HOLE near Coop!

[cheeptrick]

My husband and I while searching for eggs all around the coop found a huge hole in the bushes. Maybe 2-3 foot deep; we covered it with a huge boulder.
What could be living in a hole that huge? I envisioned something hiding out in it watching the chickens...waiting! I think it was a fox hole?

 

[justusnak]

YIKES!! I dont know what MIGHT have been in there, but hope whatever it is, that it doesnt try to dig out, and end up IN the chicken run. Maybe you can move the boulder....and put a live trap out there? Catch whatever it is? Be carefull...if its a badger...they are mean!!

 

[EboyDog]

My first thought would be groundhogs as those critters are all around were I live in Missouri BUT a couple months ago I was checking my coon traps and my dog chased a skunk into a groudhog burrow so sometimes other animals will take up in groundhog dens.

Was there fresh dirt as if it was freshly dug out? put some baby powder on the ground nearby to check for tracks. Groundhog dens have more than one entrance and exit, check for other holes nearby.


This is a groundhog hole:

Be CAREFUL!!! Some are armed!!! and they will try to defend their family and home!!

NEVER leave the keys in the vehicles either, they are terrible drivers!

 

[nccountrygirl]

 

[RioLindoAz]

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[cheeptrick]

Ebony....thank you...that was an unexpected scroll down! I needed to laugh!
The hole was MUCH bigger than that hole...at least a foot in diameter. I checked all around and there was not another hole. Now I know why the girls were ranging only on the other side of the property and running from the coop like wild women! We've been seeing fox. I think it was a fox hole.

 

[Forest_Nymph]

For either a fox or a groundhog, you can stuff the hole with used cat litter! The ammonia will drive them away!! (sometimes) If not, then trap it and relocate or dispose of properly.
My neighbor had a young groundhog set up housekeeping under is front concrete steps. He went out and bought a havahart trap and relocated him north on the interstate.
Good luck and hope you can rid the property of such a nuisance.

 

[EboyDog]

I don't believe that groundhogs will hurt the chickens but it's the whole burrow thing they leave behind that can attract bad critters, good idea to sealing it off but you will want to check for others, foxes and skunks will run off groundhogs and take the hole over.