predators

This morning I noticed my favorite chicken, Rosy, was missing. I looked all over for her, but couldn't find her. I was getting really worried, and my heart sank when I saw a trail of feathers leading to under the shed. I checked there, and I found half of her. A raccoon probably took the other...

Hello all, A while ago, my chickens and other poultry were being harassed by members of the canine group, and on three occasions I had come to find my birds in the drooling mouth of a dog and after chasing and rescuing my chicken from fate, I could clearly see they were in a shock. This is...

Hi. I was hoping to get advice. I went into the run to open feed containers and let the girls out this morning and found a large pile of freshly dug dirt. Looks like something dug it's way out?? I took a photo in the hole and you can see light to where it tunneled through. The exit was about...

Need help and advice. Since the shutdown the Coyotes have moved into my area. I have a large flock of chickens that gets cooped at night with a hot line so those are safe but since I free range and there are a ton of places to hide, some chickens decide that they want to put the FREE in free...

I’ve been letting the pullets in my flock free range for some time now. A few weeks ago a pullet named Butters vanished for a day but came back by dusk. Today, I was free ranging the flock as usual when I heard my rooster freaking out. When I went to check on them, I found my rooster with 5...

I woke up to all my chicks [except one week old chick who I found alive squished in a crevasse] dead in their outdoor elevated brooder a bin with it's lid tightly on which is solid plastic with 1/4" hardware cloth. Everything was in place and it doesn't look like anything was there or messed...

I have 5 - 10 week old egyptian fayoumis and brown leghorns chicks who free-range. I've heard these breeds are suppose to be great free-rangers but some have died without any sign of sickness, attack, or anything. I let them roam around when I'm outside but if I turn my back for a few minutes...

I have 5 - 10 week old egyptian fayoumis and brown leghorns chicks who free-range. I've heard these breeds are suppose to be great free-rangers but some have died without any sign of sickness, attack, or anything. I let them roam around when I'm outside but if I turn my back for a few minutes...

I am building a 10x20 run. I am covering all sides with 1/4” mesh wire (maybe a bit overkill but want to be extra safe) however my question about keeping foxes and raccoons from digging under is if I can lay down 3’ wide chain link fencing around the perimeter (tie it into my mesh to prevent...

Hi there! I've been stalking this forum awhile but just joined. We originally wanted chickens, but decided we would better fly under the radar of our extremely strict HOA with quail. We got our first 8 coturnix quail in April 2022 and have learned a lot from many rounds of challenges (trouble...

Hello! I’m planning on buying a huge new flock of chickens from McMurray and want to add a guard goose. We have terrible predators (I’m getting poultry netting for those forsaken hawks but we also have rats and other predators) and I think it’s a great solution until I get LGDs. Since I’m...

So, I posted earlier a week ago or so regarding losing 12 chickens in a single night to a raccoon attack. Since then we've been keeping our chickens locked in the hen house instead of letting what should be a secure chicken run area stay open, so in the evening we shut them in and in the morning...

Suffered a Raccoon attack last night, a big one. It had to be a family of raccoons, this time of year conservation is putting out warnings regarding wolves/coyotes teaching their young to hunt, looks like it applies to raccoons as well. I had 18 full grown chickens and 5 Orpington...

1st day: So, I started noticing my eggs would have yolk splatted on top of them, right on top of unbroken eggs, with no shells around. Interesting I thought, and a bit weird. So talking to my mom about it she said it's probably a raccoon. Raccoons are extremely strong and can easily break eggs...

My dad, son and me built a new coop for our new chickens and we are going to put their exercise yard together this weekend. We are using dog run panels with chicken fence on the outside of each panel to prevent them from sneaking out and predators from getting in. With a 6 inch skirt to keep the...

There’s been a boom in the cat population of my neighborhood. They’re becoming more abundant, which is either from the lack of spaying and neutering, or people letting their cats wander outside. This is potentially bad not only for my chickens, but also the cats in question, as they get hurt...

Hi there, brand new to chickens! Happy to be a part of this forum. I have been thinking about raising chickens for years, and finally feel we're in the place to start this project this year. I have been in research mode for weeks. This site is a goldmine for information, experiences and answers...

Young Melody keeping an eye out for hawks.

Today I started processing the first group of our meat birds. This is brand new for my family so we knew it would be slow going and we didn’t set the bar high for what we could get done. We only got 4 finished but we still have a dozen or so in the tractor. My concern is predators. I’m sure they...

So we lost our BJG rooster, George, and four BA hens in the last couple of days and weren't sure what the predator was until this afternoon when I spotted what appeared to be a single juvenile coyote preparing to come onto our property. I had suspected coyote, as there was virtually no evidence...