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03/03/10, 12:36 PM
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Wrangler's Roost
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 551
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Predators!!!!!!! aaaaaaghhhhhhhhhh!!
I tell ya what if this is any example of what the year will be like we are in for it this year..............
seems like every night I am thinning out the ranks of coons an possums lately ..... now in the last week I've seen several hawks as well as had a red fox make a run on my free range guineas ......... so far this year only lost 1 guinea that was pen raised an released ended up gotten in just couple days later ..........
anyone else been seeing more critters around than normal????
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03/03/10, 12:38 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 373
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I lost a chicken last night. First time in about 4-5 years I've lost anything to predators. Something tore the head off, but didn't eat anything. Chickens were all shut in the hen house at the time.
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03/03/10, 01:45 PM
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Moderator
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Mid-Michigan
Posts: 4,536
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Yep. I've lost 4 chickens so far this week. Twice something has pried off the chicken door to the coop. Guess I need to put more than one 'lock' on it now.
Yesterday I caught a skunk in the act of devouring a chicken, now I have a dead skunk to play with (see this post: A little redneck fun)
This morning I was woken up at 5:20 a.m. by chickens screaming. Unfortunately I attempted to fall down the stairs going to get the gun (only fell down 5, phew!) and didn't get the perpetrator. I was not a happy camper finding and retrieving freaked out chickens by flashlight so I could shut them all back into the coop until the sun came up.
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03/03/10, 01:54 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Southeast MO
Posts: 1,075
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We have pretty bad problems too, and I have yet to find a solution. Can't do traps, the dogs roam. Coyote can sneak past the dogs somehow, and possums are even sneakier. I've thought about motion activated lights, but I don't think it would help. I'm just going to use the 1 for me, 1 for them approach, I guess.
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April
Southeast Missouri
Nubians, Boers, Jersey cows and a whole lotta ticks
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03/03/10, 01:57 PM
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Columnist, Feature Writer
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Maine
Posts: 4,568
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We killed 13 raccoons last year and the dogs killed one. I shot coons in a neighbor's coop, they shot more and another neighbor trapped and killed a few that were after her birds. We're within 3/4's of a mile of each other. I've never seen so many coons.
Teri, owls will pull a chicken's head off and leave the body.
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Robin
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03/03/10, 03:19 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 373
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They were roosting in the henhouse at the time. It happened during the night. Don't know how an owl could have gotten in there.
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03/03/10, 03:49 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Missouri
Posts: 2,349
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I wonder if the really hard winter in a lot of places has made hunting their natural prey so difficult they are seeking easier pickins?
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03/03/10, 05:01 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 946
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yeap !! we have about 4 to 5 red tail hawks and a pack of coyotes, coons, possums and a stray tom cat. my hens are freaked out and quit laying. So what is a person to do?
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03/03/10, 05:21 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Bartow County, GA
Posts: 6,778
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What's a person to do? Fence, double fence, put a top on your run. Use LGD's. Think outside the box.
Learn to co-exist. Every time you kill a coyote or a hawk, you increase the rabbit and rat population.
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Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible
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03/03/10, 07:51 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Indiana, USA
Posts: 12,667
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf mom
What's a person to do? Fence, double fence, put a top on your run. Use LGD's. Think outside the box.
Learn to co-exist. Every time you kill a coyote or a hawk, you increase the rabbit and rat population.
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An electric fence seems to work for us, on all predators, except the hawks.
Someone suggested running thick string above the "prey", to keep the hawks from swooping.
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03/03/10, 08:32 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,760
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Predators abound thanks to low fur prices, federal protection for hawks ( which should be stopped because they are nowhere near endangered ), and more people working away from home during the day. Free ranging poultry is impossible here mostly because of the hawks. Between shooting, trapping, and our dogs, we keep the ground critters pretty well under control.
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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.
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03/03/10, 09:28 PM
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Wrangler's Roost
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 551
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf mom
What's a person to do? Fence, double fence, put a top on your run. Use LGD's. Think outside the box.
Learn to co-exist. Every time you kill a coyote or a hawk, you increase the rabbit and rat population.
