Poultry Predator Identification

[tn_artist]

like tfpets earlier in this thread, we also dealt with a skunk. I had just bought a beautiful young pair of porcelain and 5 young bantam cochins. Every morning, another one was dead. I assumed a racoon and moved the dog to that side of the yard.
When Whiskey started his whining and barking I knew it was our night time visitor. I grabed the flashlight, the 22 and picked up a large stick as I made my way across the yard.
I peeked in to the coop to see where the 'racoon' was and was shocked to see a skunk! I had no idea they would bother chickens. I didn't want to deal with the smell of spray so - no gun, no stick, but shining the light inside scared him off. We repaired the fencing the next day, but it was too late for most of the birds, including my porcelains.

 

[joeynumber1]

Awesome article! I just saw a fox in my padock today. My mom and I were sitting on our deck in the afternoon and I said, "Look, there is that orange cat." ( An orange cat lives in our hay loft.) My mom stood up and I saw the face and tail and we both said at the same time, "THATS A FOX!" It was about a foot away from two of my chickens and it was walking, so Im assuming that it was stalking them. My mom (who was barefoot) ran to the padock with our dog close behind. Joey (our dog) chased the fox far into the woods but we arent going to take any chances so we're keeping them locked up for a few days because we know that it will probably come back.

 

[Kat.n.dave]

hello
im new n i just wanna no whats the biggest mistake a person can make and what signs do i need to look out for?

 

[currycomb]

we have a loud coon dog penned next to the chicken pen. pen is under trees, for shade, but also hawks and owls cannot swoop down and pick off any birds roosting on the wire covering the pen. horses are around the chicken pen and dogs keeping the grass down(actually no grass, just dirt). have a donkey with the ponies, and their pasture encircles the chickens and the goats, as we now have cougars to contend with. So far so good, just 2 skunks and one snake so far in 5yrs.

 

[skeeter03]

Allright need some help here -
Last thursday middle of the night something was at the chickens - whatever it was (we think coyotes) they ripped through the chicken wire and walked off with 4 big fat meat birds and one little rooster. they left 4 others mangled with random bites ones head was chewed on / the others butt was mangled/ and the other had a skinned neck and one left dead in the pen with its head missing- the holes in the wire were low to the ground and not overly big about 12 inches by 12 inches and no more then 6 inches up. we never did find any of the dead chickens back they are long gone not even much of a feather trail beyond 20 feet from the pen. I have one meat bird (pinky) now in isolation with a big ole wound on her breasts(she got missed in the initial butchering of the wounded cause she was lying down and we didnt see it) but its now 5 days later and she is still eating drinking and walking around just fine. so according to the criteria in the article this covers alot of different predators. needless to say the dog is now tied on right beside the chicken house and the chickens are locked up at night. the whole whatever it is that grabs the chickens heads and pulls makes sense.

 

[alycoop]

Wow, this has given me something to think about. I didn't know raccoons would chew through wire.

Our area has raccoons and possums and the usual assortment of neighborhood cats and dogs. I have seen hawks during the day.

I'm on a 1/2 acre at the end of a dead end lane although we're near town.

We have six pullets about 5 to 6 weeks old.
We have a cedar shed-style 'house' with a long narrow run attached. We
wrapped the run all around and on top with 1/2" hardware cloth. Plus, we made a "skirt" of hardware cloth secured down with tent stakes.

We have a padlock on the outside door of the coop so neighbor kids won't get curious and open it up. The only thng left open is the small chicken door for the chickens, from the coop into the run. We leave this open so they can take themselves out into the run in the mornings.

So far nothing has bothered the chickens and I haven't heard any noise at night. We do get raccoons up on the front porch if we forget to bring in the catfood so I know they are around at night.

Are raccoons actually able to chew through hardware cloth?
Should I close up the chickendoor and just open it up every morning?

Now thinking of making an outer fence of hardware cloth about 4 feet out from the coop and run. Is that overkill?

 

[skeeter03]

The hardware cloth is what everyone recomended I use to skirt my run - that or electric wire 6 inches up -which I will probaly go with just to learn that dog and cat of mine to stay back and stop trying to charge the pen lol .
the critters shouldnt be able to pull anything through or get through the hardware cloth though.

 

[australorp]

Hi I have a question, can a red tailed hawk kill 5 chickens in one day?

 

[ginamjones]

reposted

 

[bugdoodle06]

OK can someone tell me what did this?,,,

We woke up at 1:00 am to the RIR hens raising a ruckus. We ran out there and found a coon in the coop.
We removed him and checked all the chickens for wounds. All were well and just shook up a little..
So we went back to bed. At 7:00 am my husbang goes to check them and finds one dead, jammed between a roost bar and a nesting box. A pile of feathers (neatly placed) was on top of the nest boxes where the hens usually sleep and she was gutted...
Belly and most of the guts eaten out ...whatever it was even took the gizzard and emptied it the ate the gizzard.. other than the pile of feathers there was no mess... (no blood, no guts, NOTHING!)
Any ideas?????