Raccoons are cute cartoons, but in real life, they are ruthless wild animals. And they won’t think twice before eating your precious flock of chickens. We know first hand, as we lost three of our precious hens to them! Raccoons may be sly, but luckily humans can usually outsmart them. There are some simple steps you can take to keep these cunning little predators out of your backyard and away from your chickens.
Know Your Enemy
Raccoons are deceivingly merciless when it comes to finding their next meal. They’re clever and greedy, and they have nimble fingers – always ready to capture their prey. Not to mention, they have a good memory of what they like to eat, and they’re pretty good at returning to the same “dinner spots.”
It’s safe to say that outsmarting raccoons is not an easy task. They can undo gate latches, dig under fences, and climb over walls. They’re also significantly larger than your chickens are. An adult raccoon can weigh up to twenty pounds and can grow up to thirty inches long. It has been estimated that raccoons are the number one predator of chickens in the United States.
How Do Raccoons Prey on Chickens?
Here’s the upshot: Raccoons are not clean or gentle killers. Raccoons have high functioning dexterity, so they’re just as quick with their hands as they are skillful. If they’re able to squeeze into a chicken coop or reach their hands through the wires, they could cause significant damage to your coop.
A raccoon will kill as many chickens as it can, and chances are, it won’t do the courtesy of cleaning up after its mess. Sometimes, raccoons won’t even finish the whole bird before moving on to the next one. That was our experience, and we were left to clean up chickens with only their heads eaten off! If a raccoon gets into your chicken coop, you may be facing a heartbreaking mess to clean up.
Even more heartbreaking: Raccoons carry rabies. The good news is they can’t transmit the disease to your chickens, but they can transmit it to you. It’s essential to keep an eye out for them because they could be lurking around your chicken coop – especially at night.
How to Raccoon-Proof Your Flock
The primary strategy to protect your chickens is to make your backyard as unattractive to raccoons as possible. They’ve got tons of land options, so if yours isn’t at the top of their list, you’re on the right track. Here are five main strategies:
1. Make Your Backyard Food Scarce
Raccoons will choose to live where they can get easy access to food. Most backyards are a smorgasbord of food for these little critters. Take some time to look around and make sure there aren’t any trails of food or snacks for raccoons to nibble on.
If you keep your garbage cans in the backyard, consider moving them to the front – or at least away from the chicken coop. Raccoons love a good trash-dive every now and then, so this will keep them away from the chickens. The same rule applies to bird feeders. It’s best to keep bird feeders in the front yard, but if you absolutely must have them in your backyard, try to move them away from the coop.
2. Go After the Chicken Coop
Just as you lock up your house before going to bed, make sure your chickens are protected with a high-security chicken coop. Begin with raccoon-proof locks or latches. The rule of thumb is to find a latch that requires a 2-step process to open it. Raccoons won’t be able to get past this.
Another great way to raccoon-proof the coop is to lay hardware cloth on top of the chicken wire. Raccoons can get past the chicken wire, but the fabric will trick them.
My Mom securing the coop 
Ariel safe in her coop with chicken wire and hardware cloth
3. Actively Discourage Raccoons
There are a few ways to really get into a raccoon’s head and ensure that it will want to get out of your territory. You can try out all of these at once, or you can try one or two and see how it goes.
- Discourage them with bad smells. Raccoons typically don’t do too well with these strong odors: Hot peppers, garlic, cayenne pepper (we sprinkle this all around the outside of our coop), onions, and ammonia. Use this to your advantage! Place some (or all) of these foods around your backyard so that raccoons’ noses shrink up in disgust and tell them to move to a different space.
- Turn on the lights! Remember that raccoons are nocturnal, so they’ll be preying on your coop during the dark hours. Invest in a motion-detector light specifically made for small animals.
- Walk around your property with your dog. This step is two-fold: Raccoons don’t love the smell of canines, and they’re afraid of them. A dog’s mark of territory wards off raccoons that are particularly skittish.
4. Make Them Vulnerable
Think of raccoons as burglars. The last thing they want is to be caught. Raccoons gravitate toward houses with lots of bushes and places for them to hide behind. If you get rid of shrubs and trees surrounding the chicken coop, you create a little more visibility, which discourages raccoons from entering the premises.
5. Walk Around the Coop Regularly
In addition to giving your top-notch coop security, it’s important to check it out regularly. Look for snakes, rodents, and other animals. Keep an eye out for nests or eggs on the outside that raccoons may be drawn to. Finally, check carefully for holes in the wire. It’s easy to miss these, but this could give a pesky raccoon the perfect opportunity to get into the coop.
What Next?
Now that you know raccoons pose a threat to the safety and health of your chickens, it’s time to take action! Lucky for you, there are plenty of ways to keep raccoons out of your hair, but it does take some time and effort to work through it. Keep your chickens’ safety at the forefront of your mind and apply what you know to the predator. They’ll be out of your yard before you know it!
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