Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

Pics
Date sort Score sort
MotorcycleChick said:
No, it doesn't make you bad.
If you lost birds daily, you would need to reevaluate though.
Click to expand...
Absolutely! I would be pretty upset to lose my girls. I am hoping the success of my khaki campbells being free range will carry over to the chickens. My ducks are free range 24/7, they of course get food, water and have shelter that they never use, but I can't catch them and they never cooperate to get locked up at night, they spend the nights out, maybe in the medium sized man made pond, or in the bushes around the pond, who knows! They are also dumb as rocks, we have feral cats (you know, the kind that run as soon as they hear a door open) and we have watched out the window as the ducks run over to check them out, they also run up to rabbits, and deer, probably would run up to a fox too if it was there. So far though, they are always there in the morning. I personally have never seen any animals other than a skunk, cat, or deer in our yard, BUT we live on FOX road so......never know!
 
KJ6485 said:
Does it make me a bad chicken owner so say that I would rather let them free range and take the chance of losing them?I currently have all my chickens in an enclosed run, and obviously locked into a secure coop at night, but once they reach adult size I planned on leaving them out to get bugs and fresh greens during the daytime hours, and locking them into the coop at night, using the enclosed run only if we will be away and unable to let them in and out
Click to expand...
Not at all. That's all part of chicken keeping. :) Sometimes a lot of trial and error until you figure out what works for you and your area. We have a secure coop/run and started out free ranging our birds and really liked being able to do that, but our predator problem tipped the balance for us. After losing girls to overhead predators we tried to rethink our options. We ended up building a hoop house that can be moved around to fresh grass several times a week. The girls are in there permanently for the summer and will transition back to the wood coop for winter. It was a compromise that doesn't allow them free-range of the entire property, but does securely allow them to be out on grass 24/7 and still get some of those good benefits associated w/ foraging. For now, we feel like it turned out to be a great decision for us. Actually, it really simplified our chicken keeping. I love our hoop coop!
 
Niko's set of hatchlings due tomorrow! Bridget is broody now. And I think the roosters are going to freezer camp. This is ridiculous. I do not need more birds. Yard is too small.
 
KJ6485 said:
I know this is probably a really dumb question for you experienced chicken keepers, but being new to it all, i would like to know the answer.

When you have raccoons, fox, etc kill your chickens, when/where does that occur? Are the foxes/raccoons getting into the coop at night when it is locked out? Or are they taking the chickens at dusk before they are locked up for the night?
Click to expand...
In my case it has been raccoons at night, after the chickens are in the coop. Raccoons are very smart and can get into almost anything; racoon literally unlatched coop door to get in the last time (I have since switched to keyed entry system). My approach has largely been trial & error and removal of the raccoons. Once a raccoon knows there's a free meal in that coop it will visit the coop every night.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom