Preventing and Controlling Predators

Poultry are prey animals and, in the UK, there are a wide array of predators that can hunt them. Hugh and Fiona Osborne look at the predators to be aware of and how to guard against them.

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IT'S MUCH MORE THAN FOXES

Ask anyone thinking of keeping chickens, ducks or geese what they are worried about and the majority will probably answer "foxes". It's a natural reaction as we were all brought up on stories told of farmyard animals having to outwit the wily fox and it goes back many, many centuries to the Fables of Aesop.

In reality, chickens, ducks and geese can be attractive food sources for a number of predators in the UK. To give you an idea of how wide that selection is, they include (but are not limited to):

• Rats

• Mink

• Stoats

• Badgers

• Foxes

• Buzzards

• Crows

It might surprise you to see small animals on the list like rats and stoats, but if they are hungry, they are more than capable of killing a hen and using them as a food source. The other category that might surprise you are the aerial predators on the list. With large chickens, they are not (in normal circumstances) a problem, but if you have bantams like Sebright's or Pekins and food is short, then yes, you absolutely should consider them as a threat.

DON'T PANIC

Even though your poultry are an attractive meal to quite a few members of the UK wildlife population, take comfort from knowing that there are a lot of things that can be done to keep your team safe. There are a lot of stories of people who have lost their flocks to predators, but there are even more stories of people with predator free experiences.