Help Save My Hens

My farm neighbor wants the yote running around here as it’s YUGE!
I asked him what the hell are you feeding these damn dogs? Reply was certified organic chickens, lambs and pigs.
That's about right! Certified organic chickens on a high protein egg boosting diet here! I can't say for sure whether I've lost any hens to the yotes when I let them free range. But I can say the yotes around here do not betray their partial wolf parentage. Much more robust and very capable deer hunters too. They hollowed out a small buck about 20ft from my front door. I didn't see it happen, but classic text book coyote kill. They pulled out the rumen and intestines and dragged them a few feet away, ate all the other organs in the cavity then went to work on hind quarter. Had to steer my young kids away from the front door till I could dispose of it. I was tempted to tell them Santa just lost his temper again but too close to Christmas at the time!
 
Probably worth including in the all-of-the-above approach. Did you use the cage-type traps? I've heard some say better success with the ones that have two doors. I have a couple that are the right size, but single door.
 
Good advice. I might be able to ask a friend's brother - MA Environmental Police - off the record.
Avoid asking anyone in Mass. Unless it is on paper, everything is illegal here. And if it is legal, they will quickly change that in the dead of night and give themselves another raise for their troubles.
 
Just kill it and don't post about it.
I don't know how big your flock is, but they need a fenced in area to safely graze without being easy pickings for the 4 legged predators. There is not much you can do about aerial predators.
We had an owl attack our flock. It didn't end until either the chickens are gone or the owl was gone.
 
Agula Super Colibri in .22 and a spotlight should do the trick. Sounds like a door slamming. Pre-sight the shot from a back deck, put the rifle away right away and get rid of the carcass.
 
The answer you seek shall be along shortly...
s3-cube-hollow.jpg

5. Save the pelt! You can read up on using the brains to tan it.
Pro-tip: The first rule of Varmint Club is not Shoot, Taxidermy, and Shut Up.

... not sure what a call to the epo will do. First Second thing they will tell you to secure your chickens better.
FTFY. The first thing they'll do is note the caller's name and address,
so they know exactly who to jack up when an abutter complains about gunfire.
 
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was having problems with a good sized black bear raiding his chicken coop...He ended up sealing off the windows, adding strength to the door...basically turning the coop into a fortress.

He heard a commotion a few nights later...the bear had torn down the exterior wall and was exiting the coop with two chickens in its mouth.

My friend had grabbed his 45-70 on the way out and he and the bruin had a "come to Jesus" meeting (literally) there is his back yard. He threw a 4x8 sheet of 1" plywood over the breach, went to bed and buried the beast the next morning with a backhoe. He had tried to get the NHFG to help him do something about the bear but they were never available, probably rescuing some dimwit off a mountain...They always said to make his coop stronger.

Good luck with that....sometimes you have to take things into your own hands.
Man. That's badass. And I agree completely necessary to solve it on his own. I think you have justified my next purchase! Been wanting a 44 or bigger magnum revolver or maybe one of those Magnum Research 45-70 revolvers now that you mention it. Seriously though, I know someone who had a similar coop raider black bear a little west of me in MA. Only this friend was caught by surprise with just a 9mm tucked in his boxers, maybe expecting a fox or yote. He WISELY chose to run back to the house instead of approaching further! I live in the part of MA that is the eastern frontier line for black bear, but encounters like this are getting more frequent.
 
Foxes hunt at night... try setting traps, if you do not have pets running in the same area. When fox does not want to be seen, it is not that easy to shoot it. Ideally you need to try finding it’s den, but, good luck wit it.
 
Probably worth including in the all-of-the-above approach. Did you use the cage-type traps? I've heard some say better success with the ones that have two doors. I have a couple that are the right size, but single door.
No self respecting fox would EVER step into a cage. What is it, stupid? :)
 
Man. That's badass. And I agree completely necessary to solve it on his own. I think you have justified my next purchase! Been wanting a 44 or bigger magnum revolver or maybe one of those Magnum Research 45-70 revolvers now that you mention it. Seriously though, I know someone who had a similar coop raider black bear a little west of me in MA. Only this friend was caught by surprise with just a 9mm tucked in his boxers, maybe expecting a fox or yote. He WISELY chose to run back to the house instead of approaching further! I live in the part of MA that is the eastern frontier line for black bear, but encounters like this are getting more frequent.
Yep...my friend was basically a kid, maybe 20-21 years old going to tech school, learning a trade. His dad had passed a way a few years before and he was living with his mom and sister on a dead end dirt road here in NH.

He had seen it several times over the course of a month or so. He had lost a lot of chickens over that time. He was pissed that F&G wouldn't do anything about it so knowing him, he took matters into his own hands. I was surprised he didn't dress it and take the meat out of it but he wanted it gone and buried. He didn't want any questions asked.

