First, keep the chicken coop clean. Once you have identified which predators are causing problems with your flock, you can take actions to thwart their attacks. Adult chickens they tend to leave alone once they've killed them. So unless you build the poultry version of Fort Knox, or imprison your birds in a bunker with a concrete foundation, you will, on occasion, … I have developed a couple different ways of dealing with them, depending on what they are doing to the plants. These animals will sound an alarm when predators are close and will attack them and fight them, if necessary, to protect the hens and chicks. Run fencing should also be welded wire—1” will usually be sufficient—because chicken wire, as mentioned earlier, won’t keep a dog or fox out of the pen. Snakes and rats will come around looking for eggs or baby chicks to eat. It’s wise to know the snakes that can potentially kill and eat chickens … What do pine martens eat? Find out what wants to eat your chickens, and how to prevent them. I live in Sacramento, CA and I don't really know of any wild animals around here. Minks eat many other animals besides chickens. Great horned owls eat many kinds of animals, including chickens, ducks, and other poultry. Other animals such as geese can also be used as guard animals. Alpacas and donkeys are also considered strong guard animals. There is a tree inside the pen whose canopy touches trees outside the fence. Be cautious of larger exotic snakes and some species of rattlesnakes, like cottonmouth and copperheads. These actions may involve changing a flock’s enclosure, modifying the … Hello and ! ACTIONS TO PREVENT PREDATION. Their meat diet tends to be small mammals like mice and voles, but they'll go for baby chicks if they get the chance. Chickens are safest when they are kept penned up during the day in a large enclosed run. Pretty much any carnivore that lives in your area, including nice fluffy pets and most humans. Chicken keepers understand, without a doubt, that a farm is a tenuous balance of predators and prey – nature’s checks and balances. Woke up this morning to 3 ducks and 1 chicken with missing heads and a 4th duck with a wounded neck. Snakes can be a chicken predator, and prey on chicks and eggs, too. If you take measures to avoid attracting minks and keeping them out of your coop, you will usually be successful. Don’t leave rotting food or … There is no sign of how the beast got in or out of the pen. All martens are omniverous, so they eat both vegetable and animal foods, including eggs. I always have a serious problem around here with squirrels and rabbits going after my hens & chicks as well. The chickens will show signs of an attack by either of these animals on the sides of their heads. They don't have the capacity to … Seems very strange for an animal to eat … All I know is that the animal is small, because I found a hole on the back of the coop and it's small enough for a rat to fit it in it, but I don't think it's a rat, I don't think a rat can really bite a head of a chicken. It was a beautiful summer morning, but I didn’t notice as I donned my boots and headed to the coop. Dogs, roosters and guinea fowl are considered the best animals to protect chickens. Chickens, after all, look for ways to die. Chickens have been known to eat small snakes, similar to their ability to eat whole mice. Chicken predators are one of the toughest aspects of raising chickens, but they don’t have to be! While opossums will eat chickens where they’ve killed them, raccoon will sometimes eat them there, but they’ll also strew the bodies yards away from the kill site, so if you come across a number of dead chickens, and they’re all over the place, it’s more likely a raccoon than a opossum. They are in a 5ft tall chicken wire enclosure.