The Serpents Have Been Arrested!

[Stiggy]

Good going guys on the snake catching front. And to think I thought the hedgehogs that we get in the semi rural edge of city place I live in are bad ( I personally lost almost 10% of my chicks/fertile eggs/ even a hen) . They quickly find themselves on the bad end of the stick depending on who catches them ( I'm not into animal cruelty so I try to be quick and merciful about it) in the spring- late summer and early autumn season we have to check out at night twice, early around sunset and later about 11-1 am and all the hens and chicks are shut in predetor proof houses. in one night we got 3 huge adults, and 2 nights before we lost 7 chicks from one area, we found 2 hollow carcass, and one wing. where I live we had over 1000 chooks ( mostly my mothers) and about 30 houses to check, some unfortunately were not proofed and a hollow carcass would be found the next day..... they all do so much damage, especially to those like me who's chickens are pets.

 

[jwcloud]

WOW a hedgehog eats chickens and eggs ? I never new that !

 

[Stiggy]

yeap there awful things. because chickens don't move much at night, the hedgehog will eat the chicken from the inside out while the chicken just sits there. however with a hen with chicks ours will try fight them off, or at least move the chicks. some of our more high strung hens would scream to warn then and some would ( as soon as the chicks could start to fly and jump) take them into the trees up high. at one point they worked out that if they all stuck together in a few coups it was safer and in one small house designed for 2 hens/ 1 hen and chicks there were 4 birds and their chicks all squeezed in. yes the hedgehog will go for the easiest pray first ( a hen sitting on egg/ has small chicks) then a small chick, or an injured bird then a fully grown one. I had a blind pullet which became the target of a massive male hedgehog, and she couldn't get away. I got it in time and it got good smack over the head with a mag lite torch before it went for a swim... but yes they will take out chickens

 

[jwcloud]

thats crazy ! would a chicken dog (guard dog) fight then off ?

 

[Stiggy]

possibly, I don't actually know that one, if trained to they could alert but because of the spikes they couldn't do much else. in saying that we had 6 dogs at that time and they paid no notice to the hedgehogs.

 

[jwcloud]

didnt think about the spikes sorry ,

 

[Stiggy]

lol that's fine, people don't until they have to deal with them usually in the dark by accident...

 

[Meadowchick]

...and to think...I never considered that a hedgehog was a chicken predator when I had those in my classroom...I should have done more research!!!

 

[Blooie]

...and to think...I never considered that a hedgehog was a chicken predator when I had those in my classroom...I should have done more research!!!

You're still smarter than I am...whenever I hear the word "hedgehog" (um like it comes up so often in casual conversation) all I can think of is Sonic. Sheesh, maybe I have too many grandkids - my ringtone is the Wonder Pets theme song: "The phone, the phone is ringing The phone, we'll be right there!"

 

[kjanda]

Finally got this rascal. Swallowed ceramic eggs every other day or so but always spit them out. Got him over 2 guinea eggs. Hung him on the fence and in the past two days we've gotten over 7 inches of rain in some parts- seems like it works more often than not!