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Chicken Predators

Protect Your Chickens from Common Predators

Raccoons: Raccoons are nocturnal and often attack chickens at night. Signs of a raccoon attack include blood, feathers, and pieces of chicken everywhere. They may kill multiple birds and reach through fences if they cannot get into the coop.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Secure the coop with difficult-to-open latches.
    • Use motion-sensor strobe lights to startle raccoons.
    • Install a top on the coop, as raccoons are excellent climbers.
    • Discourage chickens from roosting near the fence edges.
    • Use Nite Guards, a solar-powered predator repellent with a powerful red flash, available at Piedmont Farm and Garden.


Foxes: Foxes typically kill and remove the chicken carcass. They are intelligent predators that exploit cracks, openings, or weak points in the coop.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Run wire outwards from the pen or bury the fence at least 18 inches deep to prevent digging.
    • Use a strong fence at least 6 ft. tall or add a top.
    • Use Nite Guards to stop foxes.


Coyotes: Coyotes may kill and remove the chicken carcass or leave it behind. Signs include feathers and excess blood.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Run wire outwards from the pen or bury the fence at least 14 inches deep.
    • Use a fence at least 5 ft. tall or with a top.
    • Use motion-sensor strobe lights and sprinklers.
    • Use Nite Guards to stop coyotes.


Possums: Possums primarily rob nests for eggs and kill baby chicks. They may leave mauled chickens with their abdomens eaten.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Use Nite Guards to repel possums.


Weasels: Weasels often kill chickens without eating them, leaving carcasses with intestines pulled out and heads neatly piled up.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Ensure no openings larger than 7/8 inch in the coop.
    • Build the coop with a floor and use 1/2 inch hardware cloth.
    • Lock up free-ranging chickens at night.


Skunks: Skunks usually kill young chickens and eat eggs, attacking the head and neck area.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Secure hardware cloth on the bottom of the coop.
    • Use Nite Guards to repel skunks.


Dogs: Dogs will often kill but not eat chickens.


Cats: Cats may be responsible if smaller chicks are missing.


Bobcats: Bobcats leave claw marks and often drag chickens, leaving them covered with dirt.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Use a tall, strong fence with a top.
    • Use Nite Guards to stop bobcats.


Snakes: Snakes eat eggs and baby chicks, unlike skunks that leave egg shells behind.


Owls: Owls attack at night, usually eating only the head and neck, leaving the chicken’s body nearby.

  • Prevention Tips:
    • Use Nite Guards to stop owls.


Hawks: Hawks attack during daylight hours and leave little trace, requiring close observation to detect.


Order Online or Visit Us

Protect your chickens from predators with effective tools like Nite Guards. Available for purchase online and at Piedmont Farm and Garden in Spartanburg, SC.



Chicken Diseases

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu Virus)

Description: Avian influenza is an infection caused by avian (bird) influenza (flu) A viruses. These viruses occur naturally among birds and can be highly contagious.

Transmission: Infected birds shed the virus in saliva, nasal secretions, and feces. Susceptible birds become infected through direct contact with contaminated secretions or surfaces.

Symptoms:

  • Low Pathogenic Form: Mild symptoms like ruffled feathers and a drop in egg production.
  • Highly Pathogenic Form: Rapid spread, affecting multiple internal organs, with a mortality rate of 90-100% within 48 hours.


Blackhead (Histomoniasis, Enterohepatitis)

Description: A protozoan parasite affecting turkeys, chickens, pheasants, and game birds, causing Blackhead disease. The parasite is ingested through the ova of Heterakis worms or larvae in earthworms.

Symptoms:

  • Depression
  • Inappetence
  • Poor growth
  • Foamy yellow diarrhea
  • Cyanosis of head
  • Blood in feces (chickens)
  • Progressive depression and emaciation
  • Blue wattle and comb (blackhead)

Prevention:

  • Good sanitation
  • Avoid mixing species
  • Concrete floors
  • Regular worming


Botulism

Description: Caused by a bacterial toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, mainly types A and C. The toxin is produced in decaying animal and plant waste.

Symptoms:

  • Weakness
  • Progressive flaccid paralysis (limberneck)
  • Loose feathers
  • Dull, partly closed eyes

Prevention:

  • Prevent access to toxins, suspect food, and stagnant ponds
  • Daily removal of dead birds

Treatment:

  • Remove the source of toxin
  • Supportive treatment and antibiotics if justifiable


Newcastle Disease

Forms:

  • Mildly pathogenic (lentogenic)
  • Moderately pathogenic (mesogenic)
  • Highly pathogenic (velogenic)

Symptoms:

  • Hoarse chirps (in chicks)
  • Watery discharge from nostrils
  • Labored breathing (gasping)
  • Facial swelling
  • Paralysis, trembling, twisting of the neck
  • Mortality ranges from 10 to 80%

Transmission: Airborne route, contaminated shoes, equipment, feed sacks, wild birds.

Treatment: No specific treatment; antibiotics to prevent secondary bacterial infections.

Prevention:

  • Vaccination
  • Good sanitation
  • Comprehensive biosecurity program


Fowl Pox

Description: Fowl pox affects most poultry, including chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks, and ratites.

Forms:

  • Dry Form: Raised, wart-like lesions on unfeathered areas.
  • Wet Form: Canker-like lesions in the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and trachea.

Symptoms:

  • Unthriftiness
  • Retarded growth
  • Transient decline in egg production (in laying hens)
  • Respiratory distress (wet form)

Treatment: No treatment available. Vaccination to stop an outbreak.

Prevention:

  • Control mosquitoes
  • Vaccinate if the disease is endemic


Order Online or Visit Us

Protect your chickens from diseases with effective prevention and treatment options. Available for purchase online and at Piedmont Farm and Garden in Spartanburg, SC.