How can I save my chickens from skunks?

[Shadyfarms]

If everyone shot every piece of wildlife they saw there would not be very much left. If you cannot keep your chickens safe from predators without gunz a blazin you should not own chickens.

 

[djhowe69]

Put a .22 caliber hollow point or a Magnum 22 hollow point into the skunk's head. Don't worry, the small goes away over time. You can also set out a dish of pure vanilla extract to dissipate the smell.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Make sure your coop and run are secure... Then, trap and shoot!.... Walking forward to the trap with a tarp or old blanket in front of you, and then draping it over the trap, keeps you unsprayed. Then, take it away from buildings and carefully remove a corner of the tarp, to get a clean shot, and bury it there. Wear gloves! Or, wrap it.... Also, don't have food or water of any sort outside your safe coop and run...

One other thing. Do not keep or leave voids like hollow pipes sticking out of the ground or ground hog holes etc where a mama skunk can move in to raise a brood.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... If you kill small predators you literally are seeding rodents all around in your property. If you kill predators you create a sink around your home that will be inmediately replenished with new young animals from other areas searching for a territory. This is how diseases spread much faster...

Prey tell then how do these phantom diseases you alluded to spread so rapidly into territory that has a decreased population of "small" predator species susseptable to these diseases?

Every plague in the known history of the Earth occurred when there was a plentiful amount of individuals crammed into a tiny space which enabled diseases to spread rapidly. Conversely a population that is dispersed will not be at as great of a risk of contracting an infectious disease.

It is interesting that you mentioned the word "crippled" in conjunction with the word "birds". Some years ago the State of Colorado did research on Mountain Lion predation on Mule Deer. They were having trouble catching enough Mule Deer to radio tag for this study so the University pressed into service a Mule Deer doe that got tangled up in a fence and as a result one of it's rear legs had to be amputated. This deer along with 6 non-"crippled" deer were released into an area with a "healthy" Mountain Lion population. within 24 months all 6 healthy deer had been killed by Mountain Lions but the three legged deer was still hobbling around the study area. Predators don't only kill those that are fixing to die on their own. Predators are opportunistic feeders and that means when they see an opportunity to feed they will try to make good on that opportunity. Whether the predator is successful or not is mostly a matter of chance.

 

[Lonesome Dough]

Chickengeorge very good post and I really like your signature, I quit commenting on this subject because you can't reason with bunny huggers that think everything is beautiful.
Over all I think most here subscribe to the shoot and shovel method. We actually have an ag paper here that sells S-S-S bumper stickers.

 

[pvaldes]

> Prey tell then how do these phantom diseases you alluded to spread so rapidly into territory that has a decreased population of "small" predator species susseptable to these diseases?

Because the survivors need to cover much more territory to find a new couple, or quit the area searching for new refuges until to feel safe again, for example?.

Because marginal animals, looking for a place to settle, stop hearing territorial calls in the next hill and go there as fast as they can to reclaim the place for themselves?.

> Every plague in the known history of the Earth occurred when there was a plentiful amount of individuals crammed into a tiny space

Is not so simple as that. One animal can host the diseases that kill other kind of animals without being too much affected itself. The ecological concept of vector species deals with that stuff. Parasites are complex little buggers, often with complicated life cycles. If does not matter how dispersed or crammed if there is a mosquito that fills the gaps.

> within 24 months all 6 healthy deer had been killed by Mountain Lions but the three legged deer was still hobbling around the study area

Nice history, but, hemmm, this is a proof of... what exactly? bad sampling election? good luck?

Maybe we could conclude that the fastest, biggest and fittest adult deer are not so easy to capture by the scientists as the naive young ones? Do you understand that you can't trust statistics based in a such small number of animals?.

> Predators are opportunistic feeders

... therefore... if you have a safe frustrating coop they will choose the easier meal: Rodents, garbage, small fruits, passerines, bird feeders, carcasses, insects...

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Opportunity refers to the simple presence of a pray species and because the term "bunny huger" was employed by a different poster than myself I feel that these examples of "Opportunistic feeding behavior is appropriate.

Poor bunny, no free ranging for him. I am glad however that the Red Tail Hawk in this video didn't rupture itself when it stooped down out of the wild blue wounder to snatch the bunny in this video. I never knew before that Red Tail Hawks had X-Ray vision like Superman. Why they can see plum through an old sheet of 3/4 inch plywood, who would have thunk it?

The following video is a good argument for keeping your chickens confined.

 

[pvaldes]

You are right, rabbits can't free-range. The poor, poor creatures are totally unable to survive in the wild, as any Australian or Spaniard could tell you.

Here is a different idea about how to save your chicken from skunks that maybe could deserve a try.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/foxes-farm

 

[chickengeorgeto]

You are right, rabbits can't free-range. The poor, poor creatures are totally unable to survive in the wild, as any Australian or Spaniard could tell you.

Here is a different idea about how to save your chicken from skunks that maybe could deserve a try.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/foxes-farm

Wow pvaldes, I was unawares that you had skunks running around the country side in England. I also doubt that you have the solitary cotton tailed rabbet that inhabits most of the so called "New World" It is obvious from your last post that you have the European Hare and the North American cotton tailed rabbet confused in your mind.

And you seem to be posting about a species of animal that is entirely unrelated to rabbets,

 

[pvaldes]

Not. We don't have skunks here. We have other carnivores with, more or less, similar diets (skunks eat a lot of mice, but also lots and lots of insects, beetles and grubs)

Yes. I'm perfectly aware that a hare and a rabbit are different animals. European rabbits are super-easy to identify and watch. Hares are pretty difficult to identify at species level in the field, but you can do it if you look for ear distal spots, underbelly colour, and presence of black bands around eyes and cheeks.

The domestic rabbit that you show in your first video is not a cottontail. Is (most probably) an european common rabbit, the main domesticated species. An animal hugely popular all around the world and the only commonly available in the market. Please don't try to lecture an european about what is a rabbit. Is a key species in all Mediterranean countries.

You have prairie voles and cottontail rabbits. We have common voles and common rabbits. Both faunas are pretty equivalent in this sense; and economical damages caused for them to people living in rural areas are equally huge.

We knew that predators cause damage, but now we are slooowly understanding that predators have also a positive side. The most dramatic registered example was the reintroduction to the wolf in yellowstone, unchaining a unsuspected cascade of benefits for other living inhabitants in the area and effectively "healing" the forest.