How about you just leaving your chickens alone?

[MeepBeep]

I believe nature dictates that predators don't eat other predators, they only kill them, unless they are starving.

There are plenty of natural predators that eat other predators if opportunity arises... Even your common K-9 will eat other predators (even their own kind) if it's meal time and that is what is available...

One also has to be careful of what they define as predator and prey... A chicken might very well be prey to many things, but it's also a predator to smaller prey like mice, and insects...

 

[chickmomma03]

This whole thread has gotten a little out of hand. Everyone has a different opinion on animals and how they should be cared for. Some view them as more than just animals. I have a healthy respect for animals, I love animals. My dog is treated well, my chickens are treated well, even my ducklings are treated well, my fish are treated well, and my gecko is treated well. BUT, I have had to learn limits in knowing where I should and shouldn't intervene. Just like anyone else. We need to just agree to disagree on who treats what animal what way (within reason).

 

[varidgerunner]

I like all animals. I like some of them on a plate. I am a predator. I happen to eat predators. I consider bobcat one of the best tasting meats there is. Very similar to veal. I have heard that mountain lion is also good, to those who wish to eat it. As someone well versed in biology, I know of no natural law that this violates. Predators eat other predators all the time.

The point is, that it isn't for anyone to decide how someone else makes a pet of, or conversely, consumes their animals. To do so is to succumb to the powers of madness displayed by those who would have none of us keep a pet or eat an animal of any kind.

 

[limited25]

I like all animals. I like some of them on a plate. I am a predator. I happen to eat predators. I consider bobcat one of the best tasting meats there is. Very similar to veal. I have heard that mountain lion is also good, to those who wish to eat it. As someone well versed in biology, I know of no natural law that this violates. Predators eat other predators all the time.

The point is, that it isn't for anyone to decide how someone else makes a pet of, or conversely, consumes their animals. To do so is to succumb to the powers of madness displayed by those who would have none of us keep a pet or eat an animal of any kind.

There is a bobcat that sometimes comes to our sons house and kills (and eats) his cats. What is the best way to trap it? He lives in the suburbs.

 

[newhamplover]

• jak2002003
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• Location: Thailand
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I was just about to start a thread about this!

Since I let my chickens live a natural 100 percent free range life they are really healthy, reproducing like crazy.. I have a population explosion now!

I have lost no birds for about a year since they live 'wild'. I had about 10 birds and now I have lost count.. but easily over 50... all ages and sexes.

When I kept the birds in the coop.. I had roosters fighting, hens attacking chicks, bad hatch rates, lots of fowl pox and other diseases. It seemed to go from one disease to the next with my flock.. and cost me a lot for medication. I got through so much feed too. The coop was big, well ventilated and dry.. I kept is clean and dusted for mites etc... it was hard work.

I lost many birds to predators when they were in the coop.. The chickens were trapped in the coop and run when a mongoose or dog would break in.. and they were easy to catch and kill with no chance to escape.

I was going to give up keeping them after several months of diseases and predator attacks, 2 costly coop rebuilds and the heartache of nursing sick birds which usually died.

One night I got home late after dark and the coop door had blown shut so the birds could not get inside.

I shone the torch around and spotted them high up in the mango trees.

Ever since that day they live 24 / 7 outside the coop.. and since then I have not had any disease with them.. only one cut its eye.. and that healed with no treatment. None of the roosters (must have about 10 now) are fighting.. the hens are all in perfect feather condition and there are big swarms of different sized chicks running about everywhere.

My feed bill has reduced to next to nothing.. they find most of their own food on my land.. which is a big fruit orchard. I have no coop, feeders or nestboxes to clean out... the chickens drink from the lake.. and I throw feed on the concrete area near the old coop. They nest in their own secret places.. usually under bushes.. sometimes up in the trees in old bird nest.. and even in old flowerpots.

They are really alert to predators.. doing all their natural alarm calls and behaviours.. and I have not lost a single one.. even a tiny chick!

There is plenty of cover for them..dense thorny bushes, log piles, and scrap wood and 'junk'. They have about 100 trees to choose to roost in.. but they always use the same one. The go right up into the top most branches. I am always surprised how very young chickck can scrabble and hop their way up.. I have seen them climbing vertical tree trunks.. grabbing hold of the rough bark with their feet.

Now I have so many of them.. I can afford to loose a few to a snake or mongoose.. and dogs have no chance to catch them now.

I am lucky to live in a hot climate... I would not do this in a place with ice and snow in the winter.

Now I am going to have to decided how to stop them breeding... have to go nest hunting this week!


I loved your post. My 3, now an additional 7 - 3 weeks old offspring, are shut up in the coop at night. Not the chicks they are still in on the enclosed porch. They have always free roamed all day. We have a huge yard with plenty of shrubs & honeysuckle on 3 sides of the fence. I have had them almost 2 years & have never had any health issue. They are beautifully feathered & just shine in the sunlight. They have been nothing but a pleasure. I love to see beautifully bred animals, beautifully conditioned, enjoying life...as mother nature intended.

 

[newhamplover]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/22/health/living-near-nature-linked-to-longer-lives/index.html

I read this interesting article on CNN. This was my point with mother nature. I believe it effects all animals lives. All livestock see vegetation as food & life, which it is. In chickens the green attracts all manner of insects & bugs which is also food. The more abundance of food, the less stressed. Shrubs & bushes offer protection. As I take my now 3 week old chicks for their daily outing they just love it. They go straight for the honeysuckle, they are hid. Then they come out & run, play, flap their wings & they have found a few worms too. At the rate they are growing it won't be too many weeks until they can do that full time. They have a big run set up on the back porch with a dirt bath in it. I bring them clover from the yard about 5 times a day & they go for it like a swarm of bees.