The Leghorn Problem: They Can Leave by Air
Most chicken fencing debates are about what gets in. With Leghorns you must also solve what gets out. This Mediterranean layer breed is light, lean, and genuinely flighty — a startled Leghorn can clear fencing that comfortably contains heavier hens, and once over the wire she is foraging alone in exactly the open ground where foxes, dogs, and hawks hunt. Inside the run, the threats are the standard chicken list but sharpened by the breed's nervous energy: raccoons reaching and climbing, foxes digging, and hawks striking birds who flush upward against any weak covering.
The answer is an enclosure with a roof, built from material chosen for predators, with height inside for birds who fly when frightened rather than a low lid they will injure themselves against.
Hardware Cloth Walls and a Real Roof
Line the run with hardware cloth in small openings, fixed to framing, not stapled loosely — raccoons test fixings as much as mesh, and they reach through wide openings to grab a roosting or cornered bird. Chicken wire fails this breed completely: it tears under a dog, admits a reaching paw, and rusts at ground level first. If budget forces stages, put hardware cloth on the lower walls, corners, and coop first, where attacks actually happen.
Cover the top with the same cloth or solid roofing rather than loose netting. A determined raccoon walks netting down; a hawk is stopped by a firm cover. Extend the defence underground with a buried edge or an outward skirt of cloth pinned under the soil around the whole run, because foxes and dogs dig at the wall base where scent is strongest.
The Coop Is the Night-Time Fortress
Leghorns roost high and settle late, so the evening routine matters: every bird in, the pop door shut and fastened with a predator-proof latch — raccoons open simple catches — and ventilation gaps screened with hardware cloth rather than left open or covered in fly screen. Solid coop walls, a floor or a meshed base a mink cannot pass, and perches away from any opening complete the stronghold.
Site the coop and run away from overhanging branches and fence-top highways that let raccoons arrive above your defences, and keep the ground inside the run dry; chronically muddy corners rot posts and soften soil until the skirt is guarding soup.
Signs a Flighty Flock Gives You
Count birds at lock-up; a Leghorn who flew out and could not return often roosts in a tree or hedge, visible if you look before dark rather than after. Feathers along the outside of the run, cloth bowed inward at roost height, and eggs suddenly laid in odd corners all say the flock feels watched. Note which hens panic-flush at shadows — a hawk working the area teaches the whole flock to explode upward, and repeated strikes against a weak roof section will eventually find its flaw.
Fix bent cloth and failed fixings with the same material and stronger fasteners, and after any successful attack, assume the predator returns the next night and harden the exact entry point before dusk.
In KinsLe, Family Sharing keeps the Leghorn lock-up routine, head-count notes, and run-repair details shared across the household, so the person closing the coop leaves it exactly as the flock's safety requires.