Last week I had my first close-encounter with a predator… Even though I allow my flock to free range during the day and I live among a slew of predators (fox, raccoon, hawk, etc..), I’ve not had to deal with an actual predator attack until now.
I do realize that by allowing the hens full roaming freedom that I’m creating the prefect scenario for an easy attack. That’s something for all chicken keepers to consider if they choose to free range their flock. The best set-up (for safety) is a secure coop and run that has been predator proofed from attacks from the side (reaching in), below (digging under) and attacks from above.
However, I still set my flock free every morning. It’s the risk I take because I appreciate their foraging for bugs and weeds – and I love the live entertainment they provide!
The predator – which was an opossum – was found going after my Henrietta, who is an old lady in chicken years, and did manage to tear her wattle a bit and grabbed a few handful of feathers. There was a lot more blood than injury and she looked awful at the time of the incident, but in the morning (much to my relief) she seemed fine! We did humanely put her attacker out of commission and I’m comforted to know it won’t be returning to the coop, but I know there are thousands more opossums to take its place.
I really didn’t expect an opossum to be the greatest threat to our flock. I expected a hawk during the daylight or a raccoon at dusk. I decided to go to our Facebook page and ask the Community what was their most prevalent predator. I was thrilled to have 123 responses to my inquiry and I thought I’d share the top 10 predators the Community listed and a few tips to prevent attacks…
Question for the Community!
Last night we didn’t have the hens secure in the coop early enough at dusk and an opossum was able to get in and attacked my oldest Buff Orpington, Henrietta. Fortunately we heard their cries and saved them from what could have been a tragedy. This morning it looks like Henrietta is fine – with only a few scratches! I was wondering – what is the most frequent predator you’ve encountered? Raccoon, Opossum, Fox, Hawk ??
I tallied up your comments and came up with the Community’s top 10 predators:
- Hawk
- Raccoon
- Opossum
- Fox
- Dog
- Coyote
- Owl
- Bobcat
- Weasel
- Cat
A few additional predator encounters included bears, snakes, rats, ravens and a mountain lion, rabbit, mink, badger and an armadillo…
Here are a few tips offered by the Community to protect your flock:
Nancy B. – I have an electric fence surrounding the 6 ft. stock fence (which is buried 6 inches under ground) along with deer netting covering the yard. So far, the coyotes, hawks, foxes, and bears have been thwarted. I have seen them around, a heard a coyote yelp upon getting zapped.
Jill R. – Our killer llama keeps all our girls and goats safe!
Deana H. – (Hens) are kept in a covered enclosure except when I am outside with them, so they were safe.
Pam H. – My trusty lab killed a possum in the barn just yesterday thank you Clareybell!
Lena H. – I only let them run free when I am home, they have a 6 ft fence with chicken wire topping and fencing along the bottom.
Cheryl A. – My geese let me know when they are around since they sleep on the porch for night patrol.
Julie H. – I’m careful to be sure they are secure in their coop at the end of the day. Although when out foraging the hawks can be a problem. The roosters sound the alarm when the hawks are overhead and all the hens heed the warning!
Michelle M. – (Rats) the best thing I found was to use peppermint oil…sprayed on the inside of the coop. In the spring I planted mint all around the coops and let it grow wild around the house as well.
Will L. – Dog down the block tries. Now we have a sling shot.
Al M. – I have an electric fence around the chicken run and house so I have had no attacks.
Evelyn D. – My Pug is out patrolling enough they now stay out of the yard. Barkleigh (Pug) thinks my two Americanas are his to protect.
Liz W. – My LGDs patrol the poultry yard at night so it’s unusual for anything to try getting in.
Ethel E. – I lock mine up way before dusk, when I know many start looking for food, and I check the hen house for anything that may be hiding in there for them, before I do lock them up. We have a very secure coop/run…
Northern Roots Farm – I had fenced and double-fenced to protect them from ground predators… and then I added netting to the top after the owl got 7 turkey poults and 1 duckling in one night!
Thanks for your comments and advice! If you have a predator not mention above or an additional tip to prevent attacks, leave a comment below or join our Facebook page to get all the Community’s updates!
To view what else is happening at our Southwest Missouri property visit: the garden-roof coop
47 Comments
I had a skunk kill 10 of my 2 month old pullets! I put the 2 surviving pullets and a little rooster -who lost most of the skin on his breast, but I squeaked him through and he’s doing fine now – back inside while I add 1″ fencing to the bottom 4′ of the (temporary pen. I’ll test it with some cat food before I put them back out. It’s also covered with netting. Who knew skunks could get in 2″X4″ fencing? I’ve never had this problem before this year.
5 days ago our 8 hens and one rooster are killed some thing i dont know who’s that all are hens are cut at neck and nothing else can some one tell me what is that enemy please, thanks
Raccoon is probably your culprit. They tend to go for the head and neck, sometimes the intestines. And they will kill multiple birds at the same time without eating them. Look for Gail Damerow’s newest book “What’s Killing My Chickens” for more information.
