Trapping Chicken Killers

[JJSS89]

If you can't dispatch them with a shotgun, they don't like the smell of creosote it is like a wood preserver. Wet a old rag with it and put a few round the fence.

I've heard this before. Kind of like hanging plastic bags to keep deer away or bird tape to keep the sparrows off the raspberries. Those things tend to work for a very short period of time before the animal adjusts to that new feature and continues killing chickens, eating lettuce heads, or robbing berries.

 

[Gary Willson]

This guy was taking the garbage can lid off to get to my bird feed (sunflower seeds). He was so mean, I thought he was going to chew through the wire. He is now "living the dream" in the wooded area of our city park.

 

[teamjessie]

I have a question!

Is there some kind of way you can/should go about getting a protected animal declared a "nuisance"? We had a big, female Cooper's hawk in the yard yesterday (on the body of my daughter's favorite chicken...), and nothing would get her to fly off. I turned the hose on her, we threw sticks, made lots of noise, swung a shovel around. Not only was it not moving away, it would actually lunge FOR us if we got too close.

I have two young kids, and given the way this bird acts around people, I am nervous about letting them play in the yard.

I know hawks are protected, but if you were to get a call like that, as a professional, is there anything you are permitted to do? I'm in Southeast PA, but I believe the raptor laws are federal (??)

 

[JJSS89]

I have a question!

Is there some kind of way you can/should go about getting a protected animal declared a "nuisance"? We had a big, female Cooper's hawk in the yard yesterday (on the body of my daughter's favorite chicken...), and nothing would get her to fly off. I turned the hose on her, we threw sticks, made lots of noise, swung a shovel around. Not only was it not moving away, it would actually lunge FOR us if we got too close.

I have two young kids, and given the way this bird acts around people, I am nervous about letting them play in the yard.

I know hawks are protected, but if you were to get a call like that, as a professional, is there anything you are permitted to do? I'm in Southeast PA, but I believe the raptor laws are federal (??

 

[teamjessie]

Thanks! We actually did have an officer out yesterday. The bird was in our yard for at least 40 minutes, so we figured we'd call just in case something was wrong with it. He said what we figured he'd say "Yeah, that sucks, but there's nothing you can do..."

 

[JJSS89]

Thanks! We actually did have an officer out yesterday. The bird was in our yard for at least 40 minutes, so we figured we'd call just in case something was wrong with it. He said what we figured he'd say "Yeah, that sucks, but there's nothing you can do..."

Well he's wrong. If an animal is a threat to your household like that and is acting aggressive towards humans, he can do SOMETHING.

I'd go with the squeaky wheel approach

 

[CarioFarms]

I could most certainly use some help as we are in the midst of a chicken apocolypse here.

We've had our flock for three years and their coop is fort knox. My husband built it to withstand just about anything, it's a 6 foot by 12 foot solid 2x4 construction built on a raised platform anchored with 4x4's on all sides. It has siding, windows, a solid roof, etc. We extended the roof an additional ten feet and then anchored that off with more 4x4's. The run is the roof extended area plus the entire area UNDER the coop (since the coop sits about 2 feet off the ground.) The entire run is covered with 2"x4" galvanized steel mesh and the bottom two feet has an additional 1/2" square hold galvinized steel mesh. We also buried the mesh to a depth of 8" on all sides of the coop.

Fort Knox. Seriously.

The coop has a chicken door to the run which we leave open at all times because we only open the run to let them free range sometimes.

They were free ranging on Sunday and because we had friends over, it was well after dark when we locked the run.

The next morning, we found three dead chickens inside and two missing. Two dead ones in the coop and one dead in the run. All without heads. Our guess was that something came in and killed five and dragged two off before we locked up the run and we just didn't notice the dead ones.

The following day, we didn't let them free range. The next morning, we found one dead chicken in the run, right up against the fence with her head missing.

At this point, we assumed it was a raccoon. There's one spot on the run door that doesn't have the extra 1/2" mesh and that's where the dead chicken was. I assumed the raccoon reached through the run and grabbed her.

So we locked up the coop door that night and used the dead chicken in a live trap next to the coop.

The trap was dragged a bit, but whatever it was never went IN the trap. (I've only now learned that we need to make the open end of the trap part of a tunnel.

Last night, we did NOT close the coop door but did make sure the run was locked.

