Your story or photo of chicken predation

[centrarchid]

Can always ask permission once images found, or just credit image in article with a link to thread where image was found...not talking copyright infringement here.

I may want to use my own image in my own article later. Copyright can come into play then and I have been down that road more than once.

 

[aart]

Quote: An 'article' on BYC is not a commercially or academically published tome and I wouldn't think a 'threat' to either.

 

[centrarchid]

Imagine party 1 generating picture and posting. Party 2 then uses same image in a publication. Party 1 then publishes exact same image in a document / book. Party 2 may have not issue but publisher used by party 2 may have an issue. Simple statement / agreement between parties 1 and 2 should get around that problem.

 

[aart]

Imagine party 1 generating picture and posting. Party 2 then uses same image in a publication. Party 1 then publishes exact same image in a document / book. Party 2 may have not issue but publisher used by party 2 may have an issue. Simple statement / agreement between parties 1 and 2 should get around that problem.

I follow my Daddy's advice...
......."never write anything down that you don't want printed on the front page of the newspaper".

And adjust that to "copied anywhere on the internet".

You can always use watermarks on all your photos if you are seriously protecting the rights to your photos,
I certainly did when selling 'art' online.

 

[centrarchid]

Accounts I could find. None detail observations of Red Fox working pens. Dogs core to by approach although limited trapping employed. Dog get critters before they get into traps. Firearm of choice is 0.22 rifle. Missing are those dealing with Striped Skunks. Observations in threads dealing with poultry guardians could also be mined. Should be accounts on fox behavior not shown below. Do not trust my spelling. RED FOX https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1082694/red-fox-partially-beating-electrified-poultry-netting This is were Red Fox gained access from south. Fox has been coming lately in every night working fen for voles, Meadow Voles mostly I think. Dogs have been running it off but being a typical Red Fox it comes back relatively quickly especially when winds out of the north and northwest. Fox had a two night window to get into fence when either fence was down (first night) or charger off (second night).

Fox did not appear to mess around poultry netting also bordered by standard hotwire which borders about half the core area.

Evening before rooster got into a fight and was so tired he could not fly up to his roost so I penned him up in pen shown below. He failed to get onto even that roost. Fox came in and grabbed rooster multiple times before killing it. Rooster would break free and to far side pen only be grabbed again. This reason I normally have adjacent pens in close contact although pens in end are still relatively vulnerable. This was an end pen and separated from adjacent by about 1 foot. Kill site was corner closest to camera. Dogs interrupted fox first night running it off leaving rooster pulled up in corner. Carcass was left in that location and position for return of fox the following evening.

Second night dogs were kept in house and I checked location every hour. This interval I left fence off (not intentionally). Fox made second attempt on carcass after 3:00 PM. Dogs made a ruckus so I released them and they went straight pen area. Based on activity of dogs fox spent a lot of time walking inside southeast corner before abandoning carcass. Fox had to dig hole and pull pen a good 16" to get so carcass could be pulled under side of pen. Additional feathers were removed during the process. I think the fox succeeded in removing carcass from pen through trial and error.

This is headless carcass after fox extracted it from pen. Nothing additional was consumed relative to night of kill. No critters have come in after two days and a night with both charger on and fence put back up properly. Fox did come in from south but dogs went after it preventing an additional visit to pen area.

Dogs are relatively exhausted from working almost around the clock so they are slow to go after fox. They show zero interest in rabbits that are making bunnies everywhere. Fox did not give as of last night. Sometime during night fox tried to dig under hot fence. Fence moved a little by me for servicing against wind. Last night dogs got into coyote once but other disturbance as well. I think fox was one of them. It moved a lot of soil. Digging was directly down wind of carcass.

We are not having much success enacting revenge on the raccoon. Distance to cover too short and it has been schooled only temporarily not to visit. It can move about with total lack of fear not even 100 feet away. We need a bigger buffer zone. Somehow I am going to go after the raccoons off property. This time of year we are particularly vulnerable as the number of birds is high and birds are kept in two management systems that spread out or defenses. Below are pictures of damaged pullet. She was housed in a pen like shown and grabbed through wire. She is well onto path of recovery.

By Christmas all feather damage will be repaired. Raccoon pulled feathers out completely which promotes rapid regrowth. Opossum we got last night. It is relatively large compared recent kills because dogs eliminated adults. Juveniles move in from outside areas dogs patrol and then get bumped off.

