Keeping Chickens Safe from Predators

Keeping chickens safe from predators has to be on your list of priorities.

Unfortunately there is a fair few predators here in the UK that want chicken for dinner!

All in all, visits from intruders are inevitable and all you can do is put the right measures in place. The fear of intruders attacking your flock should not hold you back. It is possible to raise chickens safely.

Before you build your chicken pen research the area you live in. What are the potential predators?

Here we take look at the main culprits in UK.

Magpies and Crows

They will eat a lot of poultry food and put chickens at risk of various diseases. Besides this, they kill young chicks, bantams and steal eggs.

What can you do about them?

• Hanging up a dead crow or magpie will help keep others away
• A scarecrow, moved regularly
• Half-full plastic bottles or CDs hung up
• Shoot with any firearm
• Use a Larsen Trap following the standard licence conditions.

General Licence

You do not need to apply for general licence GL42, but you must comply with its conditions. For further guidance on the current rules and regulations about trapping and killing corvids please take a look here:

GL42: general licence to kill or take certain species of wild birds to prevent serious damage

Rats and Mice

Rats are nuisance wherever you live but rats are dangerous because they spread disease. But subsequently they will consume valuable feed and water. A sign of a vermin problem could be a raided sack of feed, a chewed feeder or gnawed fence.

Rats will kill young chicks and gnaw at chicken legs. In winter they will seek out running water, warm housing and feed.

Ideas to protect your flock:

• Remove food and water at night
• Ensure the chicken house is elevated
• Do not situate the chicken house near any compost, rubbish or piles of logs.
• Secure galvanised feed bins will stop rats chewing through to get the feed.
• Motion sensor lights around the coop to trigger a warning to any pests
• Site the chicken house and run in an open area. This will discourage pests and predators from coming out in to the open.

What to do if you have a rat infestation?

Humane traps:

Humane live catch rat traps can be left set permanently near the chicken house. Dispatch the rat with an air rifle shooting through the back of the head.

There is also the A24 Goodnature Rat Trap. The traps are humane and toxin free and have been designed to save you time and effort. Operating them is a breeze – you don’t even have to get your hands dirty. Find out more about them in the instruction guide here.

Poison & Bait Boxes:

Use bait inside bait boxes so that the rodent goes into the box, eats the bait and go back to its hole. Whenever baits are used they should be in lockable boxes, never use it loose or scattered.

There are laws and regulations in place for poison use in the UK. So you will need to be certificated to buy and use poison in bulk.

Small quantities of bait are available to buy online here:

• Sapphire Grain Bait *10 x 150g Pouches
• Jade Grain *10 x 150g Pouches

Kill traps

The final options are immediate kill traps. Placing a network of traps along known rat runs is very effective. Ensure they are placed in tunnels to keep non target animals safe.

• Springer Mk4 
• Plastic Rat Trap
• Plastic Mouse Trap

Always wear gloves when handling dead rats and resetting traps. Because the smell from your hands will put off the next rat from going near the trap or bait box.

To conclude

By identifying the predator problems in your area and being ready for them you will be one step ahead.

Hopefully this guide will help!