Official BYH Poll: Worst Backyard Herd Predator?

[Tammyd57]

You forgot the absolute worst predator out there that frustrates you every time they attack or steal your animals, other people. Those are hands down the most difficult to deal with, and worst are the ones that think they are doing good, but decide that it is okay to feed your single horse a 5 pound bag of carrots after you just ran them off for trying to feed your goats several whole watermelons. >.< I asked the lady if she would mind me giving her kid, who was with her, an entire bag of candy. She got all huffy and said, "No, it would make him sick!" I looked at her very pointedly til I could see the realization dawn on her face.

I agree. Aside from humans, the only time I've lost an animal to a predator was 5 young chicks to a snake. We have coyotes, hawks of various sorts and eagles, stray dogs (and the loose neighbors' dogs) snakes, possums, skunks, raccoons, and for all I know Chupacobras too. I've lost far more than 5 to stupid humans though.

 

[Nommie Bringeruvda Noms]

Neighborhood dogs wiped out half of our chickens, last year. So, they get my top rank. BUT! We've also had to kill rat snakes - one of which was in the nest boxes, with 4 eggs, lumped in its middle! - and we've gone out, in the middle of the night, several times, to ward off (call that 'kill 'em if we can) raccoons. In the meantime, we also have had(in our yard, 'casing the joint') coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, hawks, and owls. Our area also has oppossums, venomous snakes mountain lions and bears, though we've not seen them in the yard, yet.

 

[Anthony Sr.]

I picked Possum, only because I don't have a recipe for them (yet), Coon's are another problem, but I have a recipe for them and I'm out here in the rural area so they're not necessarily a trash digger ( I would still have it anyway, it's a food).

 

[JimLad]

Had to choose mink.
They have left so much devastation.
Then dogs, raccoons and cats.
Ended up getting out of birds completely except for the two, remaining guinea fowl which today alerted me to the black bear which was chasing the Boers around the paddock. Have some electric fencing to fix in the morning.
Wish I could pick more than one.

 

[JimLad]

Neighborhood dogs wiped out half of our chickens, last year. So, they get my top rank. BUT! We've also had to kill rat snakes - one of which was in the nest boxes, with 4 eggs, lumped in its middle! - and we've gone out, in the middle of the night, several times, to ward off (call that 'kill 'em if we can) raccoons. In the meantime, we also have had(in our yard, 'casing the joint') coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, hawks, and owls. Our area also has oppossums, venomous snakes mountain lions and bears, though we've not seen them in the yard, yet.

What kind of dogs?
I forgot about hawks, owls and eagles although I tend to give them a pass.

 

[Nommie Bringeruvda Noms]

The dogs that killed our girls were a pair of large, mixed breed dogs, whose owner just let them roam free. Apparently, she'd been told a few times, before we even moved in, that if she didn't keep them at home, someday those dogs were just not going to come home. We saw them around a lot, and on our property, sometimes. After the massacre, we put the word out that we would shoot them on sight, if they came on our land, again. (We're in a rural area, where this is a normal expectation, and the law would be on our side.) This area is mostly resident-owned, so we lucked out, because they were one of the few renting families, and decided to move.

The coyotes, foxes, raccons, opossums, eagles, hawks, and owls all live on our land. We've seen all the nests of the birds, and the fox and coyote dens, and watched and listened to the coyote pups playing and singing, in the evenings. We really love it here, and as long as they continue to behave as they are, they are welcome to stay. After all, we chose a place in their neighborhood, not the other way around. We even hated killing the snakes, because they're a huge help in keeping the rodent population under control. We try to leave the shoppers alone, too - including the ones in the house, because we like their assistance in keeping the rest of the indoor insect population down.

 

[JimLad]

The dogs that killed our girls were a pair of large, mixed breed dogs, whose owner just let them roam free. Apparently, she'd been told a few times, before we even moved in, that if she didn't keep them at home, someday those dogs were just not going to come home. We saw them around a lot, and on our property, sometimes. After the massacre, we put the word out that we would shoot them on sight, if they came on our land, again. (We're in a rural area, where this is a normal expectation, and the law would be on our side.) This area is mostly resident-owned, so we lucked out, because they were one of the few renting families, and decided to move.

The coyotes, foxes, raccons, opossums, eagles, hawks, and owls all live on our land. We've seen all the nests of the birds, and the fox and coyote dens, and watched and listened to the coyote pups playing and singing, in the evenings. We really love it here, and as long as they continue to behave as they are, they are welcome to stay. After all, we chose a place in their neighborhood, not the other way around. We even hated killing the snakes, because they're a huge help in keeping the rodent population under control. We try to leave the shoppers alone, too - including the ones in the house, because we like their assistance in keeping the rest of the indoor insect population down.

Ah! One of the dogs that killed several of my birds was a Malamute. Got himself into a frenzy.
Bylaws declared him a dangerous dog. The restrictions placed on him are so severe that it takes the pleasure out of owning the pet. Sadly, they never took the time to apologize.
I'm on Vancouver Island where taking the law into your own hands would be really frowned upon so I chose the legal route. There are no foxes or coyotes on the Island. I really miss that.
As for raptors; they are royalty in my books and I count my losses as a tax.
Raccoons... If it's a good family, I leave them alone.
Now that I don't have birds, I don't have to worry about them but I do keep the rabbit sheds mink proof.
The mink do keep the rat numbers down.

 

[Ridgetop]

Before we got GLDs our worst predators were neighborhood dogs. Pur hurse dogs eoud bark at them but not attack them or drive them off.
After getting GLDs the worst predators for our area are coyotes. Our GLDs run off everything though so except for one year when the wildfires decimated all the surrounding habitat and we ended up with 10 packs of coyotes surrounding our property, we have not lost anything.

During the post fire 10 pack period, we lost 2 lambs because the dogs were working so hard. The coyotes would lure them to one side of the property then come in and make a kill before the dogs could get back to the flock. Even though they killed 2 lambs, they did not get the opportunity to actually feed on them! Our Anatolian bitch did get bitten driving them off. Our sweet Rika has the scars to this day.

We got a 3rd Anatolian after that episode and no more losses at all.

 

[Nao57]

Which one of those animals, does 'teenager' fall under?

 

[Chiknoodle]

Almost everyone who keeps animals on their homestead has had losses due to predators. Which predator has dealt the most damage to your backyard herd?

Place your vote above and feel free to share your experience with us in the comments section.

View attachment 78647

My worst predators are hawks and coyotes. 3 hawks have been circling every day now!