Can Squirrels kill chickens?

[StruckBy]

Fox squirrels WILL kill bantams. They are not the cute sweet little herbivores most people think. They wiped out my entire flock of racing pigeons, a call duck, & a bantam hen before we managed to shoot enough of them to keep them out of our yard. It was a burb of Denver and we ended up using an air rifle with a laser scope! Fox squirrels are a major predator of several threatened bird species. Yes, they normally only go after eggs & young but in urban environments they are often so overpopulated because of the lack of predators & abundance of escape/hides they will start to go after larger prey as well. I had one kill a decent size snake in my yard while I was trying to get the gun loaded. Killed the @!%# squirrel but not in time to save the snake that had been eating the mice drawn to the dropped pigeon grain. Fox squirrels are about the only predator I can't respect.

 

[memphis]

Jillgoudie.....just noticed this was you first post...so welcome to BYC! And sorry for the loss of your hen.

 

[sandovaljose214]

Probably weasel ? well any ways sorry for your hen

 

[jsykas]

I had a dead 3 day old chick that had been separated from the rest and had it's belly chewed up. Odd it happened during day not at night. I put out a trap with chicken meat. I caught a red squirrel. They must eat meat as it ate all the bait before it tripped the trap. Who would have thought? But a red squirrel does indeed kill chicks.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Those pretty little gray squirrels in the park that you see old men and women feeding peanuts to also have an appetite for baby birds. Peanuts are not the grey squirrels only source of protein.

 

[Tsumo]

I've had 2 buff orpingtons die recently from their injuries. They are fine when I let them out in the morning and by the afternoon their backs are torn to ribbons. I thought it was the goose but he's white and not bloody and stays away from the chickens normally. (He g own after them on occasion) I'm in Wisconsin. I have had an explosion of gray and red squirrels all of a sudden in my yard. Nothing else gets in the pen with my birds besides the squirrels. I've also found I've been missing eggs! Both hens I've found in the hen house hiding when they died. What is going on!!

 

[rbonefeld]

2 squirrls lived in harmony for yrs. with my chickes One day I spilled a sackof corn and didnt clean it up.Within one week i haod 7 gray squirrels. The day after the corn ran out one was nothing but feathers. The next night the rest were lilled and partially eatten

 

[chickens r life]

I highly doubt that a squirrel will bite the head off of a chicken. After all, they aren't carnivores.

 

[CrazyTalk]

I highly doubt that a squirrel will bite the head off of a chicken. After all, they aren't carnivores.

Where do people get this idea?

Squirrels most certainly are carnivores. They'll eat pretty much whatever they can get their paws on - from small birds to snakes to mice - and larger injured animals - like rabbits.

I'd be surprised to see squirrels kill an adult chicken - but not shocked. This is probably a weasel though.

 

[chriseagan]

Squirrels don't last much past the first sighting on our watch , they frighten my birds and that's enough to exterminate.