Snakes can be a chicken predator, and prey on chicks and eggs, too. I have developed a couple different ways of dealing with them, depending on what they are doing to the plants. Chicken keepers understand, without a doubt, that a farm is a tenuous balance of predators and prey â natureâs checks and balances. Chicken predators are one of the toughest aspects of raising chickens, but they donât have to be! 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. There is a tree inside the pen whose canopy touches trees outside the fence. Find out what wants to eat your chickens, and how to prevent them. Chickens, after all, look for ways to die. Dogs, roosters and guinea fowl are considered the best animals to protect chickens. Be cautious of larger exotic snakes and some species of rattlesnakes, like cottonmouth and copperheads. Their meat diet tends to be small mammals like mice and voles, but they'll go for baby chicks if they get the chance. Run fencing should also be welded wireâ1â will usually be sufficientâbecause chicken wire, as mentioned earlier, wonât keep a dog or fox out of the pen. They are in a 5ft tall chicken wire enclosure. Alpacas and donkeys are also considered strong guard animals. What do pine martens eat? Once you have identified which predators are causing problems with your flock, you can take actions to thwart their attacks. Minks eat many other animals besides chickens. Other animals such as geese can also be used as guard animals. Snakes and rats will come around looking for eggs or baby chicks to eat. If you take measures to avoid attracting minks and keeping them out of your coop, you will usually be successful. They don't have the capacity to ⦠I live in Sacramento, CA and I don't really know of any wild animals around here. Great horned owls eat many kinds of animals, including chickens, ducks, and other poultry. Seems very strange for an animal to eat ⦠Adult chickens they tend to leave alone once they've killed them. Donât leave rotting food or ⦠There is no sign of how the beast got in or out of the pen. Chickens are safest when they are kept penned up during the day in a large enclosed run. 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, ⦠It was a beautiful summer morning, but I didnât notice as I donned my boots and headed to the coop. The chickens will show signs of an attack by either of these animals on the sides of their heads. First, keep the chicken coop clean. These actions may involve changing a flockâs enclosure, modifying the ⦠ACTIONS TO PREVENT PREDATION. Itâs wise to know the snakes that can potentially kill and eat chickens ⦠Chickens have been known to eat small snakes, similar to their ability to eat whole mice. While opossums will eat chickens where theyâve killed them, raccoon will sometimes eat them there, but theyâll also strew the bodies yards away from the kill site, so if you come across a number of dead chickens, and theyâre all over the place, itâs more likely a raccoon than a opossum. 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. All martens are omniverous, so they eat both vegetable and animal foods, including eggs. Pretty much any carnivore that lives in your area, including nice fluffy pets and most humans. Hello and ! Woke up this morning to 3 ducks and 1 chicken with missing heads and a 4th duck with a wounded neck. I always have a serious problem around here with squirrels and rabbits going after my hens & chicks as well.