Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[Potrack]

I can try to get a picture of mine, but it's pretty straight forward to describe. It's using T-posts, welded wire to just under 6' tall and buried a few inches at the bottom (from researching, not buried enough). On top of that I have bird netting that goes in diagonally (picture a roof, just made of net) that goes from the top of the welded wire fence and up to a height of about 8'

I realize the bird netting is weak, but it's on there such that if anything were to climb onto it, then it would end up getting tangled up in it pretty quickly.

What I am thinking of doing, is:

1) Move invisible dog fence to enclose the area the chicken coop / run is in.
2) Get something like this and bury it horizontally coming from the bottom of my existing fence out to about 5' I would use some kind of tie to attach it to my existing fence, maybe going up about 6" or so. Sort of like an L shape with the long piece of the L buried just below the ground and the short piece attached to my existing fence.
3) Put an electric fence, with 3-4 wires at the end of that buried piece of fence.

Along with that once I see how your run is set up, especially if it is fairly predator proof, copy the same type of thing with chicken wire and hardware cloth. Going to be a fairly large project, but if we decide to continue keeping chickens it will be worth while.

We have coyotes here, and I believe bobcats as well. I have seen coyotes a couple times, but never any bobcats though.

Even though we still lose birds occasionally, electric fencing around the bottom and across the top of our pen fence knocked a bigger hole in our predator problem than anything else we have ever done. Predators do not like electricity at all. We still have losses from hawks and occasionally something will climb a tree and cross the fence on a limb and drop down among the poultry, but most predators get a good dose of moving electrons on their first attempt to access the pen and elect to seek an easier source of food. A charger yielding at least 8000 volts has been most effective for us. Occasionally we have accidentally touched it and discovered we don’t like moving electrons either.

 

[Potrack]

I will have to say that living on a farm that borders our timber, this had me unsure of what to choose! We lost 20 some birds one winter to a mink. It gor into the coop through our sliding barn door, maybe a couple inches of clearance tops, and killed everything that moved. We have had bald eagles scare them into their coop and even tried to eyeball our mini potbelly. We've recently had a night predator, i suspect a fox or an owl because of the turkey we lost was missing it's head and inside of her shoulders. The grandparents in law that live on the property had a cat killed the day before in our other barn. It's head and neck bit, and it's insides pulled out by it's genitals. Awful, awful scenarios. We've also adoptes dogs that killed some. Too many to choose, all unfortunate.

Sounds like a fox with the insides being pulled out. Hawks and owls usually head and neck only, maybe a little shoulder if they have an opportunity to return to their kill. Then again, could have been a little of both predators.

 

[Potrack]

I know this poll varies by area, but for me the worst predator is fox. They are just so brave and smart, can attack anytime day or night, and are very hard to shoot because they don't stand still. I have all predators except bear and bobcats but have had the most problems with foxes.

I used to think fox only attacked at night. I learned differently after a few broad daylight kills.

 

[Potrack]

RainForest,hope the web of stings can be of help as I have nothing else to suggest.

ArPullet I don't have any suggestions to offer beyond my sympathy for your loss and hope you find the comfort from it was not both of your birds.

I’ve never heard of the web of strings, but am going to give it a try, it sounds logical. My chicken yard is too large to cover with netting.

 

[Potrack]

I would go with dogs..... they kill more chickens than any predators combined. Hawks kill one here and there.... if a racoon gets in your coop, it will kill them all. Foxes will kill one or two. Not often. But dogs have to be the number one in my book. I have heard stories of peoples own dogs killing their chickens. Neighbors dogs, stray dogs.... they will attack in broad daylight and they act like it is a game.

It IS a game (for them) they kill for sport, like weasels. Seldom eat any of their kills.

 

[Potrack]

Foxes are very difficult to trap, and really, they are very useful in controlling other things, rodents, etc, that might get out of control. We've found that being persistent in making lots of noise, varying times when we go outside, banging pan lids, firecrackers, singing, yelling, honking horns, talk radio, etc, etc, anything to create a disturbance or a repellant at various times throughout the day which are normally quiet, will eventually discourage the fox from coming around. We have to do it for a period of weeks, and it's a pain, but it does work. Based on past experience, I have mapped on a calendar the times during the year when foxes are most likely to visit, and it is pretty regular, so we know when to start watching out for them. They don't terrorize the flock all year round...at least not so far.

We ‘talk radio’ 24/7 in our chicken yard at wide open volume. Seems to work 99% of the time. When power fails for whatever reason, slaughter ensues.

 

[Potrack]

Owl standing on small unused pen, trying to figure out how to access guinea keets. Bright eyed keets likely totally oblivious to the horror less than a foot away. Lost 6 to birds of prey the day before this pic was taken.

 

[Potrack]

Hawks and owls are definitely protected species, but they are most definitely NOT endangered species in my neck of the woods. THEY do the endangering in these parts lol....rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits...............chickens.
Fortunately there are more chickens than humans on the earth. No chance of endangerment there.

 

[Trux]

Add Black flies or Buffalo gnats to the list. People here in the community of BYC have been losing as many as 40 birds overnight. There is a big explosion of them due to the wet rainy spring along with the flooding in the north.

 

[Ducklover77]

I've been having problems with snapping turtles, I live in Florida and have muscovys and they are the worst on my ducklings