I’m trying to talk my folks into a larger garden and raise chickens as well, unfortunately we have a large coyote population here and last night round 3am they were have a sing fest; it’s hard to coyote proof the hen houses.
Critter Control is always an issue. I used to have regular raccoon attacks as well as wild mink when I was raising laying hens for fun and little profit.
I found that keeping a radio on in there 24/7 with a Talk Radio station playing helped; hearing human voices seemed to be a deterrent, though, of course, my hens were always quoting Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, LOL!