Should I worry about the skunks?

[bawkbawkbawk]

I have a very safe pen (hardware cloth a foot into the ground and three feet above ground) and coop. My hens do free range during daylight hours but only when we are close by to monitor the hawks.

The other night I went out just after dark to close the trap door that separates the pen from the coop (hens are secure whether the door is up or down but I feel better if I close it at night) and I heard a lot of rustling on the deck about ten feet from the coop. It was a family of skunks - must have been a mama and her half-grown brood as they stayed very close together and moved as a unit.

The next day we noticed that something has burrowed under the deck and must be living there - probably the skunks? But we haven't had any noticeable problems with them as far as the chickens go. I guess their schedules don't coincide as the skunks are nocturnal and the chickens don't go outside until 7 am or so and are always tucked in by sundown.

I read that skunks are primarily interested in eggs, which are laid well inside the coop and are collected daily so no way for them to get at those. But I do have two bantams, one a rather intellectually-handicapped Silkie, so I am wondering if the skunks present a threat.

Any thoughts?

 

[farm_mom]

We have a large male skunk here on our farm (whom we affectionately call Mr. Stink) he burrowed under our barn and lives out his days (well, mostly nights) going about his skunky business for years and we've never had a problem with our free range birds or with him trying to hurt chicks or steal eggs. So I imagine unless there's some sort of extreme circumstances where the mother cannot find any food in the area, the only problem you will encounter from this family is the smell in the evenings. lol Enjoy!

 

[moetrout]

Get srayed by a skunk and I bet you have a different outlook on them. Don't ask me how I know this!

 

[farm_mom]

 

[nab58]

We had a skunk in our backyard last night and was wondering the same thing. It was 4am...the smell woke me up. The moon was very bright so I could see the coop which is about 75 feet from the house. I asked my husband if he thought I should go out the to scare it off (hoping he'd offer) but instead he said..."I think you should go back to sleep, it's 4am".