickens you never want to cut corners with. Always feed your girls the highest quality food your budget allows. A huge misconception is that hens need laying pellets for egg production. We found that a higher protein ratio helps with egg production better than laying food. We feed a mixture of egg pellets and game bird ration containing 28% protein. It made a big difference in the production rate and size of the eggs. Our girls like high protein better than laying pellets. We also supplement with kitchen scraps so they get a well-balanced diet and lay amazing eggs. Remember, each flock is different when raising laying hens, so what works for one person’s hens may not work for another. The important thing is using high-quality food and adding fresh greens, mealy worms, vegetables, and other treats to their diet. 2. Add Calcium The makeup of eggshells is 95% calcium, so it makes sense that egg-laying uses this vital element in the hen’s body. Always keep a dish of crushed oyster shells in the chicken pen. Hens know when they need Calcium and will seek the oyster shell. You can find crushed oyster shells wherever you buy your poultry supplies and on Amazon. 3. Plenty of Water Chickens need a constant supply of fresh water. Whether you have hens or roosters, water keeps your chickens healthy and the hens laying. Chickens have discriminating tastes and only like clean water, preferring to stay thirsty over drinking dirty water. Change their drinking water at least once each day. 4. Regular Nesting Box Cleaning Regular nesting box cleaning helps encourage your hens to lay. They like the comfort of clean boxes with a thick layer of bedding. There’s a wide range of materials you can use as bedding. Our girls like straw; we like it because it’s easy to clean, and the dirty straw makes a great addition to the compost pile. Other bedding materials include non-treated sawdust, shredded paper, straw, and recycled newspaper pellets. Never use aromatic wood, like cedar, since it’s bad for a chicken’s respiratory system. 5. Parasite Control Parasites and mites prey on your chickens and infest a coop, and the run before you notice them. Make checking for these pests a part of your chicken inspection routine. Mites are tiny, reddish-brown spots over a chicken’s body and head. Look for mites during the night when they are the most active. When you see mites on your chickens, treat them and the coop simultaneously. If you only treat the chicken and not the coop, they become infested again when they enter the coop. At the first sign of mites, clean the chicken coop and replace all bedding. Sprinkle coops, nesting boxes, roosting areas, and floors with diatomaceous earth. If you don’t mind chemical treatment, you can use seven dust, which won’t harm your chickens. 6. Provide a Secure Home Laying hens need a predator-proof coop to keep animals like cats, raccoons, dogs, and opossums out. Laying hens stay on the nests for long periods, making them an easy target for predators. Coop doors and gates need sturdy latches to keep raccoons from opening them. Place a small hole wire around your pen and coop to deter animals from squeezing through or digging under the enclosure. These extra precautions protect your chickens from injury and death and help stop the loss of eggs by predators. Check out our Predator Proof Chicken Coop article for more information on how to protect your precious laying hens. 7. Let Them Free-Range During our years of raising laying hens, we found chickens are happiest, stay healthier, and lay more eggs while free-ranging. We understand not everyone can do this, but let the hens forage if possible. Our girls are part-time free rangers. We allow them to roam while we are home, then lock them in the coop area at night to protect them from predators. Part-time free-ranging is easier than you might think. It took a few weeks, but our girls go inside the coop alone when the sun sets. We have a solution where everyone benefits: our girls happily graze all day but stay protected at night when predators roam. Plus, they know where their nesting boxes are. We rarely have eggs left outside the boxes unless they can’t make it in time. Before letting your flock free-range, even
Predator Proof Chicken Coop
Protecting chickens from predators is such an important topic, and a predator-proof chicken coop is vital to flock safety. This article helps you determine the type of predators you have and find what works well for safeguarding backyard chickens. In the natural food chain theme, chickens have no predator defense other than some distrust, unlike most animals. Whether predators are wild or domestic, chickens are the perfect prey because of their slowness and the amount of meat on their bodies. Living in the suburbs or city limits does not mean you’re predator-free. Domestic animals, like prowling dogs and cats, threaten the backyard flock as much as wild predators are to the farm flock. How to Protect Chickens from Predators How you protect chickens depends on what predators are in your area. Different predators need different methods of protection. Understanding the types of predators posing a threat can give your chickens better security while reducing losses. If you are unsure of the predator types in your area, talk to your neighbors or contact local authorities or animal control. There are several defenses for protecting your chickens from predators. Protecting your flock from predators is an ongoing job. Whatever options you choose, predator protection must be inspected and maintained often. In most cases, more than one or even all of these predator protections are necessary for protecting your flock. Whether you live in the city or rural areas, predators threaten all chicken flocks and their eggs. I receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.