Unprotected free ranging in very rural areas?

[Mrs. K]

I live pretty rural, 45 miles from a grocery store, more than a mile to my closest neighbor and not another neighbor for more than 3 miles. The predators of all kind have found my chickens. While they may not have eaten domesticated chicken, they are close enough to wild turkeys, and prairie chickens to not confuse any predators that I have had.

Last spring, the coyotes were very thick, and they will get them in the day time. However, my DH put some yearlings in close the the buildings, and yearling cattle are like teen agers, always on the go, just snoopy, and running around, and the coyotes moved on. I think they didn't like all that commotion. Predators move in and out of an area in my experience.

I let mine free range a lot, but I also have fort knox. When I get hit, I leave the rest in lock up for quite a while. I do have good cover, I do have a rooster, I am working on more camouflage feather pattern, but I do get hit.

Build your fort knox, do be aware, that regardless, you will more than likely loose some birds. Personally it works best for me to enjoy the flock, but to know, that birds come and go in this flock.

MRs K

 

[varidgerunner]

A lot of people think that the brown leghorn colored birds do better because of camouflage. I find that not to be true. They look too much like a wild bird, raptors are tuned in on them. I have found black chickens to have better raptor survival, they think they are crows. There are a lot of factors involved in predation, predators focus and specialize on species that they have been accustomed to. They are looking for familiar sounds and smells. Unfamiliar sounds or smells are as likely to elicit a flight response as they are a seeking response in wary predators, no matter the edibility of the source.(Wary predators exist in hunted populations, typically rural.) It is pretty well documented that predators have low acceptance of foreign prey. One has only to look at the insect world to see instances of invasive species taking over because they have no natural predators. Other insects as well as birds and mammals take a long time in some instances, to capitalize on a new species as a food source. I'm not saying that a fox won't eat a chicken, just that a fox that was raised on a steady diet of chicken is going to be way more likely to venture into an inhabited dwelling place to get chicken. Hawks that were taken by a parent to hunt for chickens are going to be way more likely to recognize a chicken as food. I have young turkeys killed by hawks right and left and hardly ever loose a chicken. True , there are some North American game birds that look similar, but in many places they are rare if not virtually non existent. I doubt that a Georgia red fox would have any idea that a sage hen was worth the effort at first glance, or wasn't in fact a fox predator, but show him a bobwhite and he would be all over it.

 

[blucoondawg]

Your welcome to your opinion but comparing invasive insects with no predators to different species of birds is a pretty loose comparison considering chickens have many predators on every continent with the exception of Antarctica and somehow I doubt there's many free range flocks there. My pointer dog was not trained on chickens she was trained on the natural game birds in my area yet from the first time she smelled a chicken out saw a chicken she locked on point, she recognizes them as prey and she is not a hungry wild predator.

 

[SJ]

Your welcome to your opinion but comparing invasive insects with no predators to different species of birds is a pretty loose comparison considering chickens have many predators on every continent with the exception of Antarctica and somehow I doubt there's many free range flocks there. My pointer dog was not trained on chickens she was trained on the natural game birds in my area yet from the first time she smelled a chicken out saw a chicken she locked on point, she recognizes them as prey and she is not a hungry wild predator.

they don't call a bird dog birdy for nothing.

 

[blucoondawg]

Ya well my point is if a dog can recognize them as prey having never seen one before a wild dog most certainly will too

 

[varidgerunner]

There are bird dogs that will point one bird but not do good on another, they have their preferences. Just like any other predator. Some predators have higher standards than others. Predators with loose standards don't survive long in an area that people are armed and there are no firearms ordinances. Domestic dogs are a poor example to use as a comparison to wild predators, they have been tweaked for centuries to have very unnatural responses and higher drives than wild counterparts. Otherwise I could throw a tennis ball out in a field and shoot coyotes all day long when they come to play with it.

 

[blucoondawg]

Your can argue the point all you like to me its a point that doesn't make much sense, chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years and have been present on this continent as long as European travelers have been here. It's pretty safe to say predators know chickens are edible and have for hundreds of years.

 

[amynrichie]

I use a combination of Fort Knox and free ranging. I don't have a high predator burden in our rural area, but they ARE around. We let the birds out to free range when we are around, and keep them locked up when we're not. We don't stand guard every minute, but are in and out of the house pretty often. In three years we have not lost a bird to predators, (knock on wood!) It really comes down to your own comfort level. If the neighbor thinks you're crazy, so be it.

 

[varidgerunner]

Your can argue the point all you like to me its a point that doesn't make much sense, chickens have been domesticated for thousands of years and have been present on this continent as long as European travelers have been here. It's pretty safe to say predators know chickens are edible and have for hundreds of years.

According to the research I have seen, the only predators that we have that could have known chickens were edible for hundreds of years is the Alligator, not a significant chicken predator. This has been studied to death and there are mountains of research. Most of it with coyotes and sheep predation. Coyotes that have never seen sheep don't immediately attack them. If other food is present, they may never attack them. If they are habituated to sheep they will attack immediately when exposed to opportunity.

I would say that there are more chickens killed by possums than any other mammalian predator, followed by raccoons, then skunks, then foxes, mink, coyotes, bobcats and then weasels. Don't have the data in front of me, but somewhere close to this. Even possums take a while to become predators. Usually they hang out for a while, eat feed and poop, move up to eggs, before finally killing a chicken. They build their comfort level and their familiarity level gradually.There are way more possums in urban areas than in rural areas.

 

[Mrs. K]

I respectfully disagree. When I began ranching on my Grandparents place, I know there had not been chickens in the area for more than 30 years. And my predators, coons, coyotes and hawks and eagles picked them off fairly regularly from pretty much the get go. There are almost no people, people are very spread out, and places are miles apart.

Maybe we just have smarter predators.

Mrs K