Dogs after a relatively easy night. Scoob (left) slept with me when not patrolling and Lucy (right) slept in high weeds near remaining broody hen about 50 feet away. Patrolling occupies most of night and predators moving more because of cold front. Also having at least 50 fruit bearing persimmon trees nearby does not help.

I am pretty sure now Lucy ran off raccoon before it had a chance to get to traps. Problem is once raccoon knows dog is coming quality cover preventing dog from making kill or at least getting in a good mauling is simply too close. Problem at work resolved by dog. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/693843/taking-fight-against-raccoons-to-protect-more-than-poultry OPPOSSUM https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/628112/oppossums-not-always-harbingers-of-doom I kill several oppossums annually. They are always busted when moving about my pens or feeding stations. Lately a couple have been in area of cockyard every night leaving tracts in mud and snow along a fen between house and main cockyard. They appear to be targeting voles in the fen which are becoming increasingly abundant this time of year. Voles are so abundant my dog can catch every few minutes with minimal effort. Another interesting observation is I have two types of vole. Those in fen are dark with smaller eyes while another kind with larger eyes and brown coat looking like a wild hamster occurs mostly in woods. If you find a nest, then you often find babies. With the brown type at least the father seems to help raise the little ones. It is the voles that I think most of my predators are actually coming for. The chickens are targets of opportunity. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/417573/oppossum-attempted-to-upgrade-from-pest-to-predator Shortly after dark I drove bike to store on honey do errand. Upon return I noticed my cooped birds were giving the low intensity disturbance call. I ran into house for flashlight and as coming out door swept light beam across coops and saw two eyes close together shining an orangish-red, therefore knew oppossum before able to see body outline. I sprinted to the pen with the critter. It was standing on roost where my extra Privett strain dominiques would normally be roosting. The pen was still propped up to allow birds to enter for roosting and get cover from hawks during day. The doms had bolted. When I got to pen, the bugger made no effort to get away. I looked down and could see a pile of feathers taken from neck of one of the pullets. She got away. I attempted to reach down and grab the critters tail but my arm was to short for good grab. When I touched the oppossum it bolted, in typical slow run for such a critter. It ran to another pen and ran through the material almost without slowing down, in one side, out the other. I was surprised it could do it. I ran around pen and caught up to it just as it was about to go through next pen. I caught it by tail as it was about halfway through and pulled the varmint back and out. It tried to resist but oppossums are not that strong. Took critter to house for photographs.

