chicken predator ID

[Robert MoonShadow]

We were taught as kids that they always tapped their front paws twice before spraying, unless startled…not sure if that was a myth or my brothers couldn’t count to two! I distinctly remember their several tomato-juice baths on the back porch.
And Jen – you’re right = looking through all these responses, it IS funny1

[mink]

robert do you think your brothers went….1……2…..oh shit 😮

[Robert MoonShadow]

Mink – I’m not giving them credit to be able to count to 2…in fact, they’d probably argue about it: “That was ONE!” “No, that was TWO!” “You’re full of it; that was…what’s that smell?!?” “It’s your fault – jerk…!!”

[jen judkins]

Caught another one last night….much bigger. This time I did not leave a tarp on the cage, but approached with it this am. No spray, though when I peeked over the edge of the tarp, he was looking right at me with his tail in the air….yikes!

[f3farms]

i do not know if it is internet voodoo but the morning after reading this post i found a headless duck.this morning 3 chicks dead with a hole dug the size of a football.after the first duck dead my trapper buddy said it was weasel.the hole was alot bigger than a weasel.i did see a fishercat out back while hunting.we have alway free ranged our birds but this year we cooped them up to try to eat more of the eggs. i knew i was looseing birds before but never saw a headless bird until i read this post.

[jen judkins]

Well, 3 skunks trapped in about a week. I think I have gotten them all now…empty trap for two nights running.

What I have learned from this, is that closing up the coop at night is important, not just to protect the birds from predators, but to keep the nuisance pests out of their food. I suspect the skunks were simply used to dining on the chicken feed and on the night they got into the brooding box (because I didn’t close it up one night), they found easy targets in the juvenile birds. Always something to learn….

[Andy Carson]

I had what I am pretty sure was a hawk attack yesterday. From the feather trail, I know the scuffle happened in the open and it looked like there was a fight (rather than a fast kill). It also happened during the day. I thought the predator had made off with a chicken and was looking for signs of what it was when I found the victim still alive in a shed. It was a mature barred rock hen, past her egg laying prime, but big and (formerly) in good health. Stab wounds had bloodied her back and there was a deep wound on the side of her neck at the base (just forward of the wing). They were very purposeful wounds from something that knew how to kill. I was honestly suprised she was alive. From the depth and severity of the wounds, I have a hard time believing she faught off the hawk herself. I think she was probably attacked, and my dog harrassed or attacked the hawk causing it to fly off without it’s prize. I had to put the chicken down as she was in a stuper, had lost alot of blood, and had deep wounds in large body cavities. I give alot of credit to my dog for “saving” this hen (at least for a short time). Granted, the hen still died, but the hawk was not able to actually feed on it and learned there was a dog in that location that was “dangerous.” I am not sure how well hawks learn such things, but perhaps this outcome saves other chickens in the future. Just thought I would share.

[jen judkins]

@Countymouse 35122 wrote:

I am not sure how well hawks learn such things, but perhaps this outcome saves other chickens in the future.

I’m sure they have the ability to understand a bad experience, when they have one…hopefully.

[Andy Carson]

I had another attack yesterday during the day in exactly the same spot. The feather trail overlapped with the last hen, actually. This hen was a younger buckeye/leghorn cross (jsut started laying) and these have been very aware and fast. They are mostly white, though, which isn’t supposed to be the best for flying predators. This hen didn’t have deep wounds on the back, just a few stratches. It did, however, have a very deep wound at the base of the neck on the right side, just forward on the wing. Exactly the same spot as the last hen. I still decised to put the hen down, but this one looked alot better than the last. I am less convinced this was a hawk b/c of the lack of back wounds. I wondered if my dog might have done it, but I have a hard time imaging how he would make such a precise cut in a specific area without mauling the hen. My coop has a secure pen attached that I am going to keep my birds in when I am not home until I can figure this out. I haven’t seen a hawk perching anywhere near this spot, but they do soar overhead fairly often.

[jen judkins]

I look forward to hearing what that menace is, Andy.

We had an interesting visitor yesterday. Cam home to find the coop ransacked….every bit of grain eaten, water knocked over, but no dead birds. Counted up all the juveniles and they are present and accounted for. My dogs cannot get into the coop due to invisible fencing. Black bear?? My first thought was a dog, but we really have very few dogs in the neighborhood except our own.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Jen – Something that eats grain, but not birds? Definitely not a bear, methinks…first thought is a deer.

