What's Killing My Chickens?

For backyard chicken keepers and large-scale farmers alike, the single greatest challenge is protecting poultry from predators. What's Killing My Chickens? is the essential guide to identifying the culprit and ensuring safety for the flock. Often, by the time an attack is discovered, the predator has already left the scene. Best-selling author and chicken expert Gail Damerow uses the style of a detective manual to teach readers how to follow clues such as tracks, trails, scat, and other signs to identify the attacker. Predator profiles describe key habits of each one and best techniques for blocking their access to the coop and yard, including removing attractants, using poultry guardians and lighting, and installing the most effective type of fencing. This empowering book offers essential knowledge, and peace of mind, for every chicken keeper.



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  In this detective manual for the poultry owner, best-selling author and chicken expert Gail Damerow shows chicken keepers how to identify which predators are likely to be troubling their flock from the clues left behind, and offers proven strategies for protecting poultry.
Gail Damerow has written extensively on raising chickens and other livestock, growing fruits and vegetables, and related rural know-how in more than a dozen books, including What's Killing My Chickens? and the best-selling Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, The Chicken Encyclopedia, The Chicken Health Handbook, and Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks. Damerow is a contributor to Chickens and Hobby Farms magazines and a regular blogger for Cackle Hatchery. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, where they operate a family farm with poultry and dairy goats, a sizable garden, and a small orchard. Visit her online at gaildamerow.com.

  Protect Your Poultry



As a chicken owner, keeping your flock safe is your top priority, and few things are as devastating as finding yourself and your birds the victims of a henhouse heist.



Gail Damerow's lively and logical detective manual teaches you to be the gumshoe, piecing together the clues predators leave behind – before and after an intrusion – to correctly identify the culprit and adopt the most effective strategies for keeping poultry safe and sound. Acknowledgments

On Becoming a Detective



Part One: The Offense

  1 Scene of the Crime

        Poultry Predation

        Egg Predation

        Blaming the Wrong Critter

  2 Who Coulda (or Couldn'ta) Dunnit?

        Range and Habitat

        Seasonal Patterns

        Daily Patterns

        Predatory Cycles

  3 Sleuthing for Clues

        Eyewitness Evidence

        Mammal Signs

        Bird Signs

  4 Foiling the Perps

        Eliminate Point of Entry (Best Plan)

        Discourage Predators (Good Idea)

        Eliminate Predators (Bad Idea)

  5 Fence Defenses

        Fence Selection

        Mesh Fences

        Electric Fences

        Secure Gates

  6 The Poultry Perspective

        Vision: Prey versus Predator

        Reaction to Predators



Part Two: The Suspects

Hawks and Eagles

        Red-Tailed Hawk

        Other Buteos

        Accipiters

        Eagles

        Falcons

Owls

        Great Horned Owl

        Snowy Owl

        Great Gray Owl

        Barred Owl

Raccoon Family

        Raccoon

        Coati and Ringtail

Dog Family

        Red Fox

        Gray Fox

        Kit Fox

        Swift Fox

        Arctic Fox

        Coyotes

        Gray Wolf

        Domestic Dog

Weasel Fami