Will Raccoons Kill Your Backyard Chickens?
Although we view our chickens as anything but food and love to have them around, the rest of nature and its inhabitants do not seem to share our sentiments. In fact, carnivorous predators make chickens their top preference and primary target. Given the opportunity, predators like raccoons will devour chickens without any regret or consideration. Young chickens enjoy laying on bare floors at night and become easy targets for these hungry critters. Raccoons are quite intelligent and have nimble fingers – so your number one priority will be to make sure the locks on your coop are fixed or secured firmly, and cannot be easily figured out by raccoons or little children.Signs Raccoons Are Attacking Your Chicken
The presence of their footprints should be the first sign of raccoons to look out for in your area. The tracks of raccoons are pretty distinctive and easy to identify, with five toes on the front paws and another five on the back paws. Also, you might notice the poop of the animal around your backyard. Unlike hawks, dogs, and coyotes, who carry their prey away, raccoons like to leave a message behind about their visitation. When a raccoon gets a hold on a free chicken meal, it will leave parts of chicken scattered around your front yard, coop, and your porch as well. Indeed, it’s an upsetting, unpleasant and gruesome site to come across, but it also gives fairly conclusive evidence of the damaging intrusion of raccoons to your backyard.