What are my risks?

[underground chickenman]

If you don't have raccoons now, you will after you get chickens. I bet you have them now. I have never seen a live one, but I see them dead in the road outside my neighborhood all the time. I have seen possums in my yard. Also, you never know when a neighbor's dog is going to show up and kill a chicken.

UGCM

 

[BawkinOnTheBench]

I know I've seen an awful lot of posts about raccoons killing chickens. We have them in our yard almost every night, unless there's really heavy snow. They eat the birdseed and leave the chickens alone. There were tracks of 2 different raccoons in the snow this morning; both visited the bird feeders, neither approached the coop. Maybe the raccons in Utah like birdseed better. Our coop is built like fort Knox anyway; the coons couldn't get to the chickens even if they got through the run, and we have a baby monitor in the coop so we would hear it if they did. As for hawks, we live in a wooded area. I've had several Coopers and a Kestrel come down and take a look, but that's all they've ever done. It's really kind of funny seeing the hawk sit there 10 feet off the ground staring at the hens, thinking "Dang! That's a BIG quail!"