do skunks hurt chickens?

[laura625]

or just steal eggs?

 

[fried green eggs]

Small chicks may tempt them but they love eggs : }

 

[mljohnson05]

Skunks will Kill chickens and eggs as long as they are around. If you see a problem you need to get rid of the dank skunk. They can climb over under through anything they can to get to them.
you can use Live trap catchers that can be bought at your local tractor supply Company.
But I suggest putting a tarp over the part that the animal does not enter from...that way when you go to move it (relocate, or whatever you want to do with it), that you do not get sprayed. Make sure to wear OLD clothes, gloves and to have a mask handy for the smell.
Hope this helps, and best wishes,
Laura

 

[laura625]

Thank you, very helpful.
Has any of you lost chickens to skunks?
I
Imagine that short of encasing the whole coop in hwcloth, it would be very hard to skunkproof.
I wonder how many skunks might be on the 5acres the chickens range..I wnder how far
Skunks travel...
I havent Seen any skunks on the proprry, but swe know they are around... would it make sense to set traps? Just so that any skunk that gets too close to the oens gets attracted to bait and caught?
I dont want to end up attracting them..

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Yes, the skunks are TERRIBLE this year! I lost 2 hens to skunks so far this summer. Those stinky little hellions went right underneath my electric fence and helped themselves 2 nights in a row. I waited inside the doorway of my coop the 3rd night and blew that little bugger to smitherines. After that, I've kept a close eye on the coop and have shot over 30 of those little devils!

 

[laura625]

Wow! 30. Those little buggers run Thick.
I have only a BB gun..:/v,
Sorry about your chickens. Sounds like you saved many more than you lost.

Luckily, I expect to b getting my 8 birds into better accomadations by the end of october...
By them they will have started laying.
I wonder what I could do to keep skunks away in the first place..

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

I don't know what would work to keep them away. My poor neighbor, he has 2 ouside dogs that roam the property and the one got sprayed twice in two days

. They also lost chickens but had absolutely no success trapping them in live traps. I believe they tried everything from fruit to eggs to leftover chicken dinner in the trap.

 

[luvmychixandducks]

A skunk repeatedly dug under my pigeon loft- day 1 I lost two young birds, day 2 (I put a large boulder in the hole- skunk dug right around it- ) cost the rest of the eggs being incubated (pigeons only raise two at a time). Day 3 A shootout ensued- we both shot and neither missed. Had one come back again in late fall/early winter and I threw a lally column at it- a glancing blow but discouraged it from coming back to attack my rabbits. I actually saw it dive at the wire trying to get at my doe. They are opportunists- will take a shot at anything edible and powerless to defend themselves, I guess. Too bad they don't like possum. They can eat all I have...

 

[skillswife]

And they will climb chicken wire. My mother in law has an 8ft ft chicken run with no roof( much to my dislike and repeated disapproval) and went out one morning to find a skunk in with her chickens killing 3 large hens.... There was no other way in except to climb the run. Sneaking little devils!

 

[PotterWatch]

We have lost birds to skunks and opossums this year. More to the opossums than the skunks, but they are both trouble.