Do skunks attack chickens?

Skunks are famous for breaking in to farms and sheds, and notorious for killing poultry and other smaller animals. If you attempt to hunt them down, trap them or chase them away, they will spray you with a nasty smelling chemical coming from the glands under their tail. Altogether, skunks are a nuisance, and dealing with them can be very troubling. Often, skunks will cause a substantial damage to farmers before they manage to get rid of them. They will kill a lot of their poultry and the whole process of removing can last for a very long time. Still, a lot of people are unsure whether or not skunks actually kill chickens.



Amongst other types of foods, skunks also feed on chickens. Often, skunks will raid coops and cause a substantial amount of damage to farmers. The reason that chickens are so tempting to skunks is their size and build. Because of their small size, chickens are weaker and vulnerable to skunk attacks. Skunks can easily subdue chickens that are easily scared, defenseless and fragile. Overall, chickens are an easy prey for skunks. They will not fight back and are not equipped with any natural weapons to hurt the skunk. For this reason, once a skunk breaks in a chicken coop, it can kill a large number of chickens in a short amount of time. In a single night, a farmer can find dozens of his chickens killed by skunks. This can cause a substantial damage to farmers. Also, remaining live chickens are also not safe, due to the danger that they’ve become infected from any disease that a skunk might carry.

The ease of subduing chickens is not the only reason that these fragile poultry animals are such a tempting prey to skunks is their body build. In fact, chickens are highly nutritive to skunks because they are made out of dense muscle mass. For skunks, chickens are a great source of fat and protein that is easy to reach. Chickens, to skunks, present the prey that is easy to subdue yet highly nutritive. Pounds and pounds of soft meat containing protein, particularly in farm-fed, well nurtured chickens. These two factors, the physiological build of chickens joined with their defenseless nature, make chickens the ideal and most tempting prey for skunks.

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