The only people that knew about it was his mom (who was proud of what he did), and me, only because he asked me what he should do after striking out with the F&G. I asked if he had any guns. He said his dad had left him a bunch and one of them was a 45-70. LOL...I told him that should put him down in one, well placed shot....it did.
 
We use this for our poultry:


When I do see signs of a four footed predator trying to get to them, I put out the Have-a-Heart appropriately baited. In MA if you catch a predator attacking your livestock your only two options are to release it somewhere else on your property or dispatch it. I always choose option 2. I have gotten rid of several raccoons, possums and a fox. For flying predators we give then a couple of things to hide under (picnic tables work well), but we still lose one to the owls now and then.

We did have a black bear come up on our house deck a ew years back, but the pasture is well fenced and he didn’t try to get to the animals. Since he wasn’t being a direct threat to the livestock, I just fired a couple of rounds of 12 gauge 00 buck in his general direction (given my shooting skills it would have probably been safer for the bear if I had actually aimed at him) and never saw him again.

A next door neighbor had a couple of feeder pigs one year. Came out one morning and one was missing. Heard a commotion that night and went out to find a black bear hauling the other one out of the pen. Made a ruckus and the bear dropped the pig and ran off.
 
I'm not a hunter.
But I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night so I know of:
1) There are exemptions for farmers protecting their livestock, I would look into that.
2) Not sure "baiting" is always legal.....learn that one from North Woods Law. 🤓
3) There is a thing called "quiet 22" as well.

My suggestion would be to make sure you do it all legally, getting in a bind for something like this would stupidly suck.
You may be surprised MA Enviro Police may offer some good solutions for you.
 
No self respecting fox would EVER step into a cage. What is it, stupid? :)
They will, if properly baited and camouflaged, also need to make sure it is scent free. But you better make sure to get it the first time, cause they’ll only do it once.
 
Just kill it and don't post about it.
I don't know how big your flock is, but they need a fenced in area to safely graze without being easy pickings for the 4 legged predators. There is not much you can do about aerial predators.
We had an owl attack our flock. It didn't end until either the chickens are gone or the owl was gone.
Actually, if you have a fenced in chicken yard, run twine back and forth across the top of the fence spaced every 6 or so inches. The larger predator birds see that and won't fly through it...something I learned from a caretaker at a fish hatchery. Actually works very well.
 
They will, if properly baited and camouflaged, also need to make sure it is scent free. But you better make sure to get it the first time, cause they’ll only do it once.
My granddad was an expert trapper. Only a fox pup may wander into anything confined - like you said - only once. An adult fox usually is wicked smart.
the idea is to set several traps so when it feeds from one and its claws click fox would jump to the side and get into second trap. Dunno, grandpa knew this shit well, I do not.
 
Actually, if you have a fenced in chicken yard, run twine back and forth across the top of the fence spaced every 6 or so inches. The larger predator birds see that and won't fly through it...something I learned from a caretaker at a fish hatchery. Actually works very well.
Not arguing against that,
but reading this thread I keep wondering
"why not drape blueberry netting over the whole chicken yard?".
Wouldn't you hope it was cheap enough?

Frankly the worst counterargument I can imagine is that
folks would deeply regret finding a hawk horribly ensnared in the netting -
either dead or maimed. Besides that, what's not to like?

I'm not suggesting it because I've got a grudge against birds of prey
on general principles and want them to get f'ed up -
I'm suggesting it on the ignorant hope that the hawks
will nope away from the netting rather than play games with it.
 
Not arguing against that,
but reading this thread I keep wondering
"why not drape blueberry netting over the whole chicken yard?".
Wouldn't you hope it was cheap enough?

Frankly the worst counterargument I can imagine is that
folks would deeply regret finding a hawk horribly ensnared in the netting -
either dead or maimed. Besides that, what's not to like?

I'm not suggesting it because I've got a grudge against birds of prey
on general principles and want them to get f'ed up -
I'm suggesting it on the ignorant hope that the hawks
will nope away from the netting rather than play games with it.
It's funny you bring this up because I asked the same question to the fish hatchery attendant. He said that it was a lot easier for talons to get caught in netting than a single string. Made sense to me. I guess they see the string and fly away. They actually set it up so the strings are about 3" apart so it keeps out the kingfishers too but they can still get through strings that close if they try.
 
I second premier supplies electric netting. Solar chargers work better then you would expect.
I have watched the foxes walk the perimeter of the electric fence many times. We shut it off during the winter but the foxes still avoid it.
 
A good quality air rifle (ex. .22 PCP) works, particularly if it has a built-in lead dust collector.
 
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