Minks and weasel slit their throats and suck their blood.They get inside and kill the whole flock in a wild frenzy.They can get in a hole in the fence the size of a quarter .Chicken wire won’t stop them.They’ve been known to crawl inside rat holes and follow the tunnels inside the coop too.They eat rats too by the way. I hope this helps you to make a better predator safe coop so you can get chickens again. I’m trying to make a secure coop and run so I can get chickens soon but I’m scared and don’t want them to die.I will have to wait until its safe.I’m considering buying hatching eggs and incubating eggs to get a flock.They’re expensive.
One of our free range chickens is missing… No sign of anything getting it…. No feathers no blood… Any idea what could’ve taken it?
Raccoons and foxes have been known to grab a chicken and take it several yards away before killing and eating it. You may want to check a 50-100 yard radius around your yard. Sorry for your loss.
Owls are good at that, as well as coyotes, but my experience is that there are generally some feathers at the site of the crime -especially if it’s an owl. And, yes, a barred owl can grab an adult hen!
A few nights ago l had moved my meat chickens to a new pen. I had already moved some 18 of my own chickens to the same area. They have been happy moving around and sleeping in the locked up pens.
Now Tuesday morning l go and open them as l normally do and l find it very quiet. On opening the door l am shocked to see my meat chickens all died on the ground first thoughts they died of cold but when l went closer l found necks with blood and checking even closer l found two like holes in the necks. My other birds totally in shock until today the perch on the highest area of where l have moved them. The next night the preditor came back and ate some of the heads , meat etc. i have no idea what drank the blood etc. I live outside the city Nairobi in Langata Kenya and had my birds for over a year . Please help if you have any ideas.
Thanks Jane
Jane did you any help i have the same problem too …..please share
Jane did you get any help i have the same problem too …..please share
first was the neighbor’s dogs,, they were taken care of…then later in the summer it was a huge great horned owl…dunno what appened to him…and at the end of the summer it was a coon..killed everyone of my pheasants and young quail…then all my ducks and a few pullets and young roosters I hit him over the head with a steele pipe he ran off and never came back….now I have a silver fox this year…I have to make sure the coop is closed before dark, or it will go right in the coop and take a hen,,,
DOES ANYONE KNOW OF CHICKEN PELLETS THAT ARE NON-GMO. THAT IS SOME NASTY STUFF; DEFEATS THE “raising your own food program”.
Excellent question!! I would like to find non-GMO, too. Does anyone know?
Anything certified Organic is non-GMO. We use Countryside Organics out of PA (they have dealers all over).
Non-GMO wheat is often sprayed with glyphosate (Roundup) to :dry” it for cutting. It’s not much more expensive to go organic.
The worst predator we had is a human. Our whole flock of 8 chickens including a huge rooster that I would never had tried to pick up got taken out of the coop one summer night. We now lock the coop with the new flock. As soon as the snow melts we are putting up a motion detection light.
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During the day whether my girls are out or not I shoot a couple of bottle rockets (fireworks) from a length of conduit into the woods bordering the coop & I’ve seen a couple of hawks fly out. I probably deters land preditors as well. The girls are use to it andit does’nt bother them.
I keep a bated “have a heart ” trap inside my fenced chicken run area and another outside the fenced area. I caught 4 possums and 4 raccoons within about 6 months. Relocated them over 10 miles away in the National Forest. I haven’t caught anything in the last 3 months, so I have temporarily cleared them out. I did lose 1 hen to an owl, I think. She accidently got left out of the coop–nothing but a trial of feathers the next day.
In Middle Ga we have here in the country.. coyote, owls, squirrels, red fox, possum, skunk, broad winged hawks, and brown hawks and I am sure a lot more.. The only one of the list that torments my girls is the hawks… I have bird netting on the fence all around the free range area and across the top and so far so good..
We had a problem with a possum. We caught it in the chicken coop 3 different times but the only thing it was interested in was the feed. All the chickens were on the roost at the time and it never did try to attack any of them. My husband took care of the “problem” and so far we haven’t seen any more.
skunks are a problem in my place they will eat the chickens head and suck the blood and live the rest
We have had to deal with a fisher it apparently killed many of the chickens at a local county park which is right across the woods from us. I had no idea that opossums were a problem hopefully the fox will eat it!
“…and did manage to tear her waddle a bit” Wattle. Waddle is the movement a duck makes on land, wattle is the fleshy skin that dangles from a chicken’s face. Proper terms are important, especially in articles that are supposed to educate.
Noted and corrected! Thanks.
Bears!!! .This was a young one he got into my pen but I scared him out before he got any hens. He came back another day when I was not home, but my friend run him out of the coop (it is large) He did kill one new pullet. So far none have tried again, of course they are suppose to still be in hiebernation? But with our drought and warm winter I know they will try again….I need a pellet gun. Another Bear killed ten of a friends hens, she now has an electrified fence. She lives in a more forested area than I do.
