12/18/2023 0 Comments Chicken predatorsHawks are generally daytime hunters while owls hunt at night. Predatory birds are a real and present danger to your backyard chickens. ![]() Your backyard wall is absolutely no protection for your chickens – however a good strong coop will be a deterrent. And while the bobcat is not much bigger than your typical house cat, they are more powerful and NOT to be confronted directly! They can and will carry off an entire adult bird with no problem. They are the most common wild cat in the United States so I know Arizona isn’t alone in visits from bobcats. Here in Phoenix I have seen many pictures of sweet faced bobcats sitting on a brick wall in an urban backyard. After hearing that story I refused to pull eggs before the sun comes up. They also love heat lamps… I have heard some disturbing stories about homesteaders finding snakes curled up in a nest box, full of an egg or two. But they will eat chicks, young birds and they love eggs. Snakes as chicken predators are generally not going to be able to kill and eat a full sized hen or rooster. Like dogs, coyotes will leave some tell-tale signs like paw prints and feathers but they usually won’t leave a kill behind unless they got seriously spooked. Coyotes are definitely opportunists – if you make it easy for them to get to your flock they will keep coming back until they’ve eaten them all. A coyote can jump as high as 8 feet (most suburban walls and fences stop around 6 feet) and coyotes are good climbers. Here in Phoenix coyotes are a real threat to pets that are left outside and to any backyard chicken flock. They’ll pull a chicken’s head clean off, right through your wire! They’ll carry off chicks and smaller birds if given the chance but most of the time you’re going to find a headless bird. Raccoons are cute but they can also be pretty vicious. Many urban and suburban areas have raccoons in their backyards often. Raccoons are one of the chicken predators I hear the most about though not really an issue here in Phoenix. Most domestic cats aren’t big enough to carry off a full sized chicken so they’ll do their best to get to the larger/meatier parts of the chicken and leave the rest. And not just feral cats folks your neighbor’s sweet little kitty could be a potential threat to the life of your girls. Those sweet little kitties are related to BIG cats and they are predators. A big dog that is able to get into your yard, and not your own dog, will probably carry off its kill. Now that he’s almost 13 he can’t be bothered to chase a hen around the yard. My male chihuahua used to be much more aggressive than my big Australian shepherd. If you aren’t sure how your dog is going to react to your chickens (yes even little toy breeds), you need to put up a barrier between the two for awhile. Neighborhood dogs can be chicken predators and pose a real threat to your flock. This early coop had so many issues! That wire alone offered little protection from smaller chicken predators. These are not a danger to adult birds, but will take eggs and chicks.See my little chihuahua – he loved to antagonize my hens. Rat (the Norway rat Rattus norvegicus throughout the States, and the Roof rat ( Rattus rattus) in some southern and western States).Owls, especially the Great Horned ( Bubo virginianus).Opossum (or Possum, Didelphis virginiana).Sharp-shinned Hawk ( Accipiter striatus).The specific danger depends on which part of the US you live in but in general, you need to beware the following: ![]() ![]() The list of chicken-fancying predators is quite long, unfortunately.
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