My chicken coop is not a great example coop. It's a shed the previous homeowners converted into a small coop. In round 2 of reinforcement that has lasted for t

My chicken coop is not a great example coop. It's a shed the previous homeowners converted into a small coop. In round 2 of reinforcement that has lasted for two years without incident I used heavy 2x4s drilled into the wall to cover the hatch that used to be there. Round 1 I used some thin plywood to cover the hatch that the previous homeowners had installed. That was destroyed by a bear (and before people ask I used a night wildlife camera to see what was happening). The guy just ripped it off. They have not bothered the heavier duty reinforcement. Other people in the area have had bears kill chickens but the highest kill count I have heard about came from minks, which was over 2 dozen in one night. Apparently at some point in the past someone was trying to run a fur farm with minks, and when they went belly up they released all of them into the woods. Minks and similar small predators are really effective at breaking into buildings and killing helpless/dumb creatures. Black bears are tiny dudes compared to grizzlies. They are pretty strong and very athletic, but they are not huge dangers to people unless you do something really stupid. They are more hazardous to livestock, dogs, and property. Deer and moose are more actively hazardous to people and far more numerous because they don't really understand the whole concept of looking both ways before crossing the road.