How To Keep Predators From Digging Under a Chicken Coop & Run (Best Way to Prevent Burrowing Animals & Protect Your Chickens)

How To Keep Predators From Digging Under Chicken Coop With a Predator Apron

Hands down, my favorite way of keeping animals from digging under my chicken coop and run is the predator apron system. It’s so simple and cheap to make!

If you don’t know what a predator apron is, definitely watch the video below (or keep reading).

What you need:

• Fencing material (Amazon) that’s at least 24 inches in height.
• Staple gun and staples (Amazon)

All you have to do is attach the fencing material to the bottom boards around the perimeter of the chicken coop with staples.

Make sure to pay close attention to the corners where you attach the fencing material together (the seam). For some reason, predators love to start digging in the corners. So make 100% sure that the seams are securely attached.

To keep the seam secure, I used hog rings and a hog ring plier (Amazon) to fasten the fencing material where it overlaps. There’s no way animals can rip the seam apart.

The predator apron system is much easier than the old method of digging a 12″ trench all the way around the perimeter of your chicken coop, burying some hardware cloth into the dirt.

How the Predator Apron Stops Burrowing & Digging Predators

When an animal tries to dig underneath your chicken coop or run, they’re not going to dig at the outskirt of the apron. They’re going to be digging as close as they can to the base of the coop where they’ll immediately run into the apron. And, of course, they won’t be able to dig their way through the fencing material.

Chicken Coop vs Preditors: 2 Common Mistakes

Since you must have a predator problem on hand, here are 2 additional tips that might help you out.

Mistake #1: Chicken Wire vs Hardware Cloth

One mistake beginner chicken keepers do all the time is using chicken wire around their chicken coop and run.

Chicken wire = Not good

I personally don’t use chicken wire because predators can easily tear through it. Chicken wire is more for keeping your chickens in than keeping predators out.

I really recommend you replace any chicken wire with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (Amazon) because it really works to keep all sorts of predators out of the chicken coop.

Predator Guard vs Digging Animals

If you really don’t want nighttime animals to be around your coop in the first place, what really works for me is this thing I bought on Amazon called Predator Guard (there are also other kinds of predator deterrent lights available on Amazon). I had a lot of trouble with raccoons in my yard and this little gadget fixed that problem!

Predator Guard introduces a pair of flashing red lights that animals assume is a set of eyes. It scares them and makes them stay away from your yard.

I attached 4 of these little gadgets around my chicken coop, facing out in all four directions. Works like a charm! It also scares foxes, deer, wolves, coyotes, skunks, bears, and other nighttime predators.

Summary: How To Keep Animals From Digging Under Chicken Coop

• Hands down, my favorite way of keeping animals from digging under my chicken coop and run is a predator apron. It’s so simple and cheap to make!
• To predator proof your chicken coop, I really recommend you replace any chicken wire with 1/4 inch hardware cloth (Amazon). It really works to keep all sorts of predators out of the chicken coop.
• If you really don’t want nighttime animals to be around your coop in the first place, what really works for me are predator deterrent lights (Amazon).