Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[JEK]

I'd say the votes reflect reality here exactly, raccoon, hawk, and dog have been the worst. But raccoon BY FAR worse than hawk or dog. Hawks here only ever take young or light breeds, never lost a heavy to a hawk. Domestic dog attacks while rare come mid-day when everyone is out, and will kill as many as possible just for fun, though you'll be awake to hear it and run out with the gun at least. Raccoons are relentless and abundant however. They're doing well this year too, probably killed 20 already, which keeps the vultures happy at least.

 

[KatDawson]

ive recently lost 4 to a skunk. UGH! Coyotes are also a big problem!

What were the signs of skunk?

 

[Melky]

Knock on wood we haven't lost any to predators.

You mentioned you hadn’t lost any to predators. What have you done to predator proof your chick home?

 

[Hermit]

I have 3 new chicks & there is a Steller's jay stalking them. Very bold & clever. When they're getting fresh air, even though they're in cage, they're not safe - jay got in the converted dog cage; luckily chicks got out same cage & were safe. Now I don't let them out of sight for more than 30 seconds when they're in fresh air. I still have to chase him away. I may get a water-bazooka or pea-shooter.
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IF you’re out with them, keep handy a few Gatorade/similar bottles full or coins & rocks.
Try to be stealth about where you’re at in relation to the chickens, and when you see the jay, aim for it. Don’t worry about actually hitting it, it’ll see the missile coming. The point is a loud noise coming from “nowhere” when it contemplated hunting your birds.
Over time, jays can be trained away from a coop with a variety of annoyances. Noisemakers, Air/water blasters, sudden flashing lights (I’m pondering mounting one on my coop’s corner when it’s built, as the property has jays and I have experience)…
At my old place, I actually rigged a goofy little twine “zip line” with a plastic kite. I sat inside with the release run through the window, and when a tenacious bugger came sneaking around, a let it rip.
My girls zipped into their coop, jay looked like it had the scare of its life and never came back, and a minute later, I was outside pulling the kite back into place while my girls were singing about their fresh layer of scratch.

 

[Chickie pants]

It's hard for me to keep my birds alive if it's not a stray dog it's a coyote or Coons or Hawks or just sickness . I like to free-range my birds and put them up at night. I just had a coyote kill three of my birds at 3 in the afternoon broad daylight running down my road killing my birds.

 

[Melky]

Thanks for the advice Hermit and heads up. I haven’t seen a stalking jay. I have had a raccoon at night in my deck but not near the chick house. My dog scared it away. Haven’t seen it since. I do use and would recommend predator lights at night. I use Nightguard and Predatorguard and like the Nightguard the best. They are solar and seem to offer night protection with flashing red lights. I have had what I thought was a snake stalking the house but if it did it left quick upon arrival and hasn’t returned. I’m curious if anyone uses the sonic predator protection lights that deter both ground walking and slithering predators. My chicks also are scratching the soil so much that they are reducing the soil line and may have to add soil or sand in the bottom of the coop to prevent something digging or slithering under the bottom frame. I just rake out the run to clean to keep as much soil as I can and use kitty litter scoop as well.

 

[Hermit]

I’ve never heard of those!

(Fisher cats) I’m new to the new setup - I was gone for a couple years. I thought I had your post quoted but I didn’t. LOL

 

[Dodoman]

My neighbours had 30 chickens and they forgot to close them in the barn when it was getting dark. So at the night a fox came and killed them. Only one rooster and one hen survived the fox attack. We in Croatia have a lot of foxes.

 

[Birdsong 82]

Quite a while ago in this thread I had put a vote in for raccoons. I wish I could vote for two. Possum in my run last night Thank God for my rooster and my cat. Otherwise there would’ve been much more casualties I think. Still devastated

 

[ChickenzGurl]

That’s smart to make a test of people’s opinion of which predator was worst. We all have faced different creatures attacking our chickens. I thought it was most likely hawk because I personally have had more chicken deaths from them. Raccoons as well.