Free Rangers: Talk to me about pest management

[Ridgerunner]

It does make it hard to vary the schedule when you are on a set schedule due to work or school. Good luck figuring that one out.

It sounds like when they disappear, the predator does not leave any calling cards behind but carries the entire bird away. maybe just leave a few feathers. That could be something like a mama raccoon carrrying food back to her babies, but to me it sounds more like a fox or coyote. They can be active any time of the day, but foxes especially are usually more active at dawn and dusk. I'd consider those your higher risk times if it is a fox or coyote. But these will take a chicken at high noon too. They are not restricted to dawn and dusk. I'd assume you have hawks and eagles that could carry a chicken off, so that is another real possibility.

None of these are easy to deal with. It woulld help to know what you are dealing with, but that can be rough. Maybe let your chickens out early on a Saturday and stay sort of hidden with that Winchester for a while. Good luck!!

 

[Churkenduse]

I have a small place and I live on a wildlife preserve with lots of predators. For four years I had not a problem at all. I never even had a door on my coop.
Suddenly this years I lost three hens in less than two months, Of course I put the door on but somehow and predator got in and one of mine broke a wing, she refused to go it the coop and now she is gone. One of them took her in the night.

All you can do is all you can do. the best ones for eluding predatores, IMHO, are the Rhode island reds, theya re the only ones I got left. Sadly

That is the way life goes, just do the best you can and hope for the best, you can't coop them all day they would die anyway of confinement.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

We have LGD who run with the flock, plus turkeys and geese. Plus the guineas (tho' the chooks just look at them alerting going "You twits do that all day long, would you just shut up already?") and the peafowl (who don't alert a lot, they just disappear into the trees). Plus the big LF roos who do NOT let anything near their girls or babies. No way, no how, not if they are alive.

The coops and attached runs are Fort Knox. Dug hardwear cloth down into the ground, hot wired, etc.... If they are locked up, nothing is a meal on legs. If somehow something gets in, heck, they can have the meal, they worked THAT hard for it.

Free ranging means some losses. I just accept it as part of life. However, because they aren't easy to get when locked up, I don't see a lot of predators around as much because they move on to other parts where the food is easier to nab than getting past LGD and pet dogs, then past the turkeys and geese, then past the roos, not alerting the humans with the guns..... Not worth it when 1/4 mile away is a coop that the idiot of the squirrel world could break into.

 

[buckaroo's wife]

I'm starting to vary (somewhat) the times that I let them out in the morning, and I'm not letting them out everyday right now. I'll try this for a week and see if I can get whatever it is to move on. I would imagine it's not just one predator, but a number of them. Over the course of a year, I've lost 4 hens: The first one I found only a head and wing, the second was just a mass of feathers (I assumed hawk since my neighbor found the hen in his pasture), the third drowned in our horse trough (predator there was a horse - I think in "play" she dunked the chicken into the trough) and the fourth (and most recent) I found totally intact in the front yard. SO.....different crime scenes to me means different predators. Saturday I let them out and stayed with them, and within minutes there was a hawk perched on the telephone pole right nearby. The rooster alerted all of us and ushered the gals under cover.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

If you are lucky enough to have a good DOG... this seems to me the best protection a flock could have

 

[Churkenduse]

I have a pug, and he attacked a hawk that was taking off with my hen, he managed to knock the chicken from the hawks mouth and saved it,

I believe a dog is the best thing for daylight predators. But get a bigger dog than a pug, I am fearful that they might turn on my dog and take off with it,

 

[trinityfly]

We live in the middle of a National Forest and on the edge of a designated Wilderness area. All kinds of chicken eating critters live here. I completely agree with some of the other commenters that a strong hen house and run (coop) is the first and best defense. Nothing goes in and out that I don't allow. Our birds "free range in a two acre wood that we have fenced and that I patrol regularly to keep out the casual predator. We have lost a few birds over the the past few years to raptors but a good scare crow or two keeps most of them at bay. Don't keep a regular schedule when you release your birds to range. Most predators don't have the luxury to hang around waiting for the chickens to come out. They are hunters of opportunity but they can't survive by waiting for food to appear, they have to keep moving. I agree that an aggressive roo or two and commingling with other larger and noisier species (although right now we have neither) would also help as well. But keep in mind that true free ranging by your flock will expose them to predation. Thats the cost of "free range" and you can only do what you can do. Just keep at it. Cheers!