If it has n’t happened to you yet , it will . Anyone with chickens knows the feeling of going to the pen and finding fresh eggs have disappeared or unsound : Your chickens are dead . It ’s a dreadful smell that ca n’t be avoided altogether if you own chickens . regrettably , chickens are toward the bottom of just about any farmyard food Sir Ernst Boris Chain , and a chicken dinner is too tantalising for a predator to refuse .
You get picked on when you are 10 in tall and ca n’t struggle all that well . That ’s the destiny of many chickens .
But to keep your wimp safe , you have to be proactive and vigilant . It start up with interpret the danger your spate confront and working diligently to stave off the intruders . In realism , all sorts of hazards wait to feed upon your flock .
Chickens are n’t only tasty to us , but they ’re tasty to a whole zoological garden of wildlife that lives on the outer boundary of humans . While many critter live harmoniously around our volaille , you never see any of the likely menace coming or going .
Every now and then , however , a marauder arrive the taste of volaille .
Raccoons
Raccoons are one of the most common mammals rule in the United States . Highly adaptable , they range from the fundamental American band magnetic north to southern Canada and can be found living in rural and urban orbit likewise . racoon are also crafty , intelligent and have articulating fingers to manipulate the environments around them . They are master at figuring out how to get to your chicken . As the onetime expression go away : “ Give them an inch , and they ’ll take a mile . ”
If you find your hens dead and only their heads were consume , it was credibly a racoon . Ifthey ca n’t get in , kill and eat the intact bird , they ’ll grab the chickens by the head , pull them through the conducting wire and eat what theycan . If you find headless chickens lying near the fencing , chances are a racoon did it .
therefore , chicken are especially vulnerable to racoon ravage at night . Raccoons are egg eater as well . However , when they eat eggs , they go away quite a pot .
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Opossums
Opossums are the only pouched mammal found in North America . Therefore , opossums are gestated in a womb and birthed live .
After birth , their young migrate into a pouch on the female ’s belly . There , they nurse and continue to maturate until they can live beyond their mother ’s torso . Smaller than a racoon and about the size of it of a theatre cat , opossums are nocturnal and move slow in their lookup for food . These mammals resemble giant rats and are widespread across the U.S. except for the Mountain West .
Like racoon , opossums are omnivorous . They ’ll rob food from your compost pile and steal kibble from your trashcan . While not a classical wimp killer , opossums are in the predator category of nest freebooter . They have a propensity for stealing egg and may occasionally kill a wench .
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When they raid a nest , they generally do a thorough chore cleaning up their wad , although they will leave a few shell scrap and some egg interior behind .
Read more : Are opossums admirer or foe to the chicken - custodian ?
Bobcats
One day I walk out to my hencoop and saw a hole torn in the top of the wire . Counting the chickens , I see they were all account for . The next 24-hour interval I perish back out to the coop and pick up a Lynx rufus in the Gallus gallus run . He had eaten the entrails and some of the breast from a chicken , and when he construe me , he escaped from the novel golf hole he ’d buck in the fence . Kerry Hargrove / Shutterstock
When I enumerate the chickens , two were utter , and two were missing . I scoured the woods behind my house to see if they ’d escaped and were forage . Instead , I find them covered with leaves and sprig — classic caching behavior exhibited by bobcats .
Lynx rufus are set up over the entire U.S. into southern Canada . They are enigmatic mammal and rarely seen . But bobcats are everywhere . In fact , some of the gamy bobcat denseness found anywhere are suburban bobcat that subsist in the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex .
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Like foxes , bay lynx will take the entire shuttle and hide it in a memory cache for late consumption .
Foxes
You ’ve heard all the expression : “ Crazy like a fox , ” or “ Do n’t let the fox guard the henhouse . ” They all make sense when you put the expressions in linguistic context with how slick a slyboots is as a hunting watch and hence chicken vulture . These low dogtooth are witty , intelligent and adaptable .
Where you live in the rural area depends on the type of slyboots you ’ll see . There d foxand thegray foxare two species that inhabit the U.S. Red foxes are find in Alaska , Canada and much of the states ( except for the Desert Southwest ) .
Asa Gray foxes are find across much of the low 40 states .
Irina Kozorog/Shutterstock
If your chickens go missing completely , mistrust a slyboots . Foxes will take eggs and live poulet and leave no tracing . They ’ll often steal more than one chicken in a raid and cache it nearby to use up later .
Skunks
polecat are primarily eggs thief , but this stinky marauder will also eat the innards from a chicken given the opportunity . rat are common mesomammals . The stripy skunk is the most wide distributed species of skunks .
However , in the southwesterly U.S. , hooded and hognose gage are also present .
learn to discern if a weed ’s been present is easy : Just smell for them . While skunks spray when threatened , that musky smell follows them everywhere . If they are startled by one of your chickens , they ’ll spray to represent themselves . Skunks will labour , but it ’s improbable they ’ll purposefully aim your Gallus gallus . Instead , they are more opportunists than anything else .