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I have all my chickens penned an only my guineas run loose to keep ticks an snakes in check and mostly only lose guineas to owls an once in awhile maybe hawks but I lose quail, chicks, chickens toes an sometimes even whole chickens to critters either stressing them out to the point of no return or pulling them through the wires or getting in the cages themselves..... I agree to leave nature to do it's job but when nature decides my farm is a buffet then I am of them mind of feeding them some lead pills.........those animals are put here for a reason an yes I am all for leaving them alone or trying to detour them when I can but when all else fails ............  WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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03/03/10, 10:56 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: near Abilene,TX
Posts: 5,323
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Owls are protected...cannot do anything to them...finally had two huge wire cages made, and they are all safe now...you could hear the owls hooting, and when they hit that wire to try to get to my doves, you have never heard such a noise, the doves freaking out and flying all over in a frenzy...I have had cats pull the doves out of the cage and eat off their heads, so I try to keep water and feed in the center of the cage. Now have the big chicken nest boxes protected on all sides, and I use flower baskets for them to raise the young ones in the middle of the cages. Have lost chickens to the owls if they nested in the trees instead of the coop.
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03/04/10, 04:29 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 859
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mine are in wooden coops with wooden floors (I use several wooden dog houses). I've never had something get inside them or rip the doors off (I use pop doors). but I waited about half an hour after dark a couple of weeks ago and darned if there wasn't a opossum already in the coop by the time I went down there. ugly creatures.
I've only lost one to a hawk over the years but I leave blackberries and rose bushes to grow in the pasture they are in. they make really good protection to run to.
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03/04/10, 05:09 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 667
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It's true the price of fur is down, but furs are not "prime" now anyway and won't be again until next winter. There is a market for rawhide tho. You can remove the hair with lye or wood ash and stretch and dry the hide. It's free after all. The muzzle loader and ren fairs would be where I'd look for a market for whole flat rawhides, rawhide made into thongs and lacing, teeth and claws. Some bones too.
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03/04/10, 05:59 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 39
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possums....
I have shot two possums in the chicken coop the last three days about 5 o'clock pm. And one on the compost pile. I have seen many road kill possums one the way to town also. There does seem to be more than usual and much more "hungry" than usual lately.... i need to keep the live trap baited i guess.
I live trapped 15 racoons two years ago and took them about 10 miles down to a nature preserve. Some said they would just come back, but they never did.
dennis
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03/04/10, 09:46 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Piedmont Central Virginia
Posts: 641
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" What's a person to do? Fence, double fence, put a top on your run. Use LGD's. Think outside the box"
I am having TERRIBLE problems with predators this year. Something got 30 guineas out of 31, and is putting me out of the chicken business. Two big Naragansett turkeys disappeared without a trace, one killed and partly eaten in pen with chickenwire cover. My predator(s) can open doors, tear apart chicken wire, bite heads to kill and climb, leaving mud on walls. It eats entrails plus strips flesh from my birds. I set a big trap and caught three skunks on four different days. The third day a squirrel was in the trap. Very agile and jumping like a flea. I left it in over night. Next morning the trap had been dragged a good ten feet and all but a few hanks of fur and leg bones was left of the squirrel.
What could be doing this? Could skunks be the only predators??
What is an LGD? Where do I get them????
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03/04/10, 09:51 AM
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 17,225
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This is breeding season for skunks and coon in northern climes, and in warmer areas these critters are waking up from hibernation and are hungry. Fur prices affect the population regardless of the season. If prices were high last fall, populations would be low right now.
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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi
Libertarindependent
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03/04/10, 12:56 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Navotifarm
" What's a person to do? Fence, double fence, put a top on your run. Use LGD's. Think outside the box"
I am having TERRIBLE problems with predators this year. Something got 30 guineas out of 31, and is putting me out of the chicken business. Two big Naragansett turkeys disappeared without a trace, one killed and partly eaten in pen with chickenwire cover. My predator(s) can open doors, tear apart chicken wire, bite heads to kill and climb, leaving mud on walls. It eats entrails plus strips flesh from my birds. I set a big trap and caught three skunks on four different days. The third day a squirrel was in the trap. Very agile and jumping like a flea. I left it in over night. Next morning the trap had been dragged a good ten feet and all but a few hanks of fur and leg bones was left of the squirrel.
What could be doing this? Could skunks be the only predators??
What is an LGD? Where do I get them????
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I've never seen a skunk climb but maybe they can. Possums can climb very well and so can coons. They can also tear through chicken wire. Coons are also very good at opening doors and even figuring out how to open hasps. Weasels are known to bite heads to kill birds but they generally don't eat that much at one time.
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Dear Math, it is time you grew up and solved your own problems.
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