I agree that ground hogs won't eat your chickens, but I do have a word of warning for you! They are extremely fast! AND the females are VERY agressively protective of their young! I once had the misfortune to experience this for myself. Years ago my hubby and I were looking at some property that we were interested in buying. The owner took us to his home to show us the property. Before we went outside he picked up a 22cal rifle! My husband asked him what it was for, he told us that he had a ground hog den in the back and that they never went out back without a gun! Well, we followed him out back, he was on guard and so was his son. We were looking over the property when they shouted "Look OUT! Here comes a huge ground hog. Running full bore at me! I turned and ran as fast as I could. They kept yelling "RUN! RUN!" I glanced back as I was running and there it was, right on my heels! It finally gave up and went back to its den. I don't know if it got tired or if it finally figured I was far enough away to not be a threat. If anyone with small children have them on their property, I would try to get rid of them for your children's safety.
We trap them with have-a-heart traps and let them go far, far away! They have dug massive tunnels along the foundation of our front porch. There is no possible way to fill them all the way up. We tried washing the soil back in but ended up flooding our basement as the tunnels ran along our foundation. My mother also has one along her foundation. I causes water to leak into her basement when it rains. Their tunnels always have two entrances. An escape route of sorts. They are very destructive! I have never seen so many in my 51 years of existance. I never saw one until about 10 years ago. Now they're everywhere! What the heck happened? No more natural predators?
Sorry...end of rant. Please be careful!
poor baby ! He has not returned thankfully!