This morning we found two dead headless chickens INSIDE the coop. We've searched the coop high and low. There are no tunnels, no broken spots in the roof, nothing where a raccoon could fit inside. The only thing I can think is that a weasel might fit through the 2x4" mesh...but I didn't think weasels would eat the heads off and not anything else.

We live on 22 acres in Southwestern PA. The coop sits about 40 yards from our house next to a wooded hillside. The bottom of the hillside is open field with a stream. There's no shortage of dens along that hillside. We know we have raccoons, foxes, muscrats and groundhog. I've never seen a weasel, but I have no doubt we have them.

Any idea what might be doing it and the best way to trap them? When I thought it was a raccoon, I figured I'd just sit in a blind off the back of my house with the .243 and wait for it, but it's been SO dark the past few days that I can't see more than a few feet in front of me. We have floodlights on the outside of the coop, will whatever it is still come with the lights on? That would make picking it off a lot easier...

 

[CrazyTalk]

This guy was taking the garbage can lid off to get to my bird feed (sunflower seeds). He was so mean, I thought he was going to chew through the wire. He is now "living the dream" in the wooded area of our city park.

By "living the dream" you mean "was probably killed by the racoons local to that park" right?

 

[JJSS89]

By "living the dream" you mean "was probably killed by the racoons local to that park" right?

I didn't want to say anything about that but yeah, for sure.

Relocating is at best a death sentence to that animal. At worst it is a way to spread diseases like canine distemper and parasites.

 

[JJSS89]

I could most certainly use some help as we are in the midst of a chicken apocolypse here.

We've had our flock for three years and their coop is fort knox. My husband built it to withstand just about anything, it's a 6 foot by 12 foot solid 2x4 construction built on a raised platform anchored with 4x4's on all sides. It has siding, windows, a solid roof, etc. We extended the roof an additional ten feet and then anchored that off with more 4x4's. The run is the roof extended area plus the entire area UNDER the coop (since the coop sits about 2 feet off the ground.) The entire run is covered with 2"x4" galvanized steel mesh and the bottom two feet has an additional 1/2" square hold galvinized steel mesh. We also buried the mesh to a depth of 8" on all sides of the coop.

Fort Knox. Seriously.

The coop has a chicken door to the run which we leave open at all times because we only open the run to let them free range sometimes.

They were free ranging on Sunday and because we had friends over, it was well after dark when we locked the run.

The next morning, we found three dead chickens inside and two missing. Two dead ones in the coop and one dead in the run. All without heads. Our guess was that something came in and killed five and dragged two off before we locked up the run and we just didn't notice the dead ones.

The following day, we didn't let them free range. The next morning, we found one dead chicken in the run, right up against the fence with her head missing.

At this point, we assumed it was a raccoon. There's one spot on the run door that doesn't have the extra 1/2" mesh and that's where the dead chicken was. I assumed the raccoon reached through the run and grabbed her.

So we locked up the coop door that night and used the dead chicken in a live trap next to the coop.

The trap was dragged a bit, but whatever it was never went IN the trap. (I've only now learned that we need to make the open end of the trap part of a tunnel.

Last night, we did NOT close the coop door but did make sure the run was locked.

This morning we found two dead headless chickens INSIDE the coop. We've searched the coop high and low. There are no tunnels, no broken spots in the roof, nothing where a raccoon could fit inside. The only thing I can think is that a weasel might fit through the 2x4" mesh...but I didn't think weasels would eat the heads off and not anything else.

We live on 22 acres in Southwestern PA. The coop sits about 40 yards from our house next to a wooded hillside. The bottom of the hillside is open field with a stream. There's no shortage of dens along that hillside. We know we have raccoons, foxes, muscrats and groundhog. I've never seen a weasel, but I have no doubt we have them.

Any idea what might be doing it and the best way to trap them? When I thought it was a raccoon, I figured I'd just sit in a blind off the back of my house with the .243 and wait for it, but it's been SO dark the past few days that I can't see more than a few feet in front of me. We have floodlights on the outside of the coop, will whatever it is still come with the lights on? That would make picking it off a lot easier...

Sounds like a raccoon to me. Very dexterous and they do stuff like this all the time.

Mink could fit through 2x4 easily. Skunk is another possibility, they run pretty small.