Poultry Predator Identification

[heather15]

After I lock up the "bullet-proof" house each night I had taken to raking out the dust in front of the door into a pattern so I could see by the tracks who was visiting after dark. Eventually I bought a (relatively) inexpensive field camera and mounted it on a tree nearby and now there is no question. I'd never had an opportunity to observe a grey fox before, for instance, but now I know a good bit about his habits (dawn and dusk) and even the direction from which he approaches the house.

Where I live, crows are a pretty reliable indicator that a red-tailed hawk is in the immediate area. You sure do learn to watch the signs!

Thanks for all the good info.

 

[Lovemyfarm]

What an interesing article. I have a lot to learn about these chickens. I enjoy them and had no idea they have all these enemies about them. One cat sits right under the shed that is adjacent to the chicken coop. I never thought she would hurt one of the chickens.

 

[melandtodd]

Thank you so much for this article. I printed it up and gave it to my coop maintenance-man (the hubby)!

 

[HappyRoo]

Great Article indeed! Several years ago all I had as animals go were Ducks, found all of them on different nights, Dead "chest Eaton out". Now I have 10 Chickens and 2 Coonhounds that lye around and watch the Peeps play, I built their Dog House outside the coop. Best Little Peep Setters I have ever seen! they are sisters from same litter 11 months old, Last week a Coyote came in just at edge of Brush, Ruby and Little Ann was on Him like white on Rice. by the way they were little pups when they met the Chicks, I don't think the yote had any family around ? Kinda made me angry I couldn't Take a shot at the Yote! not that great of shot for the hounds sakes.

 

[brownlooknup]

so last evening, I came home. just before dusk, and found...something had climbed the fence, got in the pen of chickens and ate the head off of "one" of my chickens. No signs...just feathers everywhere and no other chicken hurt. Any suggestions?

 

[brownlooknup]

About the foxes...when we first got our chickens about 6 months ago, Something bit through the fence and bit the side our of one of our birds. Then the next night, it dug under the corner of the fence and ate 12...We had 20 and twelve had flown out into the run over the top of the gate and those were the ones that were eaten. Come to find out, a family of foxes had moved into the neighborhood. So we ran fence all the way around the bottom of the run flowing outward from the top about a foot down. No more problems. "Til now"

 

[barbarajon]

We tried having 3 Pepper, Barred-Rock chicks in our farm. We had kept them inside a cage, but the cage distance between wires was a bit larger than usual. We kept it outside the chicken coop for the night, thinking it would be better to keep them away from coop for some time. When we came back to see them early morning, there were only feathers inside the cage. They were eaten up by the cats in our neighbor. Now I am extra careful about predators and pest.

 

[jgravilusmc]

I have recently gotten a great pyrenees pup. And came home to find it playing with a dying chicken. I tie it up in the morning and turn it loose at night. No more missing chickens but now I have stray cats coming up dead. Not wanting to lose our cats we tie it up when we aren't outside. The wierd thing is that all the cats have their guts and rear eaten. Tryin to figure out what it could be killing the cats. He gets fed more than enough. Any ideas?

 

[3scorpios]

Is the article that you all are referring to the very first post in this thread? Or is it something in the link (that seems to be no longer available)?

 

[Chairo]

New to this but I need help!! While on vacation my two girls got taken (they had a chickensitter). They both got taken during the day between 6am and 3pm and it was a stormy rainy day. They were free ranging. Having many foxes in the neighborhood my conclusion was made until I returned home to find bones in the yard. There were also two large piles of feathers and other feathers strewn around the yard and potentially the coop. I though foxes kill and run, not stay around for a meal, especially in suburbia. I am now suspecting a neighborhood dog has jumped the fence and eaten them as we found a scat that looked a little large. I am also suspecting a neighbor has cleaned up after the dog as there is evidence to suggest so - broken fence etc. I guess what I really need to know is if a fox will eat its prey at the point of kill or not. It took both, is that normal? Would it be likely to eat and leave two clean bones?