  https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/417573/toquote/5089239 At no point did it try to bite, even when I put my shoe next to its mouth. Only had one do so in past and that was after repeated captures by me. I dispatched shortly after final photograph. It was one of few critters I worry about that 2" x 4" welded fencing would not even slow down. If a dog were in place, the critter would likely not have even tried to go after my birds. Killing to protect by birds does not make me feel better as thought originally. Gonna put more effort into getting a dog. Anyone in Missouri with Katahula pups?   https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/585228/red-fox-hunting-in-field-chickens-watch-dog-chases While I was at back porch door I noticed dog had come into house and gone up stairs where he can look out onto back pasture from an elevated position provided by rear window. After a few minutes dog got all excited and started barking. I called him downstairs and he bolted out door with hair on his back standing up. He raced into pasture going after something I could not see at first until he got within a hundred feet of his target. It was a red fox hunting voles. Scoob chased it off hard then started back tracking checking I am guessing where fox had been. Chickens were on side of yard where they could see the whole thing but they made no sounds. Multiple red foxes hunt my property but only one seems to target my birds and Scoob has gotten pretty good at keeping it (female I think) from taking any birds for nearly a month and a half. Birds help by making a racket alerting dog of fox and birds quickly retreat to front yard (games and red jungle fowl fly into trees or onto house) where Scoob seems to be trying to blind side fox. Either same fox or another does not go after birds in and around cockyard as those birds seemed not to be alarmed by fox. We have seen fox near pens before but it (they) have always been after voles instead.   https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/730111/toquote/10091398 I have birds in two settings, most are in pens grouped together in middle of pasture while four are allowed to free-range around house and part of same pasture. At night the free-ranging birds roost on front porch. Two dogs are charged with defending all but they spend most of their effort on birds in pens. The dogs move about quite a bit and almost every night except when wind is strong or rain heavy the dogs are barking at and chasing something off. A great deal of dogs activities is in response to sounds the chickens make and this time of year effort seems to be directed mostly against owls (great-horned and barred). Dogs also doing a lot based on smell and go off property to deal some of that. They have essentially eliminated raccoons and oppossums from the list of concerns. One ground dwelling critter of particular interest still persist with going after birds. That critter is Mr. Red Fox. Until recently all of fox's efforts have been expended on penned birds. Penned birds are very vulnerable when fox can rapidly run about pen and chicken can not see well. Vulnerability is greatly reduced by having pens arranged so fox cannot run about them and birds can stay away from fox side of pen. Having dogs then makes so fox cannot afford to disturb birds or have time to dig into pens. Additionally, further changes in how pens are arranged makes so dogs have increased odds of cornering fox which could result in fox kill. We came close a couple times with that outcome recently. Fox has responded by no longer going after penned birds to west of house. A new pattern is emerging where fox comes from east when wind is coming from a westerly direction. This makes so fox can smell dogs but dogs cannot smell fox. This makes so front porch birds are those on front line with fox, especially when dogs spend so much time with penned birds. Last night fox came in and attempted to take a rooster by grabbing it off roost and running with it without dispatching first. Fox cannot eat fast enough nor defeat dogs in scrap so grab and run is what is employed. The dogs have been very good at denying the grab and run because during day chickens give alarm bringing dogs over usually even before fox starts going after bird. Twice, including last night, fox managed a night run where a chicken is grabbed and fox runs to east with it. Again, this occurs when wind from westerly direction. Both instances bird was not severely damaged and was able give distress call as fox ran off with it. Load of chicken struggling seriously slows fox so dogs have had no trouble running fox down when it has chicken. First time fox got maybe one hundred yards over hill to east (off property) before dogs intercepted it. Last night fox got maybe 40 feet before dogs repeated action. In both instances bird ran back to area below roost but fox also got away although escape appears to be a barely. The fox is picking its efforts and I am getting tired of dealing with the ruckus. I am probably going to have to go the route most people take where all birds are in a much smaller area, as in not spread out so much. This will be pursued if roost site of front porch birds cannot be elevated enough to make fox's job more difficult.   https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1000069/red-fox-working-neighbors-flock Last night and this morning fox sign was noted and at about noon fox actually spotted. It appears to be targeting neighbor to immediate north. My male dog intervened on last incident causing fox to run into our yard in an effort escape. Fox was lucky female dog not in proper position to get it. Neighbor to north is doing nothing to compensate. May not be checking enough and does not appear to respond to chicken alarm calls.   https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/682637/toquote/9230470 Red fox male adult. In good weight but hide looks like hell. [IMG]http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/a/ac/900x900px-LL-acfb2d02_DSC00395.jpeg[/IMG] I never though Scoob would actually catch a free-ranging fox. I suspect it was in poor health. Scoob will be bathed and inspected to prevent development of mange. BADGER https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/917928/toquote/13965514 This character we have in these parts. It is an adult male badger that was until last night a very tough critter that could challenge even the toughest "Fort Knox" type of coops. His weaknesses are low abundance, not a very good climber nor is he very fast. Those front claws are very capable and he is so well muscled even a large LGD would have difficulties with him. We simply count on harassing him so he cannot invest in getting through the flimsy pens I have and make so birds roost up. Dogs can drive him off even though they cannot kill him and the commotion brings me into picture where I am not so limited.

MINK – pup got parvo out of this but recovered https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/697917/toquote/9469266 Today just before dark a mink came up little ditch that goes through poultry yard. Chickens gave alarm for ground predator just on other side of ditch causing dog to run promptly in that direction. Dog stopped short when crossing ditch and ran up through only green patch of grass on place, He barked a couple times and started fighting with something I could not see. Initially I though muskrat until seeing mink jump at dog. I got down there and mink began running downhill through brambles that dog had to run around. It took a couple minutes of running about through heavy vegetation but dog caught and killed mink before bringing it up into yard. Mink and weasels I have never lost birds to personally but presently several hens brooding in ground are very close to location where mink was contacted. Mink concern me more than most predators because my pens offer no protection from them. I was surprized at how well dog was able to line out and dispatch mink. It is a smelly little bugger.

 

[kittycat1356]

I dont have pictures of my deceased flock, but I do have the story.

