Poultry Predator Identification

[Betsy57]

I'm tired.

If you let your chickens free range you WILL LOSE them!

I don't care if they were out for hours while you were at work or for just a few minutes while your back was turned. You WILL LOSE them!

I don't care if you have let them free range for years and never have lost one yet, the odds are not in your favor. You WILL LOSE them!

If you want 100% safe way of protecting your chickens while they are free range, THERE ISN'T ONE!

If your run roof is not covered securely with 1/2" hardware cloth or solid wood or steel, you WILL LOSE them!

Just accept that losing a few or all of your flock to free ranging is a fact of Mother nature.

I will not accept it until I have done everything that can be done to keep them out of my 50'x50' chicken yard. So the razor wire will go up this weekend.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Up to about 50 years ago no one lost very many chickens because they were free range. But it was a different world back then. Any chicken eating predator had to run a gauntlet of buck shot, bird shot, watch dogs, and steel traps to just get within hearing distance of a chicken. Now-a-day the chickens keeper practically serves the predators iced lemonade while the predator picks out its next meal.

 

[rcjsmom]

I noticed 2 of my girls missing tonight. We looked all around the fenced, covered run. Found 5 or 6 feathers similar to one, but nothing of my grey Americana. There are no tunnels, fencing is attached to shed. It is all 6' kennel panels with welded wire over the top secures by zip ties. It also has a second layer of fence, either field fence or wood pallets around the exterior. There were some things knocked over in the coop that was unusual, like water bowl and I smelled skunk when I went out out this morning, but I cannot figure out how it would get a full size bird and a Banty out of the fenced area without so much as a feather from the larger bird. Ideas?

 

[jammyjammy2112]

I'm tired.

If you let your chickens free range you WILL LOSE them!

I don't care if they were out for hours while you were at work or for just a few minutes while your back was turned. You WILL LOSE them!

I don't care if you have let them free range for years and never have lost one yet, the odds are not in your favor. You WILL LOSE them!

If you want 100% safe way of protecting your chickens while they are free range, THERE ISN'T ONE!

If your run roof is not covered securely with 1/2" hardware cloth or solid wood or steel, you WILL LOSE them!

Just accept that losing a few or all of your flock to free ranging is a fact of Mother nature.

mine have a fort of a run and i let them free range during the day but one night they were locked up and a mink got them if they were free ranging some couldve flew off and hide but they had no chance being locked up there is no 100% garentee with poultry u WILL ALLWAY LOOSE SOME POULTRY if you keep them no matter if there free ranging or not. p.s i never lost one while free ranging so far

 

[muscovy ducks]

great article cause i am losing eggs and this morning i found a cracked fake egg in the nest luckily he didn't get the real ones but i think it might be a coon:/

 

[muscovy ducks]

we got trap for the raccoon (never again he will eat the ducks and eggs) e

 

[BonnieBarberini]

We have a flock of 8 and we lock them up at night. A few days ago we found one chicken with its neck badly damaged but she'll be ok. Her sister was dead - mauled on the neck and chest but no feathers strewn about and no evidence that she had been eaten. I live in Las Vegas. We do not have raccoons or things like that. Where the chickens are kept its impossible that it was done by a dog. I think it was a cat. We do have hawks here but if a hawk had killed it, wouldn't it have eaten some of it? What do you think? Is it true that a goose will chase cats away?

 

[Cuccismith]

What about foxes? I saved my chickens this morn at 5:30 from one!

 

[SpeckledHen10]

Very helpful, thank you!!

 

[Backyard Raiser]

I have seen crows fly off with young chicks and ducklings as well. We live in the country next to a wooded area with 2 creeks bordering our yard and cattle pastures all around us. We lost many chickens, guineas, and ducks to predators or many types. A few deterrents we have employed to keep our free range birds safer was to leave a weather protected radio on in the back yard.
Talk shows seemed to work the best.
We also have guineas to ward off snakes and squawk to warn of nearby predators or strange things, we have many cats to keep mice and rats at bay (some even sleep in the chicken coop at night), we have 2 large dogs, (German Shepherd and Black Labrador) to protect against larger predators. Not all cats or dogs are bird killers. We worked with them all to prevent them from getting into a killer habit and that they need to treat them like they are part of the big family and are not something to eat.
We have had great success with our pets for then past 5 -6 years.
When coyotes are yelping at night or early morning we generally fire a gun into the woods or into the air to scare off predators we can't see but are near by, this seems to deter critters from coming around for some time.
We do keep our birds penned up at night and release them in the mornings.
I hope this helps with deterring predators for all concerned.