Man, I am planning my new flock for this spring, and the coop and run too, so this is really a good forum. I live in Western Montana – Lion, Wolves and Bears -Oh My!, and Hawks, Eagles, Owls, terriers from next door, coyotes, Bobcats, Opossum, weasles, snakes – I basically have to build a variatible Fort Knox. And I am thinking that some Geese and a Roo are a good idea too. May not want chicks any time soon, but do want a Roo for his vigilance.
I never heard of a rabbit being a predator of chickens. How did that happen?
Here in Alabama, I have large Luber Grasshoppers, I catch and kill them, because they are poisonus to birds and small animals that try to eat them. The beginning of last summer, I had 2 chickens fight over one and eat it, yes they both died.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know they were toxic. I don’t have them in my yard, but they’re not that far away.
We live in an area surrounded by pasture that is patrolled by hawks, owls, coyotes-all of which show a greater interest in the rabbits and voles out there. A few times hawks have circled above our immediate property where our flock of thirtysome hens and roos will move as a group-shoulder to shoulder and chest to tail, (with King Henry in the lead,) and run for cover to the barn without making a sound. From the air, they appear as a large, single animal to the hawk.
Our biggest predators have been owls, raccoons and our neighbors dogs. We are rebuilding our coop and run this spring and it will be much safer than the one we had before.
They aren’t supposed to be in our area (though only a few miles away east and west), but I lost two hens to golden eagles (an adult male, a juvenile female, and a juvy male) that I believe were migrating. When the adult first appeared, his wing hit the house, so I ran outside. It was only a few feet from me, and his wingspan was greater than the French doors that I ran out of. My cats, who were inside the house, saw it through the window. They hid in the opposite corner of the house for hours.
I saw a red fox a few mornings ago. Raccoons have always been a problem, getting into a house that I thought was secure (I’ve added a heavier wire fencing to the vents and a dead-bolt). Hawks are a problem when the crows don’t run them off.
There was the time when I counted one too many hens perched in the house, and when I looked closer, there was a very young raccoon cuddling with the hens. . .
I have a pack (8) of standard 20 to 30 lb. Rat Terriers. The only predators they haven’t been able to permanently scare away is a gray fox I refuse to kill due to its rarity and a weasel neither I or my dogs can catch. I hate the losses, but we are working on a live catch with rehoming through a friend in the Dept. of Fish and Game.
i love Rat Terriers!! Amazing dogs
I can’t believe skunks didn’t make the list! I have trapped (and shot) 7 skunks and 1 fox. Haven’t trapped a coyote yet, but maybe this summer.
I acquired an Australorp Rooster someone was giving away. this AM I didn’t hear him crow, didn’t see him; went to the hen house and there possum tracks. fearing the worst (I leave the hen flap up so they can come out early) I opened the door, and there was George, standing on the roost, apparently just fine!
Skunks and raccoons are pretty bad. Owls and Hawks as well. I have a Great Pyrenees that does wonderful. It even cornered a juvenile mountain lion. One night it was barking its “something is out here bark” I went out and could not see anything. It looked at me and barked and then looked up at the tree by my run and barked. On top of the tree was a very large owl. I walked over to the tree and it flew away. I also then noticed that I had missed my Sicilian buttercup and it was roosting on top of my coop instead of in it. I am pretty sure that my Pyrenees saved that chicken.
Don’t disregard snakes. Lost some chicks and found snake inside run. Too fat to get out.
Some also eat eggs.
Rats can wipe out a brooder in one night.
Skunks can be a problem in more ways than one.
My worst predator is bobcats then raccoons.
Mice will waste and foul the feed and spread disease.
I had a black snake prob last 2 summers, eating eggs! Harmless or not, I dispatched him when I caught him with an egg-swollen belly.
I have a snake problem with eggs, so I bought an egg carton full of ceramic eggs and used a magic marker to make a black spot on one side, then put them in the nest where most eggs are laid. According to the old farmers the snakes cannot regurgitate a ceramic egg and will die if they swallow one.
How do you deter snakes??? I hate those things… I know mint can be planted around to deter rats but does it hurt the chickens? do you need to plant around the coop and the run or just the coop? I know free range is best but with all the predators it just makes it impossible for me . I have a lot of chores and just haven’t the time to watch my flock and do them as well…so I have to use a run… kudos to those who free range though I just worry about hawks… but was wondering if they after grown chickens or just younger ones?
only have a rooster now but will have chicks when it gets warm outside
I have problems with squrells eating the chick feed. Feeder hangs from ceiling in fenced area of coop. Is there anything, other than shoot them. It’s like they are friends. But, I can’t afford to feed them also. HELP ME PLEASE>
Secure fencing and top with hardware cloth or in a pinch chicken wire
I had a squirrel get inside the coop for the feed. first time he took off before I realized he was there. next time in a corner I had a stick and started to bang everything in sight, but not the squirrel. the hens and rooster were ok. the final time I actually had him cornered in the a frame part of the coop, could not go in or out, kept banging and poking with a stick, made it miserable for him. lots of noise and a few good swings have not seen him since.
Try adding caynne pepper to the feed, won’t hurt chicks but it will the squirels.