Raccoons, possums and snakes oh my!

We've had our share of chicken predators here. The worst of them lately has been the foxes. Through trail cam pictures we've narrowed it down to 4 different foxes. Well, there's only 3 now....but let's not change the subject here. In addition to fox there's been raccoons, opossums and snakes. Oh, and the occasional bear which sadly, will eat chickens.

Chicken predators

We take a proactive approach to controlling the predator population around here. There are always baited traps up in the woods and far behind the coop. We use safe traps in case the chickens or the neighbors cat get in them! 

Trail cams are left up year round and checked every few weeks. This helps us to be aware of what predators are in the area. 

One problem we have here is that Guineas are a ground nesting bird that likes to hide their nests in the woods. Opossums like to eat eggs. See where the problem would start? 

Oh sure, Opossums are nocturnal and when they find a Guinea nest at night (or the egg a chicken hen hid behind a tree) the eggs are there all alone for the taking.

What happens when Mr Opossum gets hungry during the day though? Suddenly he's confronted with a full sized hen and they start a fight over the eggs. Do you want to see who wins? I don't. Also, I have caught an opossum eating chicks, so that's another reason to get rid of any I catch near my coops.

Raccoons are about the same. Better to move them then to have a hungry raccoon decide he can use those little hands to pick your coop lock one night. I bait the traps every night and check them twice a day. You can see they are the safe trap style. 

I use marshmallows as bait and smear peanut butter all over the trip plate to make sure the critter really have to mess with it to get it all off. Snaps shut every time.

We also have snakes. Last summer we 'caught' a black snake behind the silkie coop. He tried to slither through some deer netting that was sitting back there waiting to be untangled and got stuck. I got out the scissors and cut him out of the netting then moved him up to a friends hunting property. (no pets there) 

I've had people say snakes only eat mice or rats and it's absolutely untrue. 

I once found a black snake (like the one in the picture) wrapped around a full grown hen who was obviously way too big for it to eat! My theory is that the snake went after one of her chicks so she pecked at it and instead the snake attacked her. 

Let's talk about relocating animals for a second here. This is a personal choice. If you have 1 problem raccoon, then taking him 15 miles away and letting him go might be a good solution for you. If you live in an area with a huge raccoon population you may just be starting on a never-ending mission. 

Keep in mind that if you choose to catch and release you could be subjected to fines or other penalties based on your local ordinances. You also could be giving someone else your problem, and it would stink if someone decided that your road was a good release area now wouldn't it? 

There are others that say the only solution is a bullet. I'm not going to take a stand here, only you can decide what works with your beliefs. I will say that I see each side of the arguments here and we don't take a 'one solution for everything' approach. 

Unless you catch something really rare or endangered, this isn't something that a wildlife center would be interested in helping with. Fish and game commission might come to help you, but that varies by region. 

The only thing our local game commission offered any help with here, was when we had a bear problem. 

Birds of prey like hawks hunt over a very large area. You can chase them away each time you see them but they are smart enough to keep coming back and trying again. 

I've had the best luck with Hawk deterrents like deer netting and hanging things in the trees to scare them. You'll want to try several different things as it seems they don't all work perfectly.

The most important thing you can do for your flock is to be aware of what predators are in your area and take whatever steps you can to keep them as far away as possible. 

As mentioned earlier, trail cams are excellent for seeing what's out there when you're not. It's also important to be aware of the local predator situation before deciding to free range your flock. 

Luckily we haven't had a problem with the local minks or fisher cats but they are out there and hopefully the traps will work to catch them also. If not, then maybe it's time to buy bigger traps!

Want to know more about raising chickens? Check out my most read chicken keeping articles!

~L

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