Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[gallorojo]

The worst predator is other chickens, followed by sheep! I have never lost a bird to anything other than another chicken, ( older birds killing chicks, or roosters killing each other), and we had one hen get trampled by a sheep this summer. Our birds free range, we live in a rural area, but, they go in the barn and night and are securely locked in . The only thing I worry about are hawks, but we have not lost any yet. I'm never sure how people lose birds to mammals, the only thing that could get my birds is a man or a bear during the night. Here are some of the secrets..1) have shelter available for free range birds, we use pallets on legs, plus lots of spruce trees. 2) keep aggressive roosters , my main boys will stand up to anything, anything that comes near the hens. 3) keep 4 legged grazers with the chickens, just having something bigger around helps, and, the chickens are smart enough to follow the sheep and goats around. 4) GET A GOOD DOG!! We do all the above, and we do not lose chickens to predators!!!!

 

[aqhaktberry3]

RACCOONS! We had an extremely hard time trapping and figuring out how he was getting in. Every time we would think we had safely caged the chickens in for the night, sure enough we would go out the next morning he had gotten more. He never got any that were in the coop, but we had cages (that had young chickens in them) in the "run" are that was all fenced in and he had gotten the young ones. He ended up getting a total of 13 :*( Our coop is connected to an out door run type thing and it is completely fenced in. The fence is even dug a few feet into thee ground to prevent digging animals in. It also has netting over the top so they didn't fly out. We finally caught him and had a video camera out there and found out how he was getting in. He was HUGE. And he could manage to get into the trap get the bait chicken we would set it in, and NOT set the trap off. My dad had to TIE the chicken to the back of the trap. What a bad experience. But we learned from it and now we know how to keep them 100% safe.

 

[Coopscraft]

Humans, duly educated, are nature’s most humane predator. Domesticated cats play with their prey before killing it. Dogs and wolves maul and maim their prey with no attempt at rendering it unconscious before dismembering it. Humans deliberately aim for the heart, head, artery, or spine with calculated intent of minimizing suffering. Nature is beautiful. But the animals do not have the moral high ground when it comes to humane treatment of each other. Although, the cougar does pretty well. It ambushes it’s prey, and bites through the spine. I do acknowledge there are true savages of our species that enjoy animal suffering. They ought not be considered the natural state of humanity but a corruption of it.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

I want to adopt please

 

[Quaicken108]

I feel so sorry when I hear about all these predators. I live in Australia and most of the ones on the poll don’t apply to me but are obviously still very dangerous. Plus we don’t get much anyway besides a cat behind our fence that comes to eat mice. We’ve tried multiple times dealing with it but... I hope all of your chickens (+ any other birds) are all well.

 

[DouglasB]

They are all bad, I would say which ever is most prevalent in the area you are keep your chickens.

 

[the_peanut_coop]

The predator that reduces my flock the most is roosters, cause I have to et rid of them

 

[The Moonshiner]

Most complaints come from Op's who raise a mixed gender of day old chicks together as a flock (hence the term "human raised" ) They don't have an established flock of older chickens to integrate their chicks into when they feather out good (or choose not to) Many don't have a mature alpha rooster to keep young cockerels in line either. If you've managed to raise a lot of non aggressive roosters without the help of an established flock and a good rooster you've done better than most! Most people can't sorry!

If you're going the integration into a flock route iMO the hens are the ones that teach young cockerels the majority of manners. Adult roosters can also be detrimental to young pullets.
The problem with human raised cockerels that become aggressive is almost always because of how they're raised by humans not that they are
My birds are pets but I raise then as chickens not as my children.
Spoiled babied cockerels grow up to be a holes.

 

[The chicken nurd]

Welp I just watched a coyote fighting a raccoon in my yard a few minutes ago right by my coop (it’s after 10pm here) so where gonna go with those are probably the worst predators besides eagles in my area

 

[McChooky]

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.