Hi friends,
My wife and I have been keeping chickens and ducks in our backyard (we have 6ft tall fences around the yard). Usually, we let them free range during the day when we're home and put them inside the coop at dusk. In the past year, we've had a couple chickens/ducks here and there fall victim to predators (raccoon, fox, etc.) but yesterday an unknown predator (we think it might be a fox or coyote) came and killed all our birds while free-ranging except one drake who managed to survive. The attack happened in the early afternoon and the chickens/duck were all taken from different places (feathers were all in different spots). We had 4 chickens and 2 ducks and now only the drake is left. He seems super sad and lonely. We have a few questions that if you guys can help us with, we would really appreciate it!
1. We do have 4 female ducklings (1-2 weeks old) that we recently got. What's the earliest we can introduce them to our adult drake? In the meantime, do we NEED to get another adult companion for the drake or will he be fine until we can introduce the ducklings to him?
2. Are there any ways to keep our poultry safe when free-ranging? I know we can get a run but we would prefer to free range them if possible for their health/enjoyment.
3. I heard that geese can be effective deterrents to predators. Is that true? If so, how many should we keep and which sex?
4. How loud are geese during most of the day? Are they a lot louder/more vocal than chickens/ducks? Just worried that it might bother our neighbors...
5. Is it ok to house the goose(s) in the same coop as chickens or ducks?
Thanks so much!
My wife and I have been keeping chickens and ducks in our backyard (we have 6ft tall fences around the yard). Usually, we let them free range during the day when we're home and put them inside the coop at dusk. In the past year, we've had a couple chickens/ducks here and there fall victim to predators (raccoon, fox, etc.) but yesterday an unknown predator (we think it might be a fox or coyote) came and killed all our birds while free-ranging except one drake who managed to survive. The attack happened in the early afternoon and the chickens/duck were all taken from different places (feathers were all in different spots). We had 4 chickens and 2 ducks and now only the drake is left. He seems super sad and lonely. We have a few questions that if you guys can help us with, we would really appreciate it!
1. We do have 4 female ducklings (1-2 weeks old) that we recently got. What's the earliest we can introduce them to our adult drake? In the meantime, do we NEED to get another adult companion for the drake or will he be fine until we can introduce the ducklings to him?
2. Are there any ways to keep our poultry safe when free-ranging? I know we can get a run but we would prefer to free range them if possible for their health/enjoyment.
3. I heard that geese can be effective deterrents to predators. Is that true? If so, how many should we keep and which sex?
4. How loud are geese during most of the day? Are they a lot louder/more vocal than chickens/ducks? Just worried that it might bother our neighbors...
5. Is it ok to house the goose(s) in the same coop as chickens or ducks?
Thanks so much!