Different kinds of Skunks?

[centrarchid]

There are striped, spotted, hooded, and hog-nosed skunks. They all can be found in the U.S. Another thing you can try is skunk repellent which should help the skunks get the message of moving on.

Which occur around OP?

 

[Makayla1226]

The striped and spotted skunk.

 

[Searsmom]

Skunk repellent? Buy at something like a Bass Pro Shop or is this like going to the zoo and asking for Tiger poop?

 

[Makayla1226]

Lol, you can buy skunk repellent sprays online or make it yourself. Hot pepper wax is good and I've used it myself. Look online for more about that.

 

[centrarchid]

Lets see your poultry pens. A long-term option may simply be a modest design change to keep the skunks out. The use of repellents will require frequent refreshing the repellent and that assumes it actually works.

 

[Searsmom]

They can't get in unless I leave the door open. It's 3' off the ground on stilts, with a human door at one end and a ramp that opens out of the bottom and is pulled closed and latched from the inside. Around the open area underneath is 1/2" welded wire fencing, which is stapled to the side of the house at the top and legs and extends out 12" at the ground and has grass growing over it. For the chickens to get out from under the house, I cut a hole in the side and my husband fitted and attached the welded wire opening to a piece of heavy leftover sub-flooring, which has a door shape cut out of it (one piece frame) on a bottom hinge so it works like a ramp when it's open; the top of the frame is screwed into the house. The welded wire still runs out 12" underneath this. The latches for this "hatch" are 1' 6" apart and gravity pulls the latch down, so even if a raccoon plays with one latch and gets it open, he has to let go to open the other and in the meantime the first one falls down again. Skunks? No way. My concern is, since they know there's chicken and duck in there, would they come out earlier to get at the babies that arrive this spring? I can be vigilant about watching the sun go down, but would they come earlier? If they do, I'll have to do either do some repelling or take care of it on a more permanent basis. I have seen raccoons out during the day but the chicken house is far enough away from the woods and our cat food that they haven't discovered it yet. Are skunks the same way - if they know there's easy food, do they come out earlier to get it? That's my dilemma. The skunks know what's there - my fault. They won't be able to get to it after dusk.

Now that I've said that, watch something find a way in.

I'll take some pictures and upload them this afternoon.

 

[centrarchid]

I have raccoons, oppossums and skunks. First is biggest challenge and they very much have a lay of the land in their head. Distance you have from woods is not going to be a barrier for raccoons. The greatest risk they pose will still be at night. Skunks seem not to be as inclined to hit an area for bigger prey as they are going to be more concerned about their foraging for insects and like they must dig for. Raccoon or Mr. Fox will be your bigger headache for birds out and about.

 

[blucoondawg]

I have live trapped many skunks, they are very easy to trap in a livetrap they are not trap shy like coon can be, It has been my experience that the skunk doesn't spray usually spray when caught in the trap and I have carried traps with skunk in them and had them not spray, you obviously don't want to jostle them around a lot though or they will. I just carried the trap away to a area a little further from the house and let the skunk out and shot it. sometimes it would spray a little when shot but the smell wasn't strong and didn't last long. It wasn't like when you see one hit on the road and it smells so bad your eyes water and lasts for a week.

 

[Searsmom]

No doubt we have foxes, I just never see them. I know we have coyotes. One night a few weeks ago when it was subzero I was crunching through the snow back down the driveway with the moon shining bright and heard the tell-tale yip yip and the most eerie howl - not a wolf howl, not a dog howl - somewhere in between. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time. I only heard one coyote, which was odd. Usually when we hear them it's a whole pack yipping away.

So far, 2 years, we've not had a break in. Dogs, yes. I lost 3 ducks and 3 chicks. Difficult when you want to free-range. When I see a wandering dog the birds get closed in for at least 3 weeks. Usually it's an escapee and after word gets 'round the neighborhood about the crazy lady shooting dogs, they get penned again. (It's a BB gun, but they don't know that. The exception being when they're caught red-handed over a dead bird.) Maybe the raccoons just fill up on cat food and don't look any further.

This is the first I've seen any critters in the pen or coop. Startled me. We have hawks but they must be pretty well-fed too, they circle around and the chickens all hide and nobody's been snatched yet. Then again, when our cats get tired of cat food they just trot down the driveway and come back with a mouse or mole, so there's plenty of hawk food.

Another concern I have is rats. I've seen one of our cats with a rat half it's size. I know mice get in the coop because when I completely empty the coop in the spring prior to chick time, I always flush one or two out. Where there's mice.... How do you catch/kill a rat without injuring or killing your birds? I should do a BYC search and see if anyone else has solved the problem.

 

[Searsmom]

I have live trapped many skunks, they are very easy to trap in a livetrap they are not trap shy like coon can be, It has been my experience that the skunk doesn't spray usually spray when caught in the trap and I have carried traps with skunk in them and had them not spray, you obviously don't want to jostle them around a lot though or they will. I just carried the trap away to a area a little further from the house and let the skunk out and shot it. sometimes it would spray a little when shot but the smell wasn't strong and didn't last long. It wasn't like when you see one hit on the road and it smells so bad your eyes water and lasts for a week.

My husband tells me he works with a guy who does that. I'd have to put them in my car to take them any distance. Got a car I can borrow? I'm chicken to try.