Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[becc]

foxes are the worst in our area, but the neighbours around here shoot to kill .

 

[Chefmom]

My worst losses were from a mama and her baby bears. The first hit was a small bear and it tore off the roof and went fishing for chickens. They were smart enough to jump off the roosts and run out into the attached run. By then my husband and I were awake and running through the yard (wearing very little) with a spot light and shot gun!! No chicken losses, and only the sight of a bears backside.

Then another bear started hitting us in the middle of the day. We found enough scat to think that there were several little bears and one very large bear. How can you protect a free range flock from a day bear?? We lost 10 chickens and our baby ducks that summer. It only stopped when the electric fence went around the garden. I figure the bears got shocked and decided to run to the woods instead of the yard and chickens.

After that our coop was "fortified". It looked like the bear went around and stuck its nose up under the roof, so to discourage this we put raw chicken wire along the ledge between the walls and roof. So if anything tries to lift the roof it will get hit with the raw edges of chicken wire.

But.....the hardest thing was fighting with the game commissioner over the fact that he says bears don't eat chickens, that something else was doing it. We finally got the bear trap but the darned things walked right by, one even pooped right outside the front of the trap and wasn't even tempted by all those doughnuts!!!!

 

[Dust Bunny]

banshees! we got banshees in our woods!

 

[88Haywood88]

The dogs in our area are bad. there are three in particuar. If I were anywhere else, i'd shoot on site, but I can't due to conflicts between animal contol laws (which say I can shoot, if the culprit is caught in the act on my property), and the county laws, which make it illegal to discharge any projectile weapon in it's borders. I'm getting ready to throw the book at my neighbor who owns one of the dogs... force him to euthanize that mutt

. It's been especially bad lately I've actually been able to make a chicken graveyard out of the remains of all of the dead. I mean, the neighbor has paid for lost chickens in the past, but this can't continue... it'll cut into my future generations of chickens...

:

. It's like this is the farmette O' death, very frustrating.

:

 

[dragonlair]

For me it's fox followed by my own dogs.

 

[poultryfan73]

The only problem i have with predators is raccons. During the week of July4th to the 20th thats when i shoot the most of them. Dont get me wrong ive seen opsums and skunks trying to get in my pen but ive shot them before they had the chance. Raccons are very sneaky thats why i dont like them. This winter i caught around 50 coons just in my catch and release traps. I always kill them i caught a baby this year and even killed it! LEAVE NONE SURVIVE!!@!@!@

 

[Cherisa]

So, do you just sit around at night with your gun waiting for the little buggers or how do you catch (shoot) them all? I never see the critters.

 

[theFox]

Quote:
I'm sure the law says that you may kill the dogs, that doesn't mean you have to shoot the dogs.

 

[beckymom3]

I've had slaughters by dogs (my own, sadly) but by far the worst was raccoons. They wiped out 30 of my 40 chickens in a few weeks. Once they got going, they were almost impossible to stop. They started coming out earlier and earlier to get the chickens before the coop was closed for the night. We even came home before dark to see dead bodies everywhere. They also killed off all our turkey poults.

Raccoons, here in the Texas Hill Country, are by far the worst!

I have to say, we do have our fair share of red tailed hawks, owls, possum, fox and coyote. We even have a few Mountain Lions roaming out here, but only the raccoon regularly causes problems, even in town!

 

[Ozark Chicken]

Coons here, by far the worst. We set a record and shot 14 in one night. But this is a pic of my proudest moment concerning predators. My wife calls me at work and says if your on this end of the county today stop by and pic up the coyote I shot by the chicken run. 85 yards one shot with a very old .22 and dead in her tracks, It was a big female one of the nicest pelts I've seen.