Predators

Keeping chickens safe from predators has to be top on your list of priorities. There are several animals around the World that will prey on chickens and it’s your job to keep them safe and not letting them become part of the local wildlife’s food chain!

Foxes

In the United Kingdom, the number one predator for chickens is of course the fox but did you know that some people also have badgers killing their chickens? Most inexperienced people will think a fox has visited however this isn’t always the case.

A fox is opportunistic, he will visit your garden regularly (a little tip, if it snows, go out and have a look for paw prints to see if foxes are visiting and how close they get to your chickens – you might be surprised!) and the one night you forget to lock up your chickens… he’ll visit.

There is more information about foxes and how to tell if it was a fox that took your chickens on the Foxes page under the Pest and Predators menu.

Fox-looking-for-chickens

Badgers

Badgers are incredibly strong and if they are hungry, they have been known to tear off wooden panels of chicken houses that aren’t secure and tear open pop holes to get to chickens. They will usually kill and take one bird but might come back for a second. They usually work alone.

Mink, Stoats and Weasels can all be a problem but are far less common in most parts of the UK.

Domestic Cats

Cats aren’t generally a problem to fully grown chickens and mine have never bothered with young ‘growers’. They seem more interested in chicks though and shouldn’t be trusted. Some people have had problems, usually with a specific cat in the neighbourhood and with smaller bantam chickens. It’s very difficult to keep cats out completely.

chick looking at cat

Yikes… I won’t be trusting you in a hurry.

Rats and Mice

Pests such as rats and mice can be a problem as they spread diseases, eat valuable feed supplies and (rats) can steal eggs and gnaw at doors, wires and even chickens feet. Usually only one or the other are present and rats can be quite discreet so if there are no mice then be suspicious of rats!

There is more detailed information about Rats and Mice under the Predators menu.

85 Comments

    • Unfortunately yes, they can chew at their legs during the night and worse.

      Normally they don’t bother if they aren’t starving hungry.

      They do carry a lot of diseases though and will spoil feed very quickly. They should be removed as soon as possible.

      • In the wild, a rat will be far more likley to be going for eggs and chicken feed than chickens themselves – think of the size difference! Rattus Norvegicus, which are the wild population in the UK, are also interested in worms, small insects, etc.

        Do remember that rats are wild animals, ‘pests’ only in the same sense that wild rabbits are, and are not a special magical disease bringing species. They will carry Weils’ disease, which is hard to catch unless you lick their urine…foxes and badgers, as well as feral cats, are more likley culprits for carrying more serious diseases but then, they’re not ‘terrifying!’ like those fubsy little rodents.

        After studying both wild and domestic rats for nearly twenty years, I can assure you that they are not alien to the UK, they are not different than any other naturalised species such as rabbits, and have a perfect and important place in the eco system.

        Just lock your feed in the garage and, if you provide an opporunity for these gregarious and intelligent little onmivores, they will take it. They’re not persecuting you – they’re just getting on with life. Extermination is not really the answer and is, frankly, rather a repellent approach to creatures roughly as intelligent as large dogs.

        • Some good information thank you. I had a smile when you said about locking food in the garage – I did just this once but Rattus chewed a semi-circular hole in the bottom of a 2″ thick wooden door to get to it!

          He couldn’t munch through aluminium though when I added a sheet of this to the bottom of the door 😉

  1. Hi, we lost 4 bantams last night to what we believe to be a badger . One has survived and we are obviously distraught but would like to get some more. We have a chance of getting our dead cockerel (Colin) brother with some 12week old hens. Would this be a problem? Also would the one bantam left bully the young ones?

  2. I’ve kept chickens in my garden for several years without incident, but saw a cat today stalking across the roof of my garden shed, then leaping down into the chickens “compound” and trying to catch one of my light sussex (big birds!). It wasn’t even frightened off by my shouting and clapping hands together as I ran down to it and only scrambled up the fence when I go really close and started pelting stones at it (had to be careful to avoid the chickens). If it comes back it’s going to get shot.

  3. I’ve kept bantams for 5 years in my backgarden. I live on the outskirts of Brighton. During this time I have lost 2 chickens to foxes. But yesterday around dusk (while the coop was still open) all 14 of my chickens disappeared. We were in the house and heard nothing at all. Just came out to find there were feathers in the coop and in the garden. No bodies or heads. Do you think this was a fox? My thought it someone may have stolen them. I’m just surprised we never heard anything, although if that was the case I imagine there would be less feathers. If a fox did kill them would it be hard for him to take 14 chickens away? Very sad 🙁

    • I’m very sorry to hear you’ve lost them like this. Sadly, it does sound like a fox. I came home from work one night (some years ago) and had 6 ducks outside the back door in a run that wasn’t secure. I went inside and unpacked my things and by the time I went out again (5 minutes, no more) 4 of the ducks had gone, the other two were huddled up in their house. I looked and followed some feathers to find all 4 of them, necks broken in a neighbours flower bed laid out next to one another. The fox had gone in and was killing them and carrying them over the fence and lining them up to carry off, one by one. They are quick, very smart and of course killing machines when it comes to chickens.

  4. I have kept chickens in Fife, Scotland for about 12 years. I decided to add to my current 9 adult hens so hatched 15 chicks in my incubator at Easter. I transferred them to a fenced off section of my coop at 3 weeks then let them mix with the adults a couple of weeks later which allowed them access to an extensive, uncovered run enclosed with 6 feet high chicken wire. I thought I had perhaps mixed them too soon as 2 were found dead but intact, I suspected attack by an adult but since then 10 have been killed over a few days (6, 2, 1 and 1) but only the heads have been eaten, the bodies were left behind.
    My coop has a built-in run which the chicks seldom left although a full height gate is left open to give access to the very large, main run. The first 9 bodies were found just outside the gate but in the main run while the last was inside the coop’s built-in run.
    There is a buzzard’s nest in a tree overlooking the main run, could a buzzard be the culprit or is it something else?

    • Buzzards can kill chickens and your set-up sounds perfect for it to be a buzzard. They like open spaces – attacks are common in Wales and Scotland. A buzzard will however normally rip the back of the neck out and the tear away the breast to eat. They only kill for food and will pick off one bird at a time.

      I would question if there is a river or waterway within a few miles of you – if so, it is much more common to find Mink doing this. They will kill by ripping out the back of the neck and will keep on killing without feeding until they are exhausted. If you are a long way from water, a Stoat could be to blame – especially if the predator is only killing the smaller of your birds. They can just about manage small chickens / bantams and wildfowl but can devastate a flock. Both of these predators are covered (including how to trap them) on the poultrykeeper.com website. Have a look at this section towards the bottom: http://poultrykeeper.com/pests-and-predators/

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