Protecting Chickens From Predators in Ghana: Day and Night

The count that tells you who did it

Most farmers blame the wrong animal. A bird is missing, a few feathers lie on the ground, and the first guess is the nearest wild animal. The evidence is usually in the morning count, and it is worth reading before you decide anything.

Count the flock at dusk, when you lock up, and again at dawn, before you let them out. Write both numbers down. The gap tells you when the loss happened. A bird gone between the dusk count and the dawn count was taken at night. A bird found dead in the run in daylight was probably taken in the day, or killed by something that got in through a gap during the day.

Then read what was left. A neat pile of feathers with the body gone often points to a hunter that carried its prey away. Scattered feathers, a torn carcass in the open and a bird with the head missing tell different stories. A pattern of losses at one corner of the fence says the gap is there. A loss in a different place every week says you have a roaming animal, or several. Losses with no sign of a predator at all are a different problem, and our sudden death article covers those.

Daytime hunters: hawks, kites and crows

Birds of prey are the threat that surprises new farmers most. A kite or a hawk drops onto a chick in an open run in seconds, and it can take a bird from the edge of the flock before anyone reacts. Losses from the air cluster in the middle of the day, when the birds are out in the open and the predator is hunting.

The fix is cover. Overhead netting across the run, shade cloth on the sides and a roof over part of the run give the birds somewhere to go. Birds that can reach a bush, a tree or a shelter in one jump are safe from most raptors. A bare yard with nothing overhead is the easiest hunting ground there is.

Scarecrows and shiny objects do little for long. Birds of prey learn quickly that a hanging object does no harm, and a flock that sees a shiny strip every day stops reacting to it. Put your money into a roof, netting and cover, and keep the young birds close to shelter until they are big enough to hold their own. Our housing designs guide shows how to build roof cover into a house from the start.

Night visitors: mongooses, civets, cats and rats

Night is when small and medium mammals do their hunting, and they are good at it. They climb, they squeeze through small gaps and they dig under walls. A mongoose can get through a hole you would not look at twice, and a cat can climb a fence you thought was too tall. Losses to night visitors look like a bird gone from the house and a few feathers at the door.

The defence is a solid house and a sound fence. Walls and doors must close at dusk, with no gaps at floor level, no broken mesh and no holes at the vents. Mesh fixed to the bottom of the fence and bent outwards into the ground, or a buried apron of mesh or stone, stops the animals that try to dig underneath. Check the fence after every storm, because rain softens the soil and opens gaps.

Rats are predators too, and on many farms they are the most common night visitors. A rat will take a small chick, and a rat in the house will take eggs. Our article on rodent and snake control covers that side in detail, so read the two together.

Dogs: the predator next door

Dogs cause more losses than most farmers admit, and the farmer who blames a wild animal sometimes has a dog in the neighbourhood to thank. Dogs chase birds for sport, and a dog that gets into a run can kill several in one visit. A bird that has been chased and bitten often dies later from its injuries, even if it got away at the time.

Talk to the neighbours first. Most people will keep a dog in when they know it is causing trouble, and a calm word at the gate costs less than a loss that keeps coming. Keep the fence high enough that a dog cannot easily lean over it, and keep the gate closed at all times. If a stray keeps coming back, record the times and tell the local authority or the people who keep the dogs.

A dog of your own can help. A dog raised with poultry, and trained not to chase them, is a guard against night visitors and strays. A dog that has learned to chase birds is a liability. Do not leave an untrained dog loose in the run with your flock. Our guide to free-range breeds explains which birds cope best with a shared yard.

Fencing that actually works

A good fence keeps out the animals you are worried about and holds your birds in. It does not need to be expensive, but it does need to be complete. A fence with a single gap is a fence with a free door.

• Use wire mesh with holes small enough that a hand cannot reach through, and a mesh that does not sag when a dog leans on it.
• Make the fence tall enough to stop a dog jumping in and a cat climbing over. Many run fences sit around 1.8 metres high, and a taller fence is safer where dogs are common.
• Bury the bottom of the mesh, or bend it outwards along the ground and peg it, so a digging animal meets wire instead of soft soil.
• Fit gates that close with a latch or hook an animal cannot push open, and check the gate every evening.
• Repair gaps the same day. A hole left for a week becomes the route the next animal uses.
• Keep posts and trees clear of the fence line, so animals cannot climb over them into the run.

