Official BYC Poll: Who’s Your Worst Chicken Predator of All Time?

[Tookie]

In my over 10 years of keeping chickens, I've only had two dogs kill (one chicken each). They weren't strays, and it was more so on me for them getting killed. Not keeping the chickens in the coop and leaving them in a fence, and not paying attention to them when they had flown out of the chain link fence...
Since I haven't had any other predators kill, I have had attempted hawk attacks. They've gotten close and I believe made wounds on two of my hens before. They have and will hang around. So they are the #1 predator I worry about.

 

[Squawkers]

What dog do you have currently?

Golden retriever! (Pfp) though they do generally have a high prey drive so I wouldn’t just count on it working out!

 

[User690263]

Thankfully I have never lost any chickens to a predator!

 

[Altairsky]

Men and dogs, equally, because it always take a stupid man to make a dog stupid.

 

[RubelliteRose]

Our only predator loss was to a hawk. We currently have a red tailed hawk stalking the flock, so they have been locked in a netting covered run for most of the past few months. We have bald eagles and osprey in the area, but they seem to prefer fish. They don't slow down to look at my flock when they are free ranging and my flock doesn't alarm over eagles or osprey either

 

[lagrange chicks]

I have a predator proof coop and run so I have not lost any do to predators. I have had hawks trying to get to the girls through the fence a few times. Raccoon tracks on and around the coop, and weasels playing around the coop. My dad raised chickens and all sorts of game birds for 50 years and I remember him having problems with dogs, fox, raccoon, weasel and the most cases were mink do to 2 streams on the property. Mink travel rivers, creeks and streams.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

I've only had a predator attack once (KNOCK ON WOOD) and I am assuming that it was a fox. that darn thing killed my favorite hen.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Feral dogs are horrendous, ecen attacked my husband on friday... but nothing a trap cant fix—but hermit crabs?

Absolute menaces.
They swarm the area day and night, at least one per square foot, and they pinch. Hard enough to draw blood, which means open wounds ripe for bacterial infection—just like now. Worse yet, the chickens can’t even eat their crumbles in peace; the hermit crabs either scare them off or devour every last morsel first. They’re tiny, armored jerks, slowly and methodically taking down an entire flock.

Just today, I had to put a bandage and disinfect a toe from a hermit crab the size of a softball (not baseball) who was attacking Roo (who is a female) while trying to eat.

 

[TheChickenGirl16]

I’m going for raccoon.
I was out of town all of July. We were taking care of two grandmothers with congestive heart failure,(both are much better now). But, Anyway….
A raccoon found her way into the eaves of my coop, and killed 16 hens, and my prized RIR rooster. I was so devastated, and angry at her!

I have fixed the coop with hardware cloth now, and- Praise the Lord -I haven’t lost another one since.but I still hate raccoons!!

 

[Jenbirdee]

The cover photo is frightening
Don’t let my ducks see that!
From reading hundreds of posts on here about losses to predators, I have to vote dog. (Bad dog)
I am very blessed and grateful to God that in 11 years of keeping ducks we have never lost one to a predator, thank you Jesus!
I have seen foxes and raccoons in my neighborhood ( frequently road killed) we are surrounded by state park here and see LOTS of big hawks too.
Here’s my chickens just recently hiding from a bald Eagle