Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[Danceswithchicks]

I've had some hawk attacks, but no casualties.

 

[eggboy]

I have no idea I think they are all bad.

 

[77horses]

We've had a couple dog incidents, one involving our last-year broody hen and her newly-hatched chicks as they were outside. Luckily we were home and scared the dog off before he got any of the chicks or the hen.

The mother hen had tried to attack the dog and the chicks had gone running under the bush. We called the cops and complained about it, since that hadn't been the first time it happened with that same dog from the same people....It helped for a while and only once in a while does the dog get loose somehow. But he hasn't bothered any of the chickens in a while.....yet.

Since we've owned chickens for....about 3 years now...we've only lost a total of 3 due to a predator. It was because of a weasel.

We got our squirrel-crazed mini dachshund/lab dog involved and he chased the weasel out from his hiding place (which happened to be secretly UNDER one of the chicken coops the whole time!

) and he almost got the weasel, but he ran off somewhere and we think one of the hawks or owls around here got him, since he had been chased from his safety hiding place under the coop. If our dog would have gotten him before the hawks/owls did, he would have been gone for good!

Oh and we've had some bobcats nearby, but they only pass through once or twice a year and have never bothered the chickens, thankfully. If they did, we would have to put up an electric fence because a bobcat could get through the chicken coops that we have so easily.
We also do have coyotes/wolves around, but they are occupied by the abundant amount of deer around here and have also never bothered the chickens.

 

[bemba]

Well you guys have alot more predators than we do here, the only predator here is Carpet pythons..... and they are huge

But snake and mouse mesh fixes them!

 

[chickiebratt1971]

I have had the worst problems with stray dogs in the neighborhood. Apperently my neighbors think that just because they live in the country they can let their animals roam free and don't take any responsibility for them. I've lost 4 flocks so far. Gets really frustrating at times.

 

[Iodine70]

Hi,
Everyone...
I am new to this wonderful sight I lost my first Rooster to the ucky Opossum the second day he was sickly I believe. I do Rescue and took in 14 Roosters to place in someone elsas home .Well needless to say i fell in love with them . I have been around alot of Roosters and never meet any like mine they are very loving follow me and three of my Dogs I trust around them all over the place come when called . Everyone who hears this says I have very Rare Roosters Does anyone elsa have Spoiled ROosters??? They are free Range and at 5 p.m. on dot they head up to the Barn and get way up in Rafters. Is this normal? Please tell me your stories on your Babys.

 

[CodyDunn]

This was a hard decision for me. I've had problems with quite a few of these unfortunately. But in the end I picked coyote. Although I will say that man and his dogs are very much a problem, that's not what I would consider natural predation, that's more of terrorizing to me. I've had dogs get my chickens and I've had people steal my chickens, but that's not what I typically have to work to protect my flock from. Our coyotes are really getting out of control, as are the coons, opossums, skunks, etc. We've trapped many a coon and opossum, but the coyotes are a different story. They are very wily and quite honestly it's hard to keep one in your sights for more than a few seconds. I was out one evening with the flock at my grandparents, right next to their coop, just standing and watching all the silly antics It was quite a large group, some fifty birds, EE, BA, and a few bantams. A couple of the large roosters that were furthest from the coop started standing tall and looking excitedly in a certain direction. I couldn't see anything and to be honest I figured they were just seeing ghosts like chickens so often do (it cracks me up every time. They see an acorn fall or something silly like that and think the world is ending). But then all of a sudden one of the roosters shot into the air! Right along snapping under his tucked up feet was a big and ugly coyote! Now that particular EE rooster was very hefty, and did very well jumping into the air like he did. Of course then it was pandemonium. All the chickens ran and flew for the chicken house while I woke up from my startled state and started yelling and picking up things to throw at the offender. Didn't have any injuries that time but it was just so scary, especially since I was a mere fifteen or so feet from the action. I mean I could see the coyotes slobber. Ick. I must have just been so entranced and so still, he didn't notice me while he was stalking. That or their getting very bold, which I don't like at all.

Years before this I had a small mixed flock of about 8 or 10 birds. We live on a hill and they were out on the pasture. A small pack of coyotes got all but two, one was a cochin rooster who never left the house and the other was a brown leghorn rooster, who incidentally is the best running chicken I've ever owned.

I've had the odd chick taken by a hawk, and once even had one come down almost within grabbing distance, just floating over a couple chicks I'd bought that were trying to hide under me. Crazy, but mostly hawks don't bother us much, especially since now we keep all our chickens at my grandparents, who have lots of brush and trees for cover.

Coons and opossum are a terrible nuissance at night if my grandpa doesn't get out to shut the coop before dark. Snakes are usually only a problem for eggs or hatching eggs, but once a tiny little chicken snake suprised me. I had a fairly small broody hen, VERY protective, about 3 or 4 pounds who was separated from the flock. She was hatching ten eggs, and they were chirping and whatnot, one had hatched, and the rest were trying. I came back to check on them about half an hour later, and a snake had not only swallowed the one hatched chick, but it was trying to swallow the mother. All it had was her head and truth be told, I didn't know what it planned to do if it accomplished swallowing her, it wouldn't have been able to move. So I lost that hen and one chick and found another hen to adopt the eggs and soon after chicks. Tragic but very odd, and it only happened once.

We used to have packrats get chicken feed but that's all they did. Skunks have come in and gotten some eggs but couldn't reach the birds on the roost.

Owls are definitely a problem here though. There are so many, it's quite eerie at night to hear them all hooting. As long as none of the chickens stay out it's fine. But I have had the occassional large rooster or banty pair decide to stay out of my reach in a tree for the night. And it's almost a guarantee that they won't make it through the night without an owl attack. Very menacing. Anyway those are our predator problems we try to put up a defense for. I read in an earlier post about platforms? That idea is very cool and would like to try it sometime...

 

[Cherisa]

We lost several hens to raccoons last year. My next door neighbor live trapped 9 and took them on vacation to Wisconsin. I've also lost a few and had many terrorized by the neighbors dog. That's mostly my fault for not having the coop door shut at sundown when the dog is allowed to run... One night I lost 9 meat chickens out of a chicken tractor down in the garden. Funny thing, no blood, no feathers, no holes dug under the tractor, no open doors. It was like aliens came down and beamed them up. (should we add aliens to the list?)

 

[Opa]

This has been an interesting post to watch. No matter how many more people post the percentages haven't changed much. Sorta makes a feller which raccoon coats would come back in style.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

neighbors Dog have been my only pred so far! *Fingers crossed* that is the ONLY thing that will happen.