Read more : Protect your poultry by design with a hard coop and run .
Coyotes
bobcat are stealthy , fox are sneaky , and raccoons and the others come in the night . The coyote , however , is the most daring marauder of all the chicken grampus . Once , while train supper in our country kitchen , I place upright at the kitchen cesspool and looked out the windowpane , watch out our chickens peck around in the backyard .
While the chickens were unmindful to their surroundings , I was not . As I catch out the window , I saw a unseasoned , good for you coyote lurking in the brush beyond our manicured backyard , where the crybaby were . When I ran outside to step in , the song dog was about to make his last lunge for the domestic fowl .
coyote are the ultimate opportunist , and like bobcat , they ’re extremely adaptable and live in the suburbs and rural environs . Cunning , they ’ll essentially devise a plan before they foray into your volaille — steal one before running off into the wild . As such , you could find them all over the continent .
While coyote will poke , they are n’t as dangerous to volaille that bide penned up . Instead , they favor to fascinate the ones that free - compass .
Snakes
snake ( we ’ll use that term generally ) are n’t much of a threat to grown chickens . or else , they eat eggs and bird .
The problem is that when snakes eat , they eat their food whole . Therefore , you might never see any evidence of their mien unless you becharm them in the human action . While there is n’t one single mintage of Hydra that affect your chicken , any snake big enough to swallow an egg can make an impact .
Hydra are specially unmanageable to controlbecause they can joggle through the tiniest crevices . I ’ve often caught a snake in the henhouse when they got in , swallowed an egg whole , and then could n’t get back out of the same holebecause of the egg they ’d yet to stick out . Therefore , watch for small cranny and crevices in yourhenhouse and keep them pass over .
Snakes canclimb walls , too , and you ’ll be amazed at how theycan get into a place you reckon impossible .
Hawks & Owls
Like snakes , several species of hawks and owls can affect your Gallus gallus . If you find chickens missing or a carcase plucked and corrode , chance are it was a mortarboard or hooter . Georgi Baird / Shutterstock
The difference is that hawks hunt during the day and bird of Minerva Holman Hunt at night . Chickens lock up in a family at nighttime are n’t susceptible to depredation . The same holds on-key during the day . Chickens detain to a run are safe from avian predators .
Pets
While dogs and cats hold a special place on our farms , they can also be deadly to chickens . Growing up , I remember a farm dog or two campaign through the hen slew for fun only to have their creator inherent aptitude kick back in and a chicken terminate up dead . Alternatively , CT are deadly on chicks and Gallus gallus as well .
After all , they are predators . Predators will do what ’s instinctual . Irina Kozorog / Shutterstock
While there ’s no one path to acclimatise house favorite to your chickens , just verify your deary are feed well and often to excrete the urge to take an easy meal . In addition , admonish your pets whenever they set about to disturb your chickens .
Aside from your ducky , find out out for feral animals like stray hound and cats that may affect your flock . Feral cats are especially lethal to all kinds of birds . Therefore , apply appropriate animal ascendance measures to take charge of any wild heel or cat problem .
Animal Control
If a predator is discovered , animal command is always an choice . That means dispatching the creature by killing it or relocating it to another spot . Whatever you believe is the best form of action , you must stop your local biz laws and regulations to see what your option may be .
In world-wide , for exemplar , hawk and bird of Minerva are protected animal , so you just ca n’t go around kill them . Do your homework , find out what you’re able to and ca n’t do in predator control , and progress your programme accordingly .
The good Gallus gallus predator control , though , is prevention . remain diligent and predators will shortly learn your chicken are n’t an easy repast . They will lose sake in your flock .
More Information
subsist with piranha around can be daunting , but you may extenuate marauder legal injury that they may do to your chicken flock with good provision . Diligence and faithfulness to your flock is vital . It ’s an ongoing job , and the better you stay on top of the potential problem , the dependable your chickens will be .
It ’s better to recreate discourtesy against predators rather than be related to playing defense . With that in brain , abide by these tips .
Used by hunter to reconnoiter for game animal , you could use game cameras around your chicken coop to be your eyes in the line of business to spy on what may be stag around . A motion - set off basic tv camera will cost you about $ 50 .
In contrast , cameras that instantaneously send an image to your smartphone be a little more . Either is good in help you scout what ’s snooping around your chickens when you are n’t there .
This is a no - brainer , but it may be the most efficient strategy . By learn your playpen day by day , you’re able to look for holes in the telegram or coop , dig marks around the outside of the enclosure , or animate being tracks or droppings . You ’ll be able to stay ahead of any developing scourge .
This article originally appeared in the September / October 2022 egress ofChickensmagazine .
