Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[Sara S]

SToLeN?

Yea i had one of those gigantic heavy duty locks on there, and it was broken. She was like 11lbs and was a fighter so I’m not really surprise.

 

[Manhen]

Yea i had one of those gigantic heavy duty locks on there, and it was broken. She was like 11lbs and was a fighter so I’m not really surprise.

Please more details on this bird's nature, you were fighting a hen??? That is pretty wrong in many ways.....

 

[The Moonshiner]

Didn't you just post about picking fights with Leghorn roosters?

 

[MilburnCreek]

I had to say Hawk. We free-range our chickens, and the most numerous attacks are foxes (several each year). But in every case, we were able to scare the fox off (or one of our Wyandottes faced them off and won!) We had injuries, but they all healed. We've lost one hen in all these years - to a hawk - when she got trapped up against the coop trying to escape.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I have only lost chickens to skunks and dogs.
We had about 7 chickens get killed by skunks over the years although that was kind of our fault as we never really closed the pallet coop door for almost the whole time we had our chickens in pallet coops (the first actual coop we built got blown down about 6 years ago) it was a very sturdy coop but a dust devil hit it just right one day... bits of it blew half way across our property.
Probably 4 years ago I think it was. A coon hound got out and killed like 5 or 6 chickens and bit my pekin duck Angel. To say the least that day was horrible the only reason Angel didn't get killed is because she fell in a window well.

About two years ago now a swift fox came and tried killing my ducks it didn't go for the chickens (they were roosting) but that is when I decided it was time to take down the pallet coop and keep all the chickens and ducks locked up at night inside a safer coop. And since then we have had zero predator deaths.

 

[Manhen]

He broke one my hen's ribs, , But he was only a little boy, so...

If you teach them with a hamster your chickens will be ok.....

Sorry.

 

[sarahconnor]

I used 1/2" hardware cloth to cover all the openings,vents and make an apron around a 75 sq ft coop and run so I could leave the door open. They have another run thats twice as big as the first but they only have access to it after I wake up .Free ranging isn't possible here.

Hi, I don’t understand. Covering the vents…isn’t that for air circulation? Ours are covered with chicken wire.

 

[ChickensInNM]

Personally, mine have been lost to the resident bobcat, but from reading others' posts, I would have to say dogs.

Yeah. Lotsa wild dogs in my area. I heard a neighbor pop off several shots early one morning. For every shot, I heard a yip. So that guy must have good aim. He has a lot of livestock.

 

[Alderen]

Thankfully we haven't lost any of our girls to any predators however, we do have hawks, dogs, cats, raccoons, opossums, and coyotes in our area. Our coop/run is relatively close to our fenced dog enclosure and for the most part, the dog keeps many of the predators away. We've also taken precautions to predator-proof as much as possible.

 

[BDutch]

Last month I lost two bantam pullets, probably to a hunting cat. The chickens were used to domestic cats. Two of then hunt mice and songbirds. And two probably don’t hunt at all. The chickens were hardly alarmed if these neighbour cats came by (they often do and two of them even eat from the chicken feed)

But this one cypress cat (size +) really chases my chickens and I suspect this cat to be a nasty killer cat. Im more carefull now to let them free range, and the chickens only have quality time now if Im in the garden.

I think my bantams are learning that this cat is dangerous because today they were fleeing immediately after seeing him/her.