Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[Lachlan]

Hello,
My biggest predator is definitely snakes. They have killed at least 10 of our chickens.
Our backyard goes into a gully (lots of snakes!!) and when the hens don't return back to the steps (to be put in their cages) in the afternoon, we need to go looking ASAP to find them before darkfall, as the snakes can find them in our jungle of a yard. Some have survived overnight (one did it twice) out of luck, but others just find obscure hiding spots and no matter how hard and long we spend looking, we never find them and have the horror of hearing them being eaten by snakes in the night.

One of our current chooks, Chooklet, was almost eaten by a snake. One night in 2005 she didn't return and we tried to find her and didn't. Mum and dad were about to go to bed when they heard a shriek from the yard and ran outside and followed the noise until they found dear chooklet on the fence (we couldn't believe how close we had been to finding her) with a snake around her body. Dad grabbed her and pulled the carpet snake off and passed her to mum, who put dear chooklet under her jacket to keep her warm. Chooklet survived and is still living to this day.

The other main predator is hawks. We have lost 3 to hawks- two of them were swooped on by a hawk and died on the ground of shock, and the other was only a month old chick that was in a cage with the other chicks outside. We found it's headless body that afternoon at the edge of the cage (next to the wire).

apart from predators, we have lost most from diseases....

Lachlan

 

[Turkenlover]

We live in the city, but man, there is a HUGE family of foxes living in our alley! They jump over our fence every night to investigate our coop and set off the motion sensor lights (right outside our bedroom window, of course).

 

[chixie]

I have only lost one chicken to a preditor and it was my nephews dog...I have lost a couple of ducks to a dog... I have all kinds of preditors around but none have gotten my chickens... knock on wood

 

[JMarch]

weVe lost a LOT of bantams to Red Tailed Hawks! Last year there was a bobcat that wiped out our whole flock.

 

[Peeps Paradise]

I didn't see my worst predator listed. It's a River Otter of all things. I live near a stream
and when they get tired of crawdads they come after my chickens and they love chicken.
My second worst predator is coyotes, last summer I had a female coyote with pups and
she was pretty smart and fast. She got through my fencing and got "5" of my hens.
I've since reinforced the fencing and installed electric wire along the bottom 6 inches of
the fence to keep out the bad guys. And, when I let the girls out to free range in the pasture,
I bring a chair and book and stay with them until it's time to go in.

 

[ConchRepublic]

Coyotes here... theyve gotten to many of my animals. Dogs, cats, chickens, you name it they tried to get them. I shoot them on sight now. Dropped a big male with my rifle the other day when I saw it chasing my old German Shepard female.

After that, birds of prey. Hawks, owls, falcons.

Don't have many raccoons, seen only saw one since I came to the area, dropped him with a rifle after trying to get the grate off the top of our chimney.

Not really any other predators but think something has been stealing our eggs, probably rats.

 

[chickenchaser99]

how do you do the vote thing if you can do that i think you can pm will you pm me instctions

 

[fatboys farm]

Somad. I have lost so many of my sweet lovable predators coons, cats, dogs , opossiums, and hawks to that mean and hateful 22 rifle[Browning lever action] . Country Living- Thats Where Its At.

 

[NarutoTn]

we lost 275$$$ of birds to wild cats

 

[Dust Bunny]

i havent lost any birds since i started to use my lab mix dogs to watch my flock, nobody goes out to freerange unless daisy and angus are on duty