Look at the fence from outside too. Walk the whole line once a month, pushing on every panel and looking for footprints, dug soil or dangling wire. The farmer who only checks the gate is the farmer who gets surprised. Our cheap coop guide shows how to build the house end of the same protection without spending much.

Locking up at dusk: the nightly routine

Most night losses happen because a door was left open, a vent was not closed or a bird was left outside the house after dark. The nightly routine is short, and discipline matters more than equipment.

1. Count the birds as they go in, and check the count against the morning count. A bird missing at dusk is a loss you need to find before you lock the door.
2. Close the vents and pop holes, and check that each one latches. A pop hole left open all night is an open invitation.
3. Walk the fence line with a torch, checking the gate, the bottom of the mesh and any section you repaired.
4. Look inside the house for birds still outside, birds roosting in the wrong place and birds hiding in the feed store.
5. Lock the house door and note the time in the record. If someone else locks up, put the routine on the wall where they can see it.

The same routine in reverse at dawn matters too. Do not open the house in the dark. Wait until you can see the run and the fence, count the birds as they leave, and check for anything that has changed overnight.

Free-range birds: giving them a day outside safely

Free-range birds need a day outside, and that exposes them to every predator on this list. The answer is not to keep them locked in all the time. It is to give them a range with cover, a home they can run to and a routine that cuts the risk without starving them of the space they need.

Put shelter in the range. A few bushes, a row of planted trees or a dense shrub along one side give birds somewhere to go when a kite appears overhead. Keep the feeders close to the house and near the cover, so the birds feed with an escape route nearby, rather than in the middle of an open yard.

Release birds only after the morning is properly light, and call them back before dusk. Count them out and count them in. A free-range flock is harder to count than a penned one, so the count at dusk is the most important number you record that day. If it is short, go and look before you lock up for the night. Mistakes made at dusk are among the most common ones beginners make, so our beginner mistakes article is worth reading before the first rainy season.

People, theft and the night watch

Theft is a predator too, and it is one that many farmers are reluctant to talk about. Birds disappear from a yard at night and nobody saw anything. The honest answer is that a determined thief can take birds from almost any farm. The practical defence is to make the job harder and to make the loss visible early.

Light the yard and the house so the approach is not dark. Lock the house well, and keep the breeding stock in a building the thief has to open, rather than one they can walk into. Know your neighbours, and let them know the flock is counted every morning and every evening. Local goodwill is one of the cheapest deterrents a farm can have.

Keep the record. A farmer who can show a count, a date and a missing number is taken more seriously than one who only says the birds have gone. Write down what you see, and report it to the police if the losses are regular or the signs point to a person. Our record keeping guide sets out a simple format for the daily count.

A worked example: one open gap for a month

Take a flock of 60 Hy-Line Brown pullets, bought as day-old chicks at 23 GH₵ each. The chicks cost 1,380 GH₵ before feed, housing or labour. A gap in the fence at the back corner stays open for a month, and every few nights a bird disappears from that side. Over the month you lose 12 birds.

Twelve birds at 23 GH₵ is 276 GH₵ in chicks, but the real loss is the flock. A pullet taken before she comes into lay never earns back what she cost. The flock is smaller, the eggs are fewer and the feed has gone into birds that are no longer there.

The gap itself costs a few metres of mesh, a handful of staples and one afternoon. The farm that finds the gap on the first night, rather than after the twelfth bird, is the farm that spends least on predators in the long run. If you are restocking after a loss like this, our broiler chick page lists what we can supply.

Reading the signs: time, place and what is left

Each predator leaves a different pattern. The table below is a starting point for reading the morning count and the ground. When in doubt, the pattern of losses across several weeks tells you more than any single morning.

Use the table with the morning count. If the losses cluster at dusk or dawn, it is probably a night animal. If they happen in the middle of the day, look up. If a whole section of the flock disappears at once, check for a thief before you blame a predator. Predators are one part of the wider routine in our biosecurity article.

Questions farmers ask