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

[Jenbirdee]

I've been blessed enough to not have many predator caused deaths but my chickens were poisoned this summer-lost my prized rooster

What the !? How did that happen?

 

[Jenbirdee]

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.

Where do you live ?!?

 

[CabritaChicks]

Where do you live ?!?

In the Caribbean, you can’t take three steps without stepping on a hermit crab. Forget the cute little ones you see in pet stores—these guys are fierce and downright mean! My husband has to wear thick leather gloves and closed-toed shoes just to handle basic chores around the coop.

Me? I’m not afraid of them—but they definitely don’t hold back. Just the other day while cleaning the coop, two of them latched on—one ripped the skin off my finger and kept pinching until I bled. And this was the result this morning:

 

[K0k0shka]

The absolute queen of this category, the fisher, is not on this list?

Also, thank you for spelling “opossum” with an “o” as it should be

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Coons and hawks where my worst two predators I’ve had foxes though to. But now I trap and cook them to feed back to my birds as protein.

 

[Goose08]

Bobcats killed 32 chickens and a turkey January 2024, I’ve never lost more than 5-10 chickens to predatory birds in 10 years of raising chickens, none to raccoons/skunks, we have mountain lions but they don’t spend as much time around the chickens as they do the goats around breeding season. I’ve only lost a handful of chicks to rouge cats from the breeder that lives near us around here, dog 1, man 3, and I’ve never seen a fox, opossum, weasel.

 

[MamaPoult]

What the !? How did that happen?

Unfortunately someone broke into the coop and put something in the water dish. When I went out that morning it was completely full where as I'd left it nearly empty last night and it was super foggy. I noticed my rooster prohibiting the hens from drinking any but he must've gotten into it. I dosed everyone in charcoal immediately. That day he had a super high heart rate and would be lethargic then crazy. He started over heating and was just laying on the ground burning up but not panting or anything so I just had to continually dip him into cool water. After that day he'd never been the same and then lost all of his feathers and half of his weight. I ended up having to put him down-he looked so bad. He was only 18months and gorgeous! Our neighbors are a bit sketchy and they hate us so....yeah. They also put that crap in my goat's water, my poor girls would not drink it until I refreshed it. They were so thirsty, poor girls!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/r-i-p-cheif.1677707/

 

[Birdlove2011]

My most common preditors are skunks and opossum that I have noticed on my property and I'm sure there are more I haven't seen. There was also my neighbors dog as well however that situation was rectified after their dog killed some of my chickens.

Also for the first time this yr after the severe Texas flooding we had, I encountered a python in my chicken house. It ate several whole chickens. Talk about the shock when lifting the coop door to gather eggs and seeing the largest snake body coiled up not even sure where the head was. Luckily after its large meal it was passed out so my husband shot it instantly. It was the freakiest thing I've experienced on a large snake scale. I was also devastated because it ate my 2 favorite hens.

Now my duck and chicken pens are built like fortified castles lol with electrics fence that can shock up to a large wolf or bear.

 

[swampfox440]

Fisher cat they killed darn near entire flock last year! They can climb good and make some strange vocalizations it only took one of the birds with it. Left the rest lay I came out of it with 3 dicks out of 12. I purchased a dozen ducklings from hoover. They survived and laid well. I found the tracks and my neighbor saw it in back of my land.

 

[CabritaChicks]

Fisher cat they killed my darn near entire flock last year! They can climb good and make some strange vocalizations it only took one of the birds with it. Left the rest lay I came out of it with 3 dicks out of 12. I purchased a dozen ducklings from hoover. They survived and laid well. I found the tracks and my neighbor saw it in back of my land.

I had to google it. Wow. I am so sorry.