Raccoon got into the coop last Tuesday night and I had to rebuild the whole pop door at 11pm

Jesse Brown · 2026-11-01T13:50:04.389113+00:00

So last Tuesday I go out to shut the girls in around 9:30 and there's feathers everywhere and a gap where the pop door used to be. A raccoon had worked the latch loose, just jiggled the little hook until it slipped, and squeezed in. I lost my buff orpington, Henrietta, which stung since she was my friendliest one and would eat out of my hand. I stood out there in the dark with a headlamp and a roll of hardware cloth and basically screwed a new sliding door on with two barrel bolts, one high one low, and a carabiner through both. Took me until almost midnight and I was covered in pine shavings. The rest of the flock seemed shook up but fine, and they went back in the next night like nothing happened. I'm still second guessing whether barrel bolts are enough or if I should do a two by four across the bottom at night. Has anyone rigged a lock that a coon actually gave up on?

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Raccoon got into the coop last Tuesday night and I had to rebuild the whole pop door at 11pm | Backyard Chicken Keepers - HW Forums