Anyone in Portland that can tell me a lil about its predators?

[adeechickluv]

I live south of Portland, and was wondering what kinds of predators there are and how to prevent them. I'm pretty sure we have coons, coyotes, and hawks, but coyotes can't get over our fence so I'm not worried abotu them as much. I don't want to spend too much on predator safety but I don't want to wake up and find my girlies gone!

Thanks
Adrienne

 

[MoSo]

Racoons, possums. Rats are a distant possibility - not a lot around here, but some. Mice, which are everywhere and get into the food. If you are close to water: minks, nutria, weasels. The usual hawks and owls. If you are in the Cascade foothills, bear and bobcat are a possibility.

 

[optic1]

I hope you have the fence buried a foot or two down in the ground. Coyotes will dig right underneath them just like any dog. Snakes can smell a long way away also. They love eggs.

 

[peepacheep]

I am not in the Portland area but loose dogs have been the biggest problem for chickens along our road this year. In the past my neighbors have lost a lot of chickens to raccoons and civet cats, (the cute little spotted skunks). I have pretty much the list of predators that MoSo gave plus bald eagles. Had a immature eagle perch 50' from my covered run last fall. Very cool for me to see but the chicken froze in their tracks until it flew off.

 

[felidaet]

I live just north of Vancouver and so I am close to you. I have a secure coop and lock the chickens in there at night.

During the day they are in a run. They only free range when I am working in the yard. Due to all the rain we have and the preditors in the sky, I have a roof on my run. (Composition shingles like on a house). There are lots of hawks and eagles in the area. They circle over my yard daily. The last few days I have been seeing a group of 5 bald eagles circling together in a group! And there is at least one huge bald eagle that I see circling by itself. This particular eagle oftentimes flies close to the ground, about 20 feet up from the ground. It is a definite threat. Hawks are everywhere.

The bottom three feet of my run is covered in hardware cloth. Yes it is expensive but necessary. Poultry wire will not keep preditors out. So far it has kept out the coyotes and ocassional neighbor dog. I have not buried fencing around the run yet but it is on my to do list.

Racoons and Coyotes are our biggest ground threat. We do have some possums but not as many as we had about 30 years ago. I don't know if they are a threat to chickens or not. If you live in a more rural area, there is even a chance of bobcats in the area. They are not common but do appear ocassionally.

 

[optic1]

I forgot to add that I was on a website from a breeder up north. He said he found away to keep the hawks away and swears by it. But I had to laugh, he says he keeps a radio going by his coop. And he plays news - talk radio stations. I'm still chuckling, but who knows it might work.

 

[adeechickluv]

I don't know, those newscasters are pretty scary to me!

Ehh ... we chicken keepers are pretty crazy; I for one get excited about poop boards.

 

[optic1]

Another thing to try come to think of it. The cherry season is almost here so the the orchards tie up those silver and red sided foil streamers to keep the birds away from the cherry trees. They really flash around when the breezes hit them. It might be enough to make a larger bird be wary.

Shotgun

 

[MoSo]

Quote:
I'm over on the east side of the Cascades (although I lived in Portland for 26 years) - I see bald and golden eagles every day, we've got year-round nesting pairs here. My coop run is covered in wire and I have old CDs dangling by fishing line. My hardware cloth fence is buried a foot down and a foot out - we'll see how that does. We definitely have a largish coyote pack, bobcat (a mom and 2 kits) in the area and an adult male cougar who is not afraid of anyone or anything - rumor has it ODFW has him on their list over some large livestock killings.

 

[PeepsHanginWithMe]

I'm in West Linn, so probably very similar situation although semi rural on Pete's Mt. between WL and Wilsonville.
Up here we have Coyotes, hawks and skunks. Never seen any rats or snakes.
Unfortunately, my biggest problem has been with loose dogs.
About a month ago my flock of 28 was out in the early AM free ranging when 1 or 2 dogs got into the yard and killed 9 birds!!
Wasn't coyotes because they take them and eat them.
These were left dead, no blood, just lots of feathers eveywhere and broken necks.