Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[Honemor]

I have an opossum visiting quite frequently, and the other night something almost tore up the chicken wire! Wonder what that could have been...it must have tried to get in there, and ripped the wire so it was streched out. I have heard that if you put a womans hair in a stocking, it keeps predators ut. Not sure if thats true or not..

 

[Liza L]

Biggest massacre I've had has been due to fox (5 dead hens in one day, when the sun was shining -- no, they're not nocturnal, not if you live north of San Francisco and can't shoot anything).

 

[khatar]

I say the bobcat, at least to my flock, is the biggest threat. In fact, a bobcat took my Buff Orpington hen yesterday. They are the only animals large enough, stealthy enough and fast enough in our area to actually kill our chickens. Especially jumping on tall fence with a 10 pound hen in its mouth. Raccoons, skunks, rats, mice and Opossums can't get to the flock at night. Hawks are a threat as well but chickens can see it coming before it attacks, or before it even sees them! A mountain lion probably would be tranquilized before it came near our house. No bears in San Diego (thank goodness). Coyotes can't get in the yard because we are on the edge of a steep canyon. A coyote would need a running start to jump a fence. The owls here come out at night and are too small to catch chickens anyway. We dog-proofed and snake-proofed our yard years ago, so that's done. No human threat so far, except for accidental kicks. Domestic cats used to be a problem when my chickens were babies, but now the cats are afraid of them.

The one thing that wasn't put on this list that I think should have been is the crow. Crows are a MAJOR threat to chicks. When my white leghorn lily was a chick she was almost snatched by a stealthy crow. When my rooster and his sister were chicks, I took a break from watching them for one second just to grab a snack. I still had my eye on them through a window. As soon as I stepped inside the shadow of a crow loomed above the chicks. As it began to descend, the chicks began to run for cover. I burst out the door, yelled at it and scared it off. From then on though, crows were watching and waiting for me to let down my guard, kind of scary really.

 

[groundpecker]

You forgot to put humans on the list

 

[khatar]

Yeah I know, so far no threat to my chickens came from humans. (except small children, and their rock throwing, sigh)

 

[trooper]

I'd say that it depends on where you live and what lives around you.I have smelled skunks at nite and have yet to have one bother my chickens.I have 2 dogs and I have to watch them close.The would love to eat fresh chicken.I have noticed a hawk on the power line at my neighbors house.He doesn't appear to be attracted to them.That doesn't mean I don't keep an eye on them.Preditors come and they go.So far so good.

I also have foxes,oppossums,Cayotes,and Lord knows what else.I've been fortunate I guess.

 

[BirdMan32]

I'm relatively new to raising chickens and haven't lost one. We've had our 11 birds (1 rooster by accident) for around 7 or 8 months and so far there have been hawks and crows circling our run. The rooster quickly sounds the alarm and gets them in the coop. We live in central AZ and keep hearing that coyotes are chicken enemy #1 but have only seen one in the last 3 years and that was around 3 miles away. We free ranged at first, but they kept annihilating our vegetable garden, so they were actually our garden's top predator! We built a fence and put a net over it to keep them in and predators out. We usually close he coop door at night.

Well, we hope that we can continue to be so fortunate and continue on a 0% casualty rate.

 

[LEEHAHA]

Voted Mink...lots This Winter

 

[djjeffery]

Losses due to dogs

 

[TheFreundFlock]

Over the summer here in Texas we had the worst drought I have ever seen. It was so bad that it made the raccoons extra aggressive. So aggressive that they ripped open the hen hous and took out my entire flock, 15 girls, 2 duck, and 2 geese! It was a VERY sad summer.