daytime predator

[pysankigirl]

Anyone know what predators hunt during the day in central Virginia?

I am down 4 birds in the last few weeks. they are just plain disapearing without a trace and We are losing them during the daytime. (my coops I built to withstand everything) They have always been able to free-range and I currently don't have a pen So I am crossing my fingers that it is a land-based predator. We have an electric fence that is meant to keep in our goats, So it isn’t a terribly tight spacing. (6-8”?) The other option is that it is a hawk and I don’t want to have to pen them up. I have ordered a net fence with 3" spacing...328 feet of it so enough to supplement the area facing the woods.

My poor americauna must have had a close call with whatever it is because she left all her tailfeathers in a clump on the ground. She looks like an rumples araucana!!!

I wish I knew for sure what this was. I lost sleep last night worrying.

 

[JanetS]

Do you have a game camera? This well give you the answer. I don't live in Virginia but have lost a hen to a bobcat during the day. If the predator is hungry enough it will keep coming back when it knows it can get to your chickens. Day or night. We decided to expand our chickens run and not let them free range anymore. We have had no more losses. We have 2 game cameras out in our yard and haven't seen anymore bobcats in a few months. We are hoping they've moved on because there's no more chicken dinners here. Good luck.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are a lot of things it could be with them totally disappearing and it being during the day. Some things tend to leave evidence behind like raccoons and foxes, but if they have a bunch of young to feed, they may take it all back to their den. Not all predators read the manual. They don’t always do what they are supposed to.

Bobcat is certainly up near the top of my list since they normally take the carcass away and hide it so they can finish it later but you can’t rule out dog, fox, coyote, hawk, or eagle, just to name some. With the tail feathers missing like that I’d think something reasonably big that hunts with its mouth.

If it helps any, I put up the electric netting from Premier about 2-1/2 years ago. I’d lost two chickens to foxes in three years but the real reason I got it was that people drop dogs off out here in the country. They really like to dump their pets in this area. I just lost too many to let them totally free range any more. I haven’t lost any to any predator since I put it up, except for one snake that got one chick.

I wish you luck. These things are often not easy.

 

[pysankigirl]

Thanks! we do have one of those cameras and haven't caught anything of interest on it. I put a banty rooster into the shark-cage side of a coyote trap but haven't caught anything. the netting we are getting is Premier's chicken fencing.

the chickens we have lost were 3 full sized ones and a pullet that was at point-of-lay. Could a hawk carry off a full-sized welsummer hen?

I sure hope it is a land-based predator. I just looked up the price of large pieces of durable netting ($$$$!!!!)and we have so many trees that their area would have to be limited by that.

 

[jungletoy]

I just looked up the price of large pieces of durable netting ($$$$!!!!)and we have so many trees that their area would have to be limited by that.

Big box stores carry commodity (cheap) bird netting for under $30.00 in 20'x45' sizes. This is the really fine mesh almost like fishing line and is black in color. If you go to the roofing section of the same store(s) you will find roofing nails (1"5/8 shanked nails with a green plastic cap for nice netting fastners. I live in the mountains with ridge gusts of 70+mph winds and I haven't had to replace the netting but I have had to replace sun screens (wind and UV). The netting is very durable for as fragile as it appears and the cost of ownership over time is much less expensive. The netting covers my entire chicken operation (4000sq. ft.). If you do get holes (most likely during the frustrating installation) they are easily fixed with fishing line. It's safe for birds, bats or even dogs that impact it. I think I did the whole thing for less than $200.00.

P.S. This is only for airborne assaults, any ground based predator would go through this like a hot knife through butter.