I fell asleep and so was late in locking the chicken coop stall tonight. I always go in to do a head count. One-two- three---oops, whats that black and white one on the floor? SKUNK !! I was probably only about 5 feet from it in the dark with a flashlight. It was snooping around the feed and water pan. I went to the house to get my pistol but it was gone when I got back. It had not dug in, it just walked in the open stall door (this is a converted stall in my lean to off the barn) It did not kill any chickens, and there are no baby chicks in there and no eggs because I gather several times a day to incubate. I (feeling foolish) have three of those predator control nite eye things, that flash the red light to look like another predators eyes. But they were on my porch waiting to be installed. Has anyone used these and do they work keeping the skunks at bay? I could put one of the dogs in the chicken coop stall and I called the state trapper to see about getting a live trap. I hate to shoot it, but I don't want it getting my chickens either. ' Now that it knows there is food, water and chickens in there, will it be back and try to dig its way in? The back of the stall is the dog yard, and there are four little yappy dogs in there...perhaps this skunk is deaf?
The lights have worked for me. I put one in each of the four directions and all the losses and other grief of nocturnal attacks just stopped.
I'd bait a trap with a mouse. Skunks love mice more than anything I've seen - we used to have them at my home in rural Texas and I always let them go. They don't look like vicious little hunters but you watch them go through the tall grass it you figure out they are pretty good. Here if we had them I'd do the have-a-hart trap in a trash can with a live mouse as bait.
Thank you all. I do have a small live trap I use to catch feral cats that strangers seem to think I just love to have. I do a trap, spay/neuter release. It looked like a smallish skunk,so perhaps that size trap would work. I think I will put the little light thingys on a post on each end of the alleyway of the lean to, and maybe spread some flour so I can see if there are any tiny little footprints in the morning.
Ditto. I used them in the yard of the house I rented when I started with chickens - I had a goldfish pond the raccoons got fish from EVERY night and I put up the Nite Eyes on the chicken run. Pond outside the run. That very night, the predation stopped. I've since move to a much more predator rich location, got some more of the units and put them up around the coop (my birds range freely) and the critters stay away. I'm planning on buying more to actually set up on the fence all around my property, not just by the coop. I don't care what other folks may say about 'em, but *I* swear by both brands: Night Guard and Nite Eyes. I like the "eyes" one better for no particular reason. I just like seeing TWO red blinky lights instead of the single one. Getcher Nite Eyes set up!!!
I have Nite Eyes working for me. I installed 2 of them about 4 months ago. Since they have been there I have not seen ANY predators near my chicken coop. When the snow covered the ground (still a bit there) we knew there were no predators around because there were no prints in the snow. I can't say enough about those crazy Nite Eyes, it amazes me that it works. My DH had his doubts "it's just a couple of little blinking lights, what good is that gonna do?" But since the snow fall and no prints are visible he is convinced it works!
Thanks for the advice acout the nite eyes it was just what I was looking for We have tons of skunks around here
I bought two of them about 3 months ago. I have them pointing at the woods at the back of my chicken coop/yard. I don't know if they work because I've not seen ANYTHING! Like the previous poster said when there was snow on the ground there were no tracks anywhere. I highly recommend them.
