There's a skunk sleeping in my coop?!

[gamebirdsonly]

He will eat your hens if the opportunity is there. I would get rid of him fast, they are also a high carrier of rabies.

 

[Brindlebtch]

When I used the hose w/ spray gun they didn't even try to spray, the just got the hell out of dodge.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Yup, they hate the water and just want to make a quick exit.

 

[thomas h]

Well ,,
when I was at Denis's house .There was a skunk hanging around .
It was walking all around his pen about 30 ' away. The skunk finally went to sleep on the hay. at the entrance of a coup.

All I did was use a square shovel and and try to cut its neck off ..
Then I bagged it carefully for Denis to dispose of .

the skunk did not spray but did smell..

This skunk looked sick .looked drunk.Maybe from poison from the neighbours house .

The pen did not smell of skunk for long .

good luck with your problem .

thomas

 

[antlers]

Quote:
Yup, they hate the water and just want to make a quick exit.

I'll second that second...

 

[fordmommy]

Skunks are just like coons and opossums(spelling???) They are scavengers. They eat evverything. AND SKUNKS can spray accerately up to 15 feet. I wouldn't spray him in the coop. Maybe in the yard. But you best be careful. They can really run when they want to. And being scared??? Who knows which way he'll run.

 

[luvarabhorses]

Oh he is so cute.....
I hope he just moves on.

 

[nnbreeder]

Most of the time just the sound of the human voice will move them along. I have had to let one out of my pen a while back. Just gathered up the birds and put them in a pet taxi and then opened the gate and gently and slowly crowded him out. What helped is the fact that I have been around this skunk since it was about 8 inches long shortly after it was weaned.

I have more problems with stray dogs and cats then I have with wild predators. This skunk will grub out by the pens and in the yard and on more then one occasion sent neighborhood dogs home smelling less then rosey. The only thing that kept this skunk alive when I first saw it was it's color, stripes on the head only with an entirely black body and tail. It has been easy to keep track of it through the years.

When a dog comes home smelling of skunk the owners are more likely to keep the dog penned because of the fear of rabies.

 

[robynt]

re: nnbreeder
I love it - you have a "watch-skunk"! Our little guy had left after nightfall and I blocked future access to the coop, but I think I hope he stays around after reading your post. We are hemmed in by dogs. When we got our first chickens three years ago there was one other dog in our neighborhood (across the street). Now there are two dogs at EACH of our next door neighbors, plus four more down the street. Unfortunately the neighbors on our right side are terrible dog owners. Their dogs are poorly trained and they get loose often enough to make it a real crap shoot to let our chickens out in our yard. They have killed a chicken of ours on two occasions. My husband refuses to fence any part of our yard, so our poor chickens spend a lot more time in their pen than they used to...

 

[chik magnet]

Shoot it .My gpa lost some of his eggs and birds to skunk.