Squirrels in the coop

[Neebunny]

Hello! The squirrels as our house have suddenly decided to start getting into the chickens run/coop. The chickens will attack when they see the squirrel and it runs around crazy not being able to find its way out. I tried to get it out but I have not been able to. How concerned should I be about the squirrels getting in? Will they bite and harm my girls? Or will the chickens get sick if they kill and eat the squirrel? We have never had this happen before so I am a bit lost....Thank you!

 

[Al Gerhart]

The squirrel came for the chicken feed but they will steal eggs and kill chicks especially when they are nesting and nursing young. Probably won't hurt the adult hens and they would be fine eating it if they catch it, but any sort of wild animal entering a chicken coop is bringing in disease and vermin with it. So either keep the squirrel out of the feed or make the coop squirrel proof. The former is cheaper than the latter.

A treadle feeder that is actually ratproof will deal with squirrels. Check the negative reviews very carefully and believe them if they say large rats or squirrels can defeat the treadle feeder. Squirrels are tough to stop, you need an inward swinging door with heavy spring pressure so you need full size hens for it to keep out squirrels. You will NOT find a ratproof feeder on Amazon, only chinese made junk that costs one fifth of the selling price so they can pay the exhortation selling fees. Make sure the springs are easily adjustable and keep spare springs around because the amount of spring tension needed causes extra wear on the springs.

Squirrels in packs can defeat even spring loaded doors but they always get trapped. Your feeder should have a metal cleat to hang the feeder so you can just lift the feeder off the cleat, dump the feed into a trash can (the squirrel cannot escape through the narrow feed throat), and dunk the entire feeder into a barrel of water for a half hour to drown the tree rat. You could take it for a long ride but that is illegal in most states and you are giving the squirrel a death sentence most likely by removing it from its own territory. It will have to fight to get another territory. Just be responsible and kill it humanely as possible.