Keeping Chickens Free Range

[OrganicFarmWife]

Thank you.

We are wondering about coyotes......anyone have experience with them? We know there are coyotes around. Do foxes hunt together that way? The final count of the missing is two roosters and two hens. Joe and Honeycutt made it through the night, but i have no experience with injuries so i dont know what to expect.

Can you get some antibiotic ointment on those wounds?

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

Thank you.

We are wondering about coyotes......anyone have experience with them? We know there are coyotes around. Do foxes hunt together that way? The final count of the missing is two roosters and two hens. Joe and Honeycutt made it through the night, but i have no experience with injuries so i dont know what to expect.

I'm not sure about their hunting one Prey, per se, but I do KNOW, if a dog, animal of equal size is away from their pack, they WILL send out a female to whine as though Injured to LURE it away, then the whole pack takes it down. I would suspect, they would go in with pairs, threes, then bring back as many for the pack as possible. If a big enough animal is down, then they come in as a pack. SNEAKY but Feeds the Pack, Efficiently If You make a run, perhaps makes sure wire goes a couple inches below ground so even if they dig, won't make it through. Pen them Up when You are NOT there, keep a weapon handy when You are, they are out? Pretty sure one gets shot, they will take a wide berth... Hope this helps

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

'Ooo, there's some good stuff out here, Mom, thanks for letting us out!!!

 

[vpatt]

  I'm not sure about their hunting one Prey, per se, but I do KNOW, if a dog, animal of equal size is away from their pack, they WILL send out a female to whine as though Injured to LURE it away, then the whole pack takes it down. I would suspect, they would go in with pairs, threes, then bring back as many for the pack as possible. If a big enough animal is down, then they come in as a pack. SNEAKY but Feeds the Pack, [COLOR=6A6A6A]Efficiently[/COLOR] If You make a run, perhaps makes sure wire goes a couple inches below ground so even if they dig, won't make it through. Pen them Up when You are NOT there, keep a weapon handy when You are, they are out?  Pretty sure one gets shot, they will take a wide berth... Hope this helps

Thanks!!

 

[T-traveler]

We have coyotes in our area. It's a pack of 4 or 5. We lost one chicken to them when we were away from the house for the entire day. As long as we're around they don't seem to come near. We put all our girls in the hen house at night and it is surrounded by an impenetrable hardware cloth fence.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

Thanks!!

No Problem. What I have gathered from those ACTUALLY dealing with coyotes, in years in CALIF. and MT. Direct Info so much better than 2nd, 3rd, uh, Info..wink, wink.

 

[T-traveler]

If You make a run, perhaps makes sure wire goes a couple inches below ground so even if they dig, won't make it through.

When I built my run, I put the hardware cloth down 20 inches (both around the run and around the garden). That way no animal digging from above ground or below ground can get into either the run or the garden. I know that may be overkill for the run, but what the heck, I was already doing it for the larger area (the garden) so I just continued it around the run.

 

[varidgerunner]

I deal with coyotes on a regular basis, I am a trapper. If a coyote sets tooth to a chicken, that chicken is not going to be found. This time of year, coyotes will kill what they can fit in one's belly and carry in the mouth. They will take them back to the den to feed the pups and nursing female. Later in August or September, in a pup training foray, they might take the whole flock. Coyotes that depend on chickens and have anything more than just a random schedule are either denned very close or have some sort of disability preventing normal hunting behavior. Normal hunting behavior for coyotes might cover several square miles, eating a variety of prey species, they might only come through once a week.

Foxes behave in the same way, but they will make multiple kills and cache them, somewhere near the den, buried in dirt and leaves to keep for later. They might kill a couple or more a night until the chickens are gone, or until you kill them. All but the biggest, fiercest roosters will be gone if engaged by a fox. Sometimes with fox you will see a feather trail, as they can do a bit of struggling, and aren't carried as high off the ground as when a coyote takes them.

Is it possible your roosters got in a fight and you have some hens off broody somewhere?

 

[BlackBriars]

Brandy and Emmy Roo.


Once you leave my immediate yard, there is brush, woods and old overgrown fields in every direction. It is basically the wild west beyond 50 feet from my front door. There are coyotes, racoon, opossum, bobcat, wild boar (feral hogs), snakes and rodents abundant, yet , my flock free ranges every day from about an hour before daylight until they put themselves to bed a half hour before sunset. I do not lock them in by closing the gate at night and well before daylight they will make their way out of the enclosure and scatter around the yard,, chattering and squawking in little groups waiting for enough light to feed by. Quite often an egg will be laid in the dark and the resulting cackle will be taken up by the entire flock ruining any further chance for me to sleep.

All of this free range lifestyle is only made possible by my 2 dogs Emmy Roo and Brandy. They were both dumped or abandoned as pups and I adopted them. Emmy Roo will be 2 sometime around late August this year and Brandy will be 6 about December. They weren't bred for guarding livestock or anything else in particular to my knowledge, but what they do have is the experience of living with me pretty much 24/7since they were pups. Brandy showed up early spring 2011, about 10-12 weeks old, starving, feverish and riddled with ticks. It was just she ,my old dog Buddy (since passed) and I sharing a meager existence together including meals and about everything else except bedding. Me being medically retired and living isolated in the country enabled the 3 of us to spend most of our time together and I suppose it created a relationship really special between the 3 of us.

Buddy was a Min Pin/Chihuahua mix I had taken in a couple years earlier. He was already elderly yet still spry. He loved to travel in the truck and we would all pile in and go to the lake. Buddy and Brandy would take off exploring and hunting while I fished. Buddy being an old town dog wasn't much on game but Brandy had a knack and would catch rabbits sitting and just grab them as well as about any other type rodent. I always encouraged my dogs to be dogs and do dog things. This is important and germane to the story of protecting chickens and having a happy well balanced dog to start with. If you asked Brandy to sit, lay down, speak or roll over she wouldn't have a clue although for a dog she has a huge vocabulary. However, she understands "stay" because there is a use for it, namely for her safety and she is trained to the leash so we can go to the vet etc. You can ask her if she is hungry and she will answer in her dog way, ears pointed forward means yes, ears back or head turned away from me is no. I can ask her where Emmy is and she will instantly point her nose in the direction she thinks Emmy is. She knows the names of lots of foods including chicken, pork chops, cheeseburger, milk, cookies and McDonalds. She is fond of spaghetti w/meatballs, pizza and any cut of beef especially grilled or roasted. She will leave the room and often go outside at the first utterance of any curse word even muttered quietly under your breath.

To be continued.


Emmy Roo and chicks.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

When I built my run, I put the hardware cloth down 20 inches (both around the run and around the garden). That way no animal digging from above ground or below ground can get into either the run or the garden. I know that may be overkill for the run, but what the heck, I was already doing it for the larger area (the garden) so I just continued it around the run.

Great Idea! I've heard people will weave rebar thru the chicken wire, then bury it along all 4 walls of a hen house. Seems like a lot of work to me.
Tonight, I had a jigger of a time! Chicks wouldn't go into hutch, course as i have expected them to.

I had to herd them around, after dark. It seemed they Let me pick them up. Know this isn't chicken behaviors forum but does the darkness cut down on their reactions? Were they frightened to be out so late so LET me pick them up? Are they getting used to me? They will be about 5 weeks tomorrow. Posted recent pic. I think they are feathering out WONDERFUL! But that may be just me...