Official BYC Poll: The Worst Predator

[joroster]

A fox rips their heads off

 

[FrankHomestead]

Totally depends on what lives in your area

 

[cacknballs]

I was curious as to which predator the most chickens have been lost to.

so i'm late to the party, i'm not sure if someone already said this, and there's no way i'm going through 118 pages to find out...so if it's been mentioned, i apologize.

but the predator that the most chickens have been lost to is THE apex predator...humans.

period.

 

[bigz1983]

I think the opossum is one of the worst. It can squeeze into very tight spaces.

 

[sunetc]

I chose dog. Dogs don't even belong there! It could be some irrisponsible owner letting them out. They may attack your birds for sport. At least a raccoon or hawk is wild and trying to survive! That's why I chose dogs over them.

 

[TravisBumpy]

I am in a city setting. So definitely dogs are the biggest predator threat for me. I friend of mine had his entire flock wiped out by a dog 2 years ago. And I have lost 2 birds to them.

 

[Elyrian1]

Of the four birds I have lost, three were to dogs... And that was in the country. Almost lost two more, but I intervened and nursed my birds back to health. The fourth was definitely lost to a bird of prey, your guess as to which kind is as good as mine.

 

[Annejette]

In the last 3 weeks I've lost 2 chickens and a duck to a bald eagle. It also attacked my male duck, but he survived and healed nicely.

 

[Annejette]

Like I said on the other thread, I believe that the worst predator to have is a bird of prey (owl, hawk, etc.). Most are protected species, so you can't really do anything about it. At least with the other predators you can take care of business.

Right!? What can I do about a Bald Eagle??!??

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Have bird netting on top of run. Pretty easy to keep birds of prey away from chickens unless you have a huge run like we do. The late fall into spring run here is an old dog kennel that's something like 60x100'. We just deal with the few losses, birds have plenty of cover so only have lost one 18 week old cockerel in near two years here to Northern Harrier.