Kentucky varmints
we had free ranging chickens, night and day, we i was a kid. the options we had for predators at that time (coyote has since been added) included mink, weasel, fox (red and gray), possum, dog, cat, raccoon, hawks, owls. We lost chickens to all of them, but racoons took more than all the others combined. Mink was the mass murderer killing several at a time, most kill one and eat it. We lost them to Red-tailed hawks much more than other birds of prey. I acutally never saw a Cooper's Hawk kill one, but they were not so prevalent then due to DDT. I had the occasion to see a Great Horned Owl leave the chicken house with a half grown chicken in it talons, impressive. we also had skunks and snakes to eat eggs. i gathered the eggs after dark one night and put my hand in on a large snake in the nest. That would make anyone jumb. Red fox may have been second on the list, Gray fox were a little too nocturnal and too shy to enter buildings.
we had free ranging chickens, night and day, we i was a kid. the options we had for predators at that time (coyote has since been added) included mink, weasel, fox (red and gray), possum, dog, cat, raccoon, hawks, owls. We lost chickens to all of them, but racoons took more than all the others combined. Mink was the mass murderer killing several at a time, most kill one and eat it. We lost them to Red-tailed hawks much more than other birds of prey. I acutally never saw a Cooper's Hawk kill one, but they were not so prevalent then due to DDT. I had the occasion to see a Great Horned Owl leave the chicken house with a half grown chicken in it talons, impressive. we also had skunks and snakes to eat eggs. i gathered the eggs after dark one night and put my hand in on a large snake in the nest. That would make anyone jumb. Red fox may have been second on the list, Gray fox were a little too nocturnal and too shy to enter buildings.