Ah, the skunk.
Nature’s personal BO. These are adorable looking
animals, but they can sure ruin your day with
the way that can spray you with the horribly
noxious spray. It is absolutely horrific to say
that least.
If the spray isn’t bad enough, there is also the
fact that these animals carry a lot of parasites
and diseases. What could be worse than a cute
animal that can make you smell terrible and give
you rabies? It just seems like they cannot get
much worse. Surprisingly, they can.
Not only will skunks spray you but, if you have
chickens, they will attack them and attempt to
make a meal out of them. That sounds terrible
and, sadly, it is quite true.
These mammals find that chickens are a tasty
treat for sure. While not being a particularly
large animal, they will go after a chicken and
will win in virtually all cases. They are a
decided advantage to be honest.
Because of the fact that skunks are nocturnal
animals, they have a huge advantage over
chickens. Most of these birds are asleep at
night and they cannot see particularly well.
When a skunk comes to their nest the first
intention of these smelly mammals is to get the
eggs. Skunks love chicken eggs, and if they can
feast on that then that is where they will
begin. They will do all they can to scare away
the chickens so that they can get at the eggs.
This can mean outright killing the mother
chicken to ensure that it can get to the tasty
treat to take with it or to eat right there.
If it finds that it is not getting the meal it
wants out of the eggs, then it has no issue with
killing the chicken and eating it. The skunk is
primarily concerned with food, and the eggs are
the primary target that it wants. However, food
is still the top agenda and if that means that
eating the mother chicken is the way to get that
food then it will do so. No chicken is going to
stand in its way.
You should also be aware that chicks are a
common target of these mammals as well. They
will go right for the little chickens and kill
and eat them.
If you have a chicken coop in an area where you
know that skunks are known to reside, you need
to do all you can to protect that coop. the
chicks should be kept in a secure brooder, and
you need to make sure that the area where the
eggs are will be secured so that there is no way
that the skunk can get in. If you don’t do it
will go bad for sure. Read more:
Skunk
Control,
how to
kill skunks.
