do skunks hurt chickens?

[chickengeorgeto]

If you want to know how likely you are to have skunk attacks in your neighborhood, this is the time of year to calculate the risk. In January and February skunks rut. Just like a teenage boy with the family car, skunks run their little feet off looking for a mate. This results in numerous auto verses skunk encounters. If you'll just crack your drivers side window a little bit when you drive down the road, you won't need to keep your eyes peeled for skunk carcases, your nose will alert you.

Skunks are members of the weasel family. The main reason their gait looks clumsy is because of their wide bushy tail and short legs. The clumsy thing is an illusion. If a mink or weasel can find it's way into your pen, a skunk can as well. Hens who are sitting especially those who have stolen their nest away are especially at risk of dying in a skunk attack. Not only are the skunks attracted to the smell of a warm chicken dinner, the aroma of incubating eggs acts like an appetizer and gives away her location.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Just curious ...after they get in the live trap then what?

The old saying about not touching something with a 10 foot pole is a good one. Already have your 10 foot pole attached to the live trap. As mentioned previously, a tarp covering the top of the trap is a good idea.
Lift trap, skunk and all with the pole and baptize them in water deep enough to cover the whole contraption. (a 55 gallon drum seems about right to me)

About 5-10 minutes in Neptune's locker takes the fight right out of them.

 

[dirtydozen]

Here's two nights worth of skunk the first week of last november. There was a fifth one but there wasnt much of him after I shot him at close range. I try to shooot them from the side or head on to avoid the direct spray

 

[colburg]

Here's two nights worth of skunk the first week of last november. There was a fifth one but there wasnt much of him after I shot him at close range. I try to shooot them from the side or head on to avoid the direct spray

NICE, do you trap or hunt? Or both?

 

[RockerHen]

I've never had a skunk kill a hen, but I had them steal eggs from right underneath a brooding hen! The hen was brooding in a brushy spot, and I checked on her and her eggs everyday. I started to notice eggs were disappearing, until one day there wasn't a single egg left. So I moved the hen, set a trap directly where her nest was, and used a whole egg as bait. Next morning, a skunk was in it. It took lots of time and soaking to get that trap to ever smell the same lol. I wonder what the hen thought, as a skunk reached underneath her and stole her eggs? I'm very surprised he left her alive.

 

[littlechick1005]

My experience with skunks = losing my prize rooster and ducks! My beautiful rooster King, sweet as could be, couldnt find a better rooster in the world taken out in his retirment by a fat old skunk...poor fella

 

[smarsh2]

i can hardly believe a skunk would kill a rooster. was he roosting on the ground? i have never known a skunk to kill an adult bird. first off it would have trouble catching one. and they don't climb, they will dig under fences but will not climb over.

 

[Audio51]

I think I lost a hen today to skunk. We leave for work before the sun comes up so I can't always let them out of the chicken yard, but they have a coop they roost in every night. It has a wire section underneath covered by hardware cloth and a door. The ladder leads from that up into the coop. (about 4'x5' for 5 hens). They have access to the coop and the chicken yard on days we can't let them out to roam the backyard until after work. I always go straight out after work to check them and collect eggs. I knew when only 4 of the 5 were at the gate to be let out that something was wrong. I found my beautiful light Brahma hen dead between the door to the coop and the back fence with her head and one leg missing. There were a few other places that looked a bit gnawed on, but that was it. The back yard smelled of skunk. My husband will be shoring up the pen tomorrow. The remaining 4 hens are locked in the coop tonight....

 

[dirtydozen]

I usually go out after dark with a shotgun and spotlight and check the pasture and chicken pen. These rascals showed up at 8pm and I found them inside the pen. There is about a two inch gap between the gate and the end fence post they were squeezing through. Bless those chickens, they are not gun shy at all but they may be deaf by now.

 

[Audio51]

Well ........so far so good this morning. I went out and checked before I left for work and it smells even stronger of skunk but there weren't any sign of any. Nothing in the trap and the door is still latched on the chicken coop. My husband will call me when he gets up and let me know if everybody is safe