At some point everyone with livestock has to deal with predators. Chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats are all prey animals, and always an attraction to a predator. A predator can be anything from a coon to the neighbor’s dog, but the threat to your animals can be just as real, and just as sad and frustrating.
Quite a few years back we had a fox problem. A big one. That fox was so brazen it would trot up our front walkway and around our house right to the chicken coop. I saw it do just that early one morning in late fall, and ran outside to scare it off. Armed with a flashlight I chased it into the surrounding tilled fields. I could just see it’s eyes reflecting the flashlight as it waited on a small hill for me to go back inside. Sure enough, I finally had to go back in and a minute later heard the chickens freaking out. The old saying “smart as a fox” is a true statement!
We lost quite a few chickens to the fox that year. And since I like to free range the chickens we had to put them on lock-down for their own safety. Nobody was happy that year.
Since that fox experience we have learned a lot about keeping our chickens safe. We’ve also dealt with possums, raccoons, skunk, a coyote, and even a neighborhood dog that would get loose now and then. We put several preventative measures into place to hopefully STOP the predators from even considering our yard as a buffet! The effort we put in has been worth it, but we’re always vigilant. Ever hear the saying “If you build it they will come?” I’m certain the local predators were cheering when they saw us putting up chicken coops!
Most predator problems we have had happened either during the dark of night, or early dawn when the light hasn’t completely hit yet. The fox would usually come around 6 am, which in fall is pretty dark here. We’ve had an infestation of coon here a couple times as well, and those guys are always active in the middle of the night. I set up a trail camera many times to see who I was dealing with, and most times it’s a raccoon.
So what can you do? The most obvious thing, and easiest, was to make sure our animals were put in secure pens at night. All of the poultry is locked in coops at dark, and the doors are secured with either bolt latches or snap latches (read: more coon proof latches- those guys have little hands and are smart enough to figure out locks!!). The windows on the coops are covered with hardware cloth (tougher than chicken wire!) so in summer the windows can remain open. The goats are in secure shelters with gates and locked in. I do a little less for my llamas against most predators. Most of the predators we have in our area would not mess with an adult llama. In fact, llama’s have been known to kill coyotes, so my girls are pretty safe. The only thing that worries me for my girls are dogs. We keep secure fencing, locked gates, and a shelter for the girls to go into at night.
Another easy thing to deter predators is to make sure your animal feed is secured at night. Our poultry feeders are all locked in with the birds inside the coops at night. During the day the doors are propped open and the birds can come in and out as they please to eat.
The goats are fed with grain in the evening and only as much as they can eat at one feeding. That way nothing extra is left out to attract any unwanted attention.
The largest thing we did on our property helped a lot, but was also a bit pricey. We installed a 5′ tall chain link fence around the back of our property where all the poultry is kept. It’s about 1/2 acre total, so the outlay of cash was a decent amount. However, there hasn’t been one fox problem since that was installed several years ago. I let my dogs roam in that fenced in area, which I had hoped would also put off any predator by just the smell of dog. In all fairness, the fence was also installed because we have a dog that is an escape artist and known to take off. A few times of dealing with that disaster and I was sold on the fencing – price and all! LOOKING AT YOU, CHANTI!!!! 🙁
An additional option, and I think also very effective, was to string lights through the trees all around the outside of the coops for all the birds. The lights are on timers to run from dusk to dawn. The expense was pretty minimal – it was more of a pain to get on ladders and zip tie the light cords in the large pine trees 😉 The added benefit of the lights was a nice ambiance in the evenings, and a practical way to light the area for chores in the darkness of winter. Win- win!! I did the same around the goat shelter to help deter anything from taking a stroll through that area, and it’s on my list for the llamas as well.
One lighting idea is battery powered motion lights. I have a lot of area on the property that I can’t get power to. I found some pretty bright spotlights that run on four D batteries. These have worked really well for us during chore time! I put these lights on tree trunks, fence posts, and the back of shelters facing outwards to the fields. If an animal comes within about 15 feet of the light it turns on. Coyotes especially are spooked by this and will likely run. Every now and then I take a stroll at dark with a flashlight to make sure all are working properly.
Hopefully prevention will work for you and you don’t have to deal with losses. Eventually most people I have talked to have had some losses, and then have to figure out how to get rid of the problem. On our land I’m always on the watch for tracks in the dirt surrounding the property. Coon and possum tracks are fairly easy to identify. Sometimes though I haven’t been sure what is coming in at night. If that is the case I usually opt for coon or possum. In our neck of the woods that is the most likely animal. When this happens I pull out the live trap. The traps we use are “Have a Heart” traps that we get at our local farm store. They are closed on one end, and on the other it props open, or sets, for when the animal goes in and steps on the lever. The door snaps shut and they get locked inside. The biggest thing with the traps is placement of them, and what bait to use. I usually go for peanut butter in small disposable plastic cups (disposable because anything that is stuck inside the trap with the container will usually destroy it). That generally works for coon and possum. I have some friends that insist on marshmallows being the ticket. Everyone uses what works for them I guess.
I try to place the traps in the areas closest to where I think the animal is coming in. Alongside the barn, or alongside the field edging to our property are two successful areas. Once set up, you will need to wait and have some patience. It sometimes takes me weeks to catch the animal that is coming in at night. I always make sure to check the trap daily too. If I catch an animal, I don’t want it to be in the trap so long that it’s inhumane.
Something that I don’t do is use poisons around my property. For me the risk is too great that one of my own animals will get into the poison. I personally don’t feel that it’s a humane way to manage a predator problem.
Along that line, what do I do with what I catch? It depends what it is. I generally let possums go. They don’t do much damage and are good for the environment. I haven’t had one ever kill my poultry. Well, at least not yet. The most they have done is eat the eggs. So I release these guys to run off into the woods. Raccoons are another story. I’m sorry to all my raccoon loving friends, but the coons are dispatched humanely courtesy of a .22 rifle and my husband. I’ve come face to face with a couple raccoons in my barn, and let me tell you I was worried about them ripping off my face. The pictures and videos of them gently taking food from humans has not been the experience I’ve had here. Quite frankly, they scare the poop outa me. On top of that, I feel a genuine responsibility for the animals I keep on my farm. They depend on my family to feed, water, and protect them. And that is what I feel I’m doing by removing the animals that would eat them.
I also don’t feel that it’s fair to trap and release raccoons “down the road” from our land. All that is doing is making it someone else’s problem, who likely are trying to do the same things as me to get by. It’s not very neighborly in my opinion.
I am extremely grateful that I live in a part of the U.S. that doesn’t have bears, or large cats, or wolves! I know people who do, and I’m certain my set up would look significantly different if that was what I was dealing with. I’ve been going with the idea that prevention is the best solution, and that has been working for me!
What have your experiences been like with predators?