On a warm summer night in 2016, I was living in a quaint town in NC, I had a fenced in back yard of about .4 acre. I let my chickens out of their small coop area, daily, to range in my fenced in area.
I had eleven chickens at the time, but most were still young and just feathered in, and all of my breeds were show chickens and somewhat expensive. I also just bought two 30$ birds about a week earlier. One morning I awoke to my dad telling me one of my chickens was out of the pen, dead by the entrance to the house. I quickly went to see which one, because I had a emotional attachment to these birds. My coop was opened, and all my birds were missing. I started finding bodies in bushes, bodies dragged with blood across the pavement, and feathers everywhere. I started to call out for my chickens because I couldn't find two of them. They both flew over my 10ft fence desperately trying to escape whatever was in the fence at the time of the attack. I coaxed them back into the fence and noticed one was limping very badly. Whatever attacked my birds didn't eat any of it them, just killed them and dragged them about I looked at the wounds and the small bite marks looked like a weasels doing, so I bought a small havahart trap. I brought my two remaining birds inside and set the unbaited trap next to the coop.
The next morning I went out to find a young Opossum in the trap, not bigger than a medium sized rat. I disposed of it of course and now have a small possum fur. The two remaining birds are still alive and very wary of new animals around them. They especially disliked the opossum when they saw it in the trap.

 

[Chickenl0v3r]

On the fourth day of just starting a small flock, I decided to let two of my small what I would call "Teenager" chickens roam around (BIG MISTAKE) with my three little Chihuahua guard dogs. About three hours past and when I can back I was greeted to both of them laying on the ground dead. One with most of its breast eaten, and the other with a few feathers plucked. I checked the dogs mouths and their sleeping areas for blood but found none. The dogs where frightened and all inside of their house. I am still wondering what killed them to this day. I am wondering that it was a hawk or cat, yet I found no prints or evidence, only the dead pullets. Sadly I have no photographs of the scene or the hens.

 

[flewdcoop]

The big bobcat story ( no pictures it happened too fast)
I was letting my banties freeranging in the yard for a couple of hours like I normally do daily. I was washing the drinking fountain with the high pressure nozzle and the flock was scattered around the backyard. about 15 feet away from me a bobcat jumped over the fence and was eyeing my rooster. The rooster took off and flew up to the tree, I knew I couldn't get to my gun in time so I just turned the hose on the bobcat (washed his face for him). He jumped back over the fence and ran to the woods, the rest of the flock was back in the coop and the rooster came back down after 45 minutes of coaching.I'm not sure who was more surprised me,the rooster or that darned bobcat. I figured out later the bobcat stood 23 inches tall at the shoulder. I don't recommend hunting bobcats with a water hose, as luck would have it, it worked.

 

[MillersFarm]

This is a story about my old white crusted black polish bantam hen named polly a few years ago, It was about 6:00 am for me and my brother had went out to check up on our main coop and came back to say that everything was fine, and so about an hour later i decided to check on my chickens and went out, and as soon as i opens that door i could a horrible oder that smelled like garbage and rotting eggs,
and looked around my coop only 7 chickens were left, two RIR, one orpington hen, one EE, an old English game bantam, and two white crusted black polish roosters and a hen named polly,
i was so heartbroken for the first few days for i had lost many of my chickens, i checked my hens and roos to make sure they were all right and so they were,
and then day two came.
i was putting on my jacket and boots and walked out the door and over to my chickens to let them out for the day,and when i did so my heart just sank, feathers were everywhere and my two polish roos were gone, the only thing left of them were feathers and the head of one as if what was killing my chickens were taunting me. and so again i checked all my hens to see everything was ok, and i noticed a smell from my polish hen, i lifted her left wing up and nothing seemed wrong, then when i lifted the right one up i saw a huge gaping hole in her side, immediately i took her to the vet but said that there wasn't much to do for her and sent me back home, basically in tears i threw together a comfy nest for her and kept her with me through the hole night thinking\

i'd fine a dead bird in the morning but was wrong, i woke to polly calling out for some treats and was surprised to see her on her feet, and so i put her in my back yard to eat. She was still shaken by the hole thing and lame, but 3 months later she's fully healed and happily grazing along with her old and new friends, the main flock is now flourishing and expecting new members to the flock.Oh and we had set up some traps and caught 6 raccoons

Here are some pics of Polly and her new friends

 

[MillersFarm]

Sounds like a raccoon attack to me, the same thing happen to my flock was attack and nothing was left but feathers, being a trapper/hunter i knew it was a raccoon because there known to kill for just the heck of it, im really sorry to hear that, i hope the one injured chicken made it