Aaacckk: Skunk sleeping in nest box!

[redneck chicken]

When you catch a skunk in a havahart box type trap, walk up slow and place a blanket over the trap. A skunk will not sprayunder a blanket. Be carefull and relocate it or get rid of it.

 

[chickenannie]

Lynne -- do Jack Russells go after chickens?

 

[CritterHill]

I bet those were some fine tasty eggs you got out of that nestbox today!

 

[chicknmania]

I've told this story before a few times but, we had a mama skunk raise her babies in our barn one year. Everyone got along just fine...skunks, people, and chickens. And we did not have a rat or mouse problem while the skunks were there! We didn't care if she ate an egg now and then. Her babies would play on the barn floor in the afternoons, and the chickens would stroll around them! At night she would take them all out hunting.
When the babies grew up, everyone left, including the mom.

Next year though, we had skunks in the barn again; don't know if it was the same mama, one of her grown babies, or another skunk altogether, but these skunks were not friendly; they would hide behind the nest box and grab a hen when she went in to lay, then kill and eat her. We actually found two hiding under the nest box and dead hen; I'd heard her stuggling just minutes before, so we know it was the skunks that killed her. And it was a standard size hen, too....a Black Star.

We called a trapper that time cause we were having other predator problems too and didn't know how to trap a skunk, or have enough traps for everything. He brought a skunk trap, which they never went near; but he said if you use a havaheart, just cover it with a tarp or something when you set it; the skunk will still go in and they won't spray you if it's covered. You are supposed to kill them if you trap them here, but there's lots of stories on this site about skunks and people trapping and successfully letting them go. In our case we never caught one but we were successful, so far anyway, in barricading them out of our barn.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I think skunks are cute, but that might have given me heart failure, especially if I had just reached in the nest box and felt around for eggs, as I am sometimes know to do. I'll have to upload my varmint picture now.

 

[chickenannie]

Critterhill, I had gathered all the eggs earlier. Would not have used skunk smelling eggs. Actually this skunk had NO odor. And believe me, I have a good nose. The nest doesn't even smell like anything today. Lucked out I guess.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

 

[SeaChick]

We got rid of a skunk that lived under our garage by blocking up the holes while it was out. (You have to be careful not to do it when it has babies in the den, though, or they'll be trapped). Do you know where it lives? If so, google "how to get rid of a skunk" for details. Worked for us!

 

[chicknmania]

Our female skunks had little to no odor. Probably some sort of safety thing. We could always tell when the male came to visit, cause he did stink!

 

[dfunnyfarm]

I had a skunk last year. He killed 3 doz out of 4 doz chickens before I fig. out what was going on. I fig it out one day when I went out to feed. He was trying to get in my show rabbits cage. I set a trap and when I caught him he had carried another chicken in there with him. I shot him and do not feel bad about it. It was him or my whole flock and poss. my rabbits.

 

[LynneP]

About Jack Russels- I don;t think you could have them with your chickens...