Not today, Trash Panda

[OhZark Biddies]

...My traps are set right next to the outside of my coop or run. anything caught there has come looking for trouble...

Is that true?

I have seen raccoons and possums and owls walk past my coop and run and never try to get in... well the owl didn’t walk ...

.... but my point is not every critter that comes by my coop is a problem... and the same is true of yours.

If you’re keeping baited traps out they’re likely just coming for the bait, no?

I just don’t understand the need for folks to invent ideas about why they protect their birds with lethal measures...

If you want to protect your chickens, lowering the number of potential chicken eaters is a good strategy. I don’t think there’s any reason to fib to ourselves that relocating is cruel or that all critters that pass a coop are trying to eat a chicken, just to make ourselves feel better about it. Trap it and kill it, and make no apologies or excuses.

Lowering the potential threat by trapping and killing predators (in accordance with your local regulations) is a sound management strategy and nothing that needs to be “imagined” as anything different.

It also has the positive side benefit of helping other wildlife that are preyed upon by the same predators.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Is that true?

I have seen raccoons and possums and owls walk past my coop and run and never try to get in... well the owl didn’t walk ...

.... but my point is not every critter that comes by my coop is a problem... and the same is true of yours.

If you’re keeping baited traps out they’re likely just coming for the bait, no?

I just don’t understand the need for folks to invent ideas about why they protect their birds with lethal measures...

If you want to protect your chickens, lowering the number of potential chicken eaters is a good strategy. I don’t think there’s any reason to fib to ourselves that relocating is cruel or that all critters that pass a coop are trying to eat a chicken, just to make ourselves feel better about it. Trap it and kill it, and make no apologies or excuses.

Lowering the potential threat by trapping and killing predators (in accordance with your local regulations) is a sound management strategy and nothing that needs to be “imagined” as anything different.

It also has the positive side benefit of helping other wildlife that are preyed upon by the same predators.

I agree. If preemptively trapping its seems to me keeping the traps far away as practical would make the most sense. This way you’re not drawing anything in to your birds. I see it at least twice a month on here. A fox takes a bird and the chicken owner sets a cage and brought in a raccoon, victory! I thinks not. The downside to doing this would be realizing 3/4 of the raccoons and possums would never have messed with the chickens anyway.

 

[cmom]

I have several game cameras set up around my property and most nights, because here it's too hot during the day so most of the predators hunt at night, I see predators on at least one of the cameras. Here we have a bit of everything but mostly coyotes and fox, which I see the most.
Last nights visitor. I think this is a young coyote because it's not as filled out as others I have seen.

 

[cmom]

A coyote behind some of the coops. I have electric wire around my coops and pens.

 

[cmom]

This is awhile back. I didn't see it but a camera did at a grow-out coop.