List of chicken preditors. My list. You can add your own.

[kartking22]

In Northern WI here we have.......
Racoon
Mink
Rats
Fox
Coyotes
Timber wolves
Bob cats
Mountain lions
Great horned owl
Sparrow hawk
Red tailed hawk
Bald eagle
Pine martins
Badgers
Weasels
Stray dogs
Feral cats
and even Sea Gulls. ( Take young chicks)
How the heck do you protect your chickens from all of these preditors?
You have to accept a loss to learn how to keep them safe or accept the loss if you want to free range.
Nature finds food in the easiest places. Chickens are the easiest food to find for them.
Add your list of preditors in your area.
I would like to think that my area has the most preditors.
I guess that I'll find out soon...

 

[beefy]

South Georgia

Opossums
Racoon
Rats
Fox
Coyotes
Bob cats
Mountain lions
Owls
Sparrow hawk (Coopers Hawk may be the same?)
Red tailed hawk
Bald eagle
Stray dogs
pet dogs
Feral cats
pet cats
crows
snakes
armadillos (eggs only)
feral hogs (eggs-ground nest)
alligator
osprey

though i have all of these, so far ive lost birds to coyotes opposum and coopers hawk

mine freerange 24/7 and i expect some loss. i'm used to nature. you can baby sit your chickens all day and night and you will still lose some.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We have the majority of predators on your list, also.

We have a perimeter fence and a big mean dog that patrols the area regularly. She's not mean to everybody, but she knows who is supposed to be here and who isn't. Varmints are on the "isn't" list. Our spaniel is a keen hunter and often gives the first alert, even though he isn't as threatening looking. Two dogs hunting in a pack are also much more dangerous to a predator than one is. We have a lot of cover for the chickens to hang out under and that is generally their preference.

The chickens are locked up tight at night. During hawk migration weeks, they are in lock down in a covered run, except when I take them for daily supervised walks and I actively scan for hawks, as well as have the dogs running with us. I also carry a big stick. I check the sky before I let them out and if I see a dozen hawks up there, literally, then we reschedule that walk. We didn't used to have such a problem during migrations. Times do change and we adapt.

My approach is to make dinner at our house less convenient and more risky than at other places. For most predators during most of the year, this works pretty well for us. Hawk migration time is tougher, not just because you have a larger number of predators that are coming through, but they are off their normal hunting grounds and expending a lot of energy. I think they can be more desperate and willing to take more risk.

 

[dacjohns]

A sparrow hawk is an American Kestrel and is really a falcon.
Audubon called it the American Sparrow-Hawk.

 

[nautical_bouy]

How about me????

guess whats for dinner !!!!!

 

[scrapmom5]

In Utah we have

Cougar
Bear
Raccoon (Too Many)
Eagles
Hawks
Crows (HUGE Crows)
Snakes
Coyote
Wolf (in the area)
Dogs
Cats
Fox
Rats
People

And others I am sure I have missed.

 

[Kor]

Some of those crows might not be crows, but ravens.

Crows are smart bullies.

Ravens are twice as intelligent gangsters on steroids, tattoos and all.

 

[scrapmom5]

Then Perhaps they are ravens...We watch them come and land on the roof to watch our girls...We can't get rid of them. We have thrown rocks and thought maybe I should let me son target shoot with his bb gun. They are really annoying. My girls run for cover when they come around.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Anything that eats meat.

 

[chickorama]

We live in MA, and we don't have nearly as many predators, but I suggest a run with a ceiling and a floor. We buried ours underground to stop things like skunks, raccoons, opossums,etc. from getting our babies, but so that they could still scratch for worms. As for a house, our first one was an old doghouse. Anything works, as long as there aren't any holes or cracks to slip through; raccoons are much smarter than lots of people think.