[Andy Carson]

Two more attacks in the last few days. That makes 4 total attacks. All in the exact same location and all with neck wounds in the exact same area on the right side of the neck at the base. All the hens lived through the attacks, but 3 of the 4 I put down afterwards. The attacks seem to be lessoning in severity. The first hen was really messed up, but alive. It looked like the predator tried really hard to kill it before it gave up. In contrast, the last attack produced a neck wound that was maybe two inches long and a hen that was seeming OK. I treated and let this one live. She seems to have recovered fine. It was really a half-assed attempt at killing, esp compared to the first attack. I think I have a smaller hawk who is learning that it can’t really take these big mature hens. I have been shutting all the chickens in a pen when I am not home lately, and I don’t lose any when they are in. I want ot let them range, though, so need to figure this one out. There are several really nice perching locations surrounding the “kill zone” (all hens have been attacked within feet of each other). I spent much of yesterday watching these perches for likely attackers, but saw nothing. I have noticed that my on the ground feeding of scatch grains does attract a lot of small birds (sparrows, blue jays, etc) and wonder if these might have attracted a small hawk. I haven’t seen any small dead birds, though… Perhaps the hawk flies off with these…

[Carl Russell]

Jen….. it certainly sounds like a bear…… we had one several years ago going for the kitchen leftovers we feed in the yard. No birds were ever maligned.

Andy, my experience with this type of wound leads me to believe you are dealing with a young predator like a raccoon, or skunk.

Hawks don’t actually kill their prey by biting, rather they use their talons and pierce the body. They also usually don’t take a prey they can’t carry with them. Carrying the prey is one of the ways that their talons are most effective.

Throat biting like that is truly indicative of coons, skunks, and the like. Weasels and mink are more inclined to actually crush the skull, so their wounds are often higher.

The fact that you caught that raccoon last fall leads me to think that there may be a yearling (s) out there trying its hand at killing. Because coons are scavengers as well as predators, they don’t necessarily get a lot of practice killing if they are able to feed themselves with small prey and other scavenged food.

Take one of your carcasses and set it in a trap. The repetitive nature leads me to believe that it will be back, and I can almost guarantee that it would be just as happy to eat an already dead bird. Again, cut the liver out and use that for bait….. almost 100% success for these types of predations…

Good luck, Carl

[Andy Carson]

Yesterday I set up 3 live traps, one with liver, one with peanut butter, and a third with cat food. I have had the best luck with peanut butter, but wanted to make a wide sweep. No takers on any baits last night. All that attacks have come in the day (around 10 AM), though, which was one of the reasons I suspected a hawk. The first one looked like a hawk with the stab wounds in the back, but the last three have had primarily just neck wounds. Hard to imagine that it’s two different predators with the attacks in such close succession, but the first attack is now looking like the least typical of the series. At any rate, I took the peanut butter out of my biggest trap this trap this morning an put in a two week old chick in a wire cage at the back of the trap. I cannot believe any predator would be able to resist such as easy-looking prize that moves and peeps. I think the chick will have the wits scared out of it, but should remain unharmed. I put the trap in the exact area where the four attacks occured (which is in the middle of an open grassy area). Not where my instincts would have told me to put a trap, but as that’s where the attacks happened, it’s hard to pick somewhere else. We’ll see… It took a couple days of trying before I caught that raccoon before, so it might take a couple again. One of the things I notice when I get raccoons or possums is that the cat food in the barn disappears fast and there is no missing cat food lately. I did see a dead bird (I think a starling) washed in my oxen’s water trough, which I am pretty sure was due to a coon. The oxen are in a far field right now, though, and on the other side of my electric fence. This may mean nothing other than that there are coons close, but I already knew that.

[Andy Carson]

The “predator” that have been injuring my hens is my dog… I caught him mouthing a hen with his teeth at the base of the neck right where the injuries have been occuring. The hen was not really that terrified (although she did want get away) and my dog was not really torqued up (although he clearly thought this was fun). The hen was uninjured but roughed up when I inspected and my dog never picked her up of the ground. It looked like how he plays with my small dogs, mouthing on the back and base of the neck to get them to play. He was definately not try to kill the hen, as he’s a big dog and one bite or shake would kill the hen for sure. Still, I yelled at him alot. He immediately stopped and acted very submissive and “sorry.” He doesn’t need harsh treatment to learn a lesson, but his job is to be a guard when I’m not around and I can’t have him maiming chickens tryign to play with them!!! It’s very dissapointing to have him do this, but I am encouraged by hearing some people say that even “proper” livestock guardian dogs sometimes go through a phase where they kill a few chickens. My dog is one year and a month or two and he has never gone after chickens before. I got a shock collar so I can shock him if he tries to play with a hen. Yelling at him works fine, but I think he does this when I’m not around and he’s bored, so I can’t have him thinking that if I’m not there than this is OK. Hopefully this can be stopped with appropriate training and I have hope because he did not actually killing any chickens (rather injured them to the point I had to kill them) and is more interested in playing with them rather than killing/eating them. Any tips are greatly appreciated. I have been keeping the chickens in thier pen when I’m not home and letting them out when I can supervise, and haven’t lost any more hens.

PS. I ended up with no less than 5 traps of various types baited with peanut butter, sardines, cat food, liver, and one with a live chick. Nothing was touched and even the peeping, moving, seemingly vulnerable chick failed to attract a predator. So, I think I don’t have other predators complicating this case. I have to think my dog has a lot to do with this, so at least he is doing something right…

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