This is just a friendly reminder to those of you who do have larger predators than possums & raccoons. I only write this in hopes that each of you pay a bit more attention as you check on your chickens at night. I figure I haven't seen it bc many of you don't have larger predators than a raccoon. I have yet to see anything brought up on here about cats.. large cats. They have yet to eat my chickens but please read on.
please watch carefully the trees near your coop. I too thought it was just a messed up Roo learning when the right time was to crow or possibly the Roo down the road who i could also hear encouraging him. Then we found out mine was crowing bc there was a Bobcat in the tree. The poor Bobcat wasn't interested in my chickens. It seemed to just be there. I've never lost a chicken to one, neither has the neighbor but we do have them. But the Roo crowed at night for 3 nights before the cat moved on then it just stopped. We found it bc it started shrieking around 11 pm each night right after my Roo started crowing. I have learned the hard way to be very careful checking the coop at night. We also have cougars & black panthers. Not something i wish to run into after dark perched above my coop. o & we decided the other roos down the road were crowing bc they were talking.. kinda warning each other of something that was out there. When a dog barks, my roos stop, look, listen then crow. the neighbors roo will answer & it will keep going till all roos within a 1/2 mile are crowing (talking).
please just remember to look up as you walk. the danger isn't always at eye level or on the ground.
Please be careful
wow that's pretty scarey. My dogs keep me atuned to anything outside. I don't know how they know when a opossum or coon is out there but they drive us crazy sometimes. I always check with a flash light when they get overly excited
eeekkkk I would hate to run into some of those predators as well. Glad your roo was okay and warning you.
We just had a disaster. There are three of us friends who own chickens. My friend and I went on a walk and when we returned there was a dog in her coop. One of her chickens was dead and one was severely injured. They were big dogs, and ripped the side of the cage off. Two others chickens were missing. We found them around the neighborhood. She had one go missing about two weeks ago. The thing is, her yard is fenced in and the coop, (we thought) was secure. You just don't expect the dogs in the neighborhood to kill your pets. It was our first experience with this kind of thing. It was really sad.
The Barred Rock, who was injured, survived the night. I mean, she has a big gash out of her back, and was bleeding from her beak. We did not think she would make it at all. Now she still looks bad, but seems to be eating. There is hope!
How awful, Greykyttyn and Imagesoart. We have coyotes around here but have never seen any on our place. Dogs are often a problem and we've had to take our neighbors to court after many friendly reminders went unheeded. At that time we had sheep, too, and they really trigger a dog's prey instincts so it can be very bad. Images, I hope your neighbor was made aware of what happened. Once a dog starts killing chickens it's a real hassle.
Has anyone ever suffered a coyote attack during daylight hours? My chickens (and
ducks) "free range " in about a two-acre barnyard during the day which is fenced well enough to deter our dogs, and are cooped at night. I have occasionally seen lone coyotes wandering through the pastures by day so I am a little concerned for my girls. A determined predator could easily dig under the fence - if it got past the dogs.
we have seen coyote out wandering before sunset, last year they were in the front yard - around 8 pm.. they seem to be out and about early in the evening. I believe they are nocturnal, and have an extremely large hunting range.
We have only had problems with hawks so far. This thread is at a very good time as the food gets scarce in the colder monts, I tend to notice more wild animals wandering around until deep winter. And yes, they definitly seem to sense the minuite we get lazy of forgetful.
I completely forgot about the possums we get wandering into the warmer garage and enclosed areas in the fall until I saw this thread.
so far no bobcats... neighbor saw a fox the other day.. I rarely see them - and never around here.
Thanks for the thread.
-joe-
Coyote are naturally diurnal--they are just flexible enough to be active at night when necessary. When there is little human (or other predator) pressure they move back to being active in the day.
Around here you do see them out in the middle of the day, especially in the agricultural fields.
We have coyotes during the day & at night. Same goes for Foxes but they dont' seem to bother then chickens for some reason.. they treat them like they do the cats.. they just don't exist. Speaking of possums going to warmer places.. I stepped out the front door tonight & nearly put my foot in the middle of a possum who was sitting next to the front door. Needless to say.. the live trap is now on the front porch loaded down with peanut butter cookie dough bc I had used all the peanut butter in it. Hopefully he takes the bait & i can drag his rear off to visit the neighbors for dinner tomorrow. I also carry a large flashlight & my cell phone when i go to the coop. just in case. The funny thing is I played in the woods after dark for years growing up. We never thought twice (&neither did our parents) about the black panthers, cougars or bears we have here. We were more afraid of the peacock that lived next door. He use to trap us kids in the barn & squawk at us while we screamed. Give us a paw print that measured 6 inches across & we thought it was cool.. give us a large male peacock chasing us across the yard & we all ran in terror.
We had something get 2 of our girls only yards away from the house (they were just inside the woods, one maybe 10 feet). Both were daylight attacks, both were white chickens. I keep our remaining white girl in the pen all the time unless I'm right there to supervise her.
Often ours will start honking and screaming, I'll run out there but I've never seen what they're going on about. They must see something, they did the same thing when the second girl disappeared, that's how I knew she was taken, poor baby. Left behind a few feathers and a rubbery egg. My husband tracked her with the beagle but only found feathers here and there and then part of a wing pretty far away.
Might have been a fox, or coyote.
You'd think with 6 dogs yapping all the time all predators would stay away, it sure keeps the deer and wild turkeys away!
i noticed that.. i hear them but never see anything.. then i started really listening.. that's how i figured out mine "talk" to the neighbors roo's... i'd hear the neighbors roo's start in, go look at his chickens & not see a chicken anywhere in sight.. then i see the hawk.. flying across his yard.. my yard it protected by lots of trees so teh hawks leave me alone. His chickens were calling out a warning & my chickens were passing it on. Sounds silly i know.. but at least now i know to visually check all yards around me instead of just mine when i heard something. Sometimes its a yard or two away not actually to my yard yet. At least during the day..