Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[lampshadeee69]

I lost a rhode island red, a black silkie rooster, a sebright bantam, a black silkie hen, a white silkie hen, a russian orloff, two black hens (unknown breed), countless chicks, and one puerto rican rooster (breed unknown, seen frequently on the island.) I funally trapped and shot the culprit yesterday. Payback is good. Thats the story of rocky raccoon.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

Although I've lost more birds to coons overall and even dogs. But, I think the worst is a fox- because they are so difficult to trap or to shoot. I just dread fox activity. Coons are smart but are not nearly as hard to get rid of as a fox.


Cool Survey - thanks for posting.

 

[shadybug]

We have been having a horrible time with the raccoons and our pet dogs. Something has even been chewing holes in the chicken wire. Thank goodness we buried our wire underground like we did, or they would have had holes dug under the wire also. If worse comes to worse, we decided we are going to run electric fence around the outside of the chicken wire to keep the varmints out.

 

[GoldDogsMom]

For me and my girls, it's the weasel! Sneaky little buggers can get in the smallest of holes and HARD to trap!

 

[Lothiriel]

Most of the ones I've lost have been to the hawk, and the rest to the foxes.

 

[ChickiKat]

We had our first run in with a hawk yesterday. Now the run is covered with deer fencing. I shudder to think how close we came to losing to the hawk. When I first saw it, it was flying "out" of the run. Thankfully flying out empty handed!!

 

[kimntep]

Have had chickens for a little over a year and in that time we've lost 3 to a coon and 6 to foxes. Coons can be trapped..we did and relocated them, but foxes are just too smart. The ones around here are so brazen that they are out in broad daylight and VERY close to our house..about 20' from our front door and running down our entry walkway the last time. I have to supervise free-ranging all the time now when I used to be able to let them out for hours. I hate it because the chickens just don't seem as happy and content.

 

[CrestedGirl]

We lost a couple of ducks to raccoons

 

[rider357]

I have numerous dogs and never lost a single bird to them. My wife and I are dog trainers. My neighbors mutt however wiped out about 10 chickens and 12 guineas in a matter of days. I warned them to keep him home and had the animal control cop here one day showing him the trail of guinea feathers to the neighbors back door. Low and behold here comes the little buttwipe and heads straight after the chickens as we stood there and watched. The ACO looked at me and said" There's less paperwork involved if you do it". So I pulled out the .22mag and put an end to his little rein of terror. The good neighbors moved out 3 weeks later.

 

[adgcountrygirl]

I lost one of my roos to dogs when he flew out of our yard. None of them had ever left the yard before even though there is a mesquite tree that grows up and over the fence from the outside of the yard and goes back down towards the ground. (They would go to the top that was over the fence, but they would always come back down on the inside of the fence. I also adopted 7 hens, the oldest of which was injured by her previous owners dogs. (It is still a toss up on whether she will live.) My neighbor around the corner lost all of hers to a skunk in one day though, so I would actually have to go with skunk. Plus, skunks are more likely to get your eggs as well. I've never seen my dogs mess with eggs.