Yes... but not wholesale slaughter. They are not large carnivores but in my experience are after the eggs and a chicken might just get in the way.
This message was edited Feb 4, 2010 6:51 PM
Slaughter in the Henhouse
Out here skunks can be a problem with full grown chickens....I lost a couple last year to a skunk (it stopped when a car hit the skunk) and when I started to lose some this year I went to the feed store to rent a humane trap. The owner, who at one time had thousand of layers, said that they had a terrible problem with skunks killing their layers. Like raccoons and rats, they go for the head and then come back for the rest. And they don't seem to be able to catch the smaller bantams that fly...just the heavy layers.
Maybe some populations of skunks develop a taste for chicken? I have heard that most just go for the eggs of chicks.
Skunks here will take out a whole coop of chickens if given the chance. Its awful.
No personal experience asside from reading so I asked my neighbor who says that skunks in our area mostly just want the eggs. He says that he has seen a skunk attack and kill "chicken snakes" as well. They must develop regional tastes.
We had a hen lose two batches of chicks to skunks. They waited til hatch day. Then wham.
That must have hurt!
Horrible. Then she raised a third batch -eleven. And our rooster mounted and killed all but one. Every time I had to leave the house. Took us forever to figure out what the problem was...
Do you still have chickens, then? I would be really upset and discouraged. What did you do with the rooster? He would have gone in my stewpot.
I still have all the big hens. I killed one rooster, almost got the second, but he got away and I've been unable to catch him. A friend hopefully will come catch him. My chickens are penned now with a nice roo and I hope to hatch soon if I can get my greenhouse up and running...
Oooo, what kind of greenhouse are you putting up? My Rion is on its last legs and I'm looking for a better one.
There are pictures on my facebook page!! lolol.....;)
We have awakened to a white world; it is still snowing hard and the wind is blowing. The weather app on my desktop says BLIZZARD and I look outside and, yep, blizzard. So far we have at least a foot, with drifts and we're supposed to get 1 to 3 inches of snow an hour all day. DH let Chouette out and she didn't want to leave the brick walk - not that she could find it! She came back in with snow all over her chest. I am not looking forward to doing my chicken chores, but yesterday DGD and I set up a waterer in the chicken coop and put a trough with water in it next to the chicken who's not doing well. She's alert, and I got her to drink, but she isn't moving much. She has staked out a corner of the henhouse and is staying put. I'll feed all the chickens indoors today; I know they won't want to venture out. I don't either!
I was just out to do the chickens and the snow was well above my boot tops - so it's 16 or 18 inches already. I got to the chicken yard and thought, "Hmmmm.... how am I going to open the gate?" But I dug it out with my heels and foot and managed to get in. Getting out again was a different story; I couldn't CLOSE the gate. But I finally managed. At least the chickens were okay, although I know no one's coming outside today. The sick chicken is still hanging in there and the waterer is still clean and unfrozen. The geese looked at me as though I had some solution to the situation; I could just hear them saying, "First weasels and now THIS! Not a well-run poultry operation here!"
Here's what it looks like right now - you can see Chou's and my tracks toward the garage. The poultry yard is behind the garage...You can almost see the gate behind the tractor under the lean-to. I took this photo from the porch steps; they're not even visible. When it's like this I plow my way down the bank rather than looking for steps.
OOH! Very pretty, but I'll let you keep it.
How thoughtful of you!
By the way, there's so much snow that you can't see that we have two sets of steps from the porch to the driveway that are totally covered. That snow is DEEP! And it's still coming.
I set the trap tonight. There was a skunk or raccoon that attempted to tear thru my hardware cloth into the coop last night. It tore off all the wind protection plastic. Hopefully i catch something.
Good luck!
Well, d'ja catch it?
Postcard pretty, but BRRRRRR! =D
Brrrr is right. It was down to 9 last night. DH is out with the tractor trying to blaze some trails for the Jeep, but it's only going up to the high 20's today so I'm not sure if anything's going to melt. Maybe a bit since the sun's out.
Yes i did catch something! a very mean possum. just in time too. 9 to 12 inches of snow coming. :) I got a picture of him too. he was so cute! just very rude & growly.
So what did you do with him, pray tell? And are you going to post the pictures? Congratulations on a successful catch!
I'll post but it will be later in the week. SD card accidentally went home with the kids in their camera & i figure i'm going to be snowed in. I took him to my neighbor who sent him to possum camp. This one was mean. It came after me when i picked up the cage. I can just imagine what it would do to one of my cats or chickens.
By the way, just to set the record straight and clear the Good Name of All Weasels, we realized that it must have been a mink rather than a weasel that did in my chickens. We looked them both up in our field guide to mammals and it was obvious from the tracks and the size that a mink would have had to be the perpetrator. And see, if we'd caught it I could have had myself a mink tippet!
Mink mittens! Your could probably use them about now!