Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[ChickenCanoe]

...
... It's actually attached to the wall of my back porch (really convenient because I built the nesting boxes INSIDE the porch and just put one open end into their coop. I can step out on the porch, open the cupboard doors on the nesting boxes and retrieve the eggs without having to deal with inclement weather!).

That's brilliant....


... topped it with the plastic chicken fence. The floor is dirt-covered concrete. I suppose a truly persistent predator could chew through the top pretty easily but it would be one very intelligent predator to think of climbing up to the top to begin with, he'd have to drop into the pen from above and would then likely be trapped. And he'd have to do all this very quietly, even at night, since my bedroom is only about 8" from the pen.

Raccoons and possums can climb anything and if they can shred chicken wire they can shred plastic. I have the same type dog kennel for one of my coop runs and coons and possums are in there all the time. And it's covered.
...

 

[billrey]

Dog! By far has been my worst predator. In a three week period, I've lost 50 chickens to a neighbors dog before I could get the sheriff to put it down. He would visit the yard each day around 12pm and just kill what he could catch. I tried shooting him, but he wouldn't come around if I was home. I put up external webcam and caught him in action. Owner finally fest up and replaced the bird with a check and the sheriff was obliged to put down the dog... in Minnesota there is a dangerous dog law, enough tho there is no lease law out in the countyside. After that, I brought in a Maremma and haven't lost but a bird or two since, which I feel in payment for free ranging my birds.

 

[Crickett]

Dogs destroyed my flock two years ago! Killed EVERYTHING!!!! Chickens, turkey, goose, ducks, even tore up the rabbit hutches and killed all my rabbits! I have dogs, but these were a neighbors that got loose. I was devastated! Still makes me angry!

 

[jruhle]

Dogs have killed 20 of my chickens and 7 ducks. Lost 6 chickens and 1 duck to a mink 2 chickens to hawks 2 ducks to an owl

 

[KWSRetMSgt]

~~Crickett Did you try and get some retribution from your neighbor?

 

[Crickett]

No. I wasn't sure which nieghbor owned the dogs. We've moved since then, I haven't had any trouble with my new neighbors or their dogs. I now have a new flock of chickens. Several years ago I had a similar problem, dog killed my pet duck and my goat. Tried to get the man who owned it to pay me for the loss, but he never did. ={

 

[KWSRetMSgt]

Yeah some people should never own animals, if they don't want to take care of them.

Well glad to hear after your moving it didn't happen again. Best of luck with your adventures with your animals.

I've got to go check on mine, it's 18 degrees and this is their first winter. So I'm checking on them often.

If I get them thru this week it's suppose to warm back up again. Most of Dec. their saying high 30's and low 40's.

Can't wait to get back to those temps.

OK Take care & Bee Good. KWS

 

[Shalom Farm]

For us its raccoons. We've lost MANY dogs and they are a close second. The dogs can be more easily prevented than the coons though. We can make a chicken fort knox but a coon will find a way. Our neighbor immediately behind us lost 20 chickens. The neighborhood as a whole has lost close to 100 chickens within 1 "block" of farms because of coons. Foxes comes in third, as we have 1 or 2 in the area and they take out a couple chickens a year. The problem is one farm in the area is... a problem. They have horrid conditions and throw food out the door to pile up. This attracts things. Their animals are getting eaten often but it spreads outward as the predators become condensed.

 

[Crickett]

Shalom Farm - have you tried reporting them? Not that I'm a big fan of turning people in, but if the living conditions aren't fit for their animals, and there is rotten food laying about, it's not fit for people either.

 

[chickenboy190]

Coons.I have only lost one chicken to them but they are always around just waiting for me to slip and they can have chickens like crazy.