WHAT PREDITORS SHOULD I BE SCARED OF LIVING ON CAPE COD MASSACHUSETTS

[Faverolle]

Raccoons, foxes, opposums, skunks, weasels, and hawks and owls are plentiful here. Also although not as common on the cape keep an eye out for coyotes.

 

[Uppity Peon]

Feral cats are probably common too. They are more of a threat to the little ones, but some people are really bad about putting food out to support the feral cat population, so they are very numerous.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

Quote:

Lol heck I live in Maine and I worry about them

j/k, though there are other crypto-animals here, I doubt the Chupacabra has made it all the way up here yet...

 

[toredano]

why make 2 threads with the same question ?

Just curious...

 

[panner123]

The main predators in that area use to be the Kennedy's.

But most of them are to old to worry about now.

The one predator most don't consider in that area is the see gull. They will take a chick faster than any hawk.

 

[capecodpeeps]

LOL...the Kennedy are not far from them, my sister can walk to their house from her house...We see them on occassion...and yes we do have lots of seagulls. uhhh

 

[Buff Hooligans]

CCPeeps, I live on the outer Cape. I keep my girls totally in their run, never let them free-range. They've never been attacked by anything.

If my coop were not so well built, I'm sure they would have been killed by raccoons, visiting dogs or coyotes by now.

Sometimes people who are here on vacation think they are in the "country" and they let their dogs off the leash. The first year we had the chickens, I saw dog footprints all around the run, and the girls had bloody beaks from flying in a panic against the wire.

Good luck. I say keep your chickens enclosed and you won't have a problem. Fences don't keep out a determined or athletic dog.

 

[lunkerchicken]

Quote:

LOL

 

[citrusdreams]

You should probably concentrate on creating a well protected coop and attached run and then go from there. Nothing should be able to get into your coop. Nothing should be able to get into your run from above, through the fence or by digging under the fence. Especially watch that area where you connect your pen to your henhouse: sometimes there's a small gap on the bottom and slinky predators can get though that. You can run a strand of electric along the outside of the bottom of the pen, and along the top.

You'll know as you go along how well you'll have to keep them protected, or whether you can free range them. Some people free range their chickens about an hour or so before dusk so that they can be out with them during that time.

During certain times of the year, I can leave the coop and run open 24/7 and haven't had a problem. Other times I keep the run closed after dusk and before dawn. The more my dogs are outside, the less I have to lock up the chickens. It just depends on your own predator situation. You'll learn with time how it is for you. Generally, with me, the neighbors with penned up dogs get all the predators

 

[panner123]

The Kennedys!!!!!!!!!!