Am I a crazy man with a gun?

[perchie.girl]

Now, when I lived in Kodiak, I often had to sit on the porch with a high-power rifle in my lap when my daughter and her friend played in our front yard the summer when bears came often to visit the neighborhood. But that's a different story.

My childhood friend lived in Kodiac back when the big earth quake hit... Her dad killed a bear who was said to be only two years old.... had it made into a rug. Nose to tail it was more than six feet long.... Id be out there with a rifle too.

deb

 

[cmom]

Thx deb. I was actually looking at the netting. I'm gonna do some research about it. Maybe find something on the forums here about it. I don't mind being outside all the time. But some days after working, I just want my recliner.

I have netting covering my pens. It worked until a few days ago when a hawk got in and killed several birds. I found a gap and repaired it and checked out the rest of the netting to make sure there were no more gaps. My pens are bigger than the netting. My pens are 200 ft x 60 ft. The netting I bought was 200' x 50'. I bought some rolls of deer netting that were 150' x 14' to fill the gap. The netting is attached to the coops. I put the netting up when the trees were little.

 

[Member 482121]

My childhood friend lived in Kodiac back when the big earth quake hit... Her dad killed a bear who was said to be only two years old.... had it made into a rug. Nose to tail it was more than six feet long.... Id be out there with a rifle too.

deb

That WAS a small bear, for a Kodiak. Ten-footers are not widespread, but not rare, either. And there are some real monsters.

 

[PattyNH]

My chickens are out all day from when I get outside at 6am until 730is (now that it gets dark earlier). Since I work 8-5 I have trust my rooster to help them alert and they have tons of bushes, shrubs, hidey-holes to duck into. I don't let my goats out until I'm home from work because they can escape any fence I've built. But I do think they help with the aerial predators. When I am home I am out with them 85% of the time. I've chased off raccoons, fox, and opossum and shot some as well. Usually with my air rifle, which scares them away, but has also killed some if necessary. Hawks - we have them. They have paid way more attention to my chickens (and possibly baby goats) than I tolerate. I won't say I've shot at them. We have frequently deterred them banging on stuff with 1" thick sticks and running to where the flock is hanging out. Do I think you're being over cautious? Whose to say? You do what you gotta do!

 

[SarahGfa]

Thx deb. I was actually looking at the netting. I'm gonna do some research about it. Maybe find something on the forums here about it. I don't mind being outside all the time. But some days after working, I just want my recliner.

Put your recliner on the porch and watch them! Or get an outdoor rocking chair. When I was a kid I used to sit outside with the chickens and a bb gun as soon as I got home from school, until they went inside for the evening. There were lots of feral cats looking for a meal where I lived back then. One time I was lazy and decided to sit inside and watch from a window, and a cat attacked. By the time I ran out the door, the cat had already grabbed a chicken, hopped a fence and vanished. Predator attacks never stop being upsetting, but I think you get used to it after a few.

 

[Chickassan]

No, I keep a close eye on this flock but my approach is quite different.
I have two roosters and 0 border collies.
I let them loose with their girls in the morning and crack a window so I can hear if stuff is off out there.
I have a nice lounge chair under a tree if im needing to hang out and remove a problem.
My weapon lol is a high powered pellet gun, also have one that is just to move things along out of the yard.
Both painted the hottest of pinks because...the world and all lol.
Those roosters save me a lot of hassle, they go off, I go out.
Can't watch them constantly, but having alarms I don't have to.

Am I the only person in the world that sits outside every day with my AR-22. And my border collie, And babysits my chickens and ducks? I've seen coons, possum, hawks, even a few coyote in the woods behind my house. I see people posting here all the time about attacks and death. I couldn't handle it. From about 2:00 after work until dusk they get range time, if I dont do it I feel too guilty.

 

[Member 482121]

Our backyard is occasionally visited by feral cats. I do not kill or injure cats, but I keep a loaded .22 LR rifle by the back door. When I see one that is inspecting the layout of the chicken pens, possibly planning a stealthy nocturnal penetration, I open the door a crack, quietly, and plant a high-velocity round in the ground at no more than a foot from the little marauder. The next time it's going to be a different cat, because rarely do I see a cat return to my backyard after this treatment. Now, the live trap I use does not have such a profound effect on cats as a deterrent, I think. After catching the same cats two or three times in it I figured that for them spending the night in the trap is a very small price to pay for the bait they have consumed. Yes, they seem upset when I find them in the morning, and run like heck as soon as I open the trap door, but they return. That supersonic CRACK! and the dirt that mysteriously shoots up in the air and pelts them seem to do a job on their feline psyche. But I am not worried about cats. What worries me is that I found feral hog scat close to the pens. To a large hog the chicken netting is a joke. I don't know if one would be able to dig under the side of a chicken house (the houses sit on bare dirt) but I am sure if one wanted into the run it certainly could, leaving a big messy hole I'd have to repair before I can let the chickens out. I have bought some sturdy hog snares, but I haven't set them yet. Here in Alabama hogs are a problem. Fortunately from this year on the legislature has allowed us to hunt deer and hogs over bait. I am looking forward to nailing some sows and piglets while I am hunting deer. Boars are inedible, here, for some reason. I tried butchering one. My wife literally puked while assisting me. The stink was unbearable. And the meat was also disgusting. Coyote and buzzard food.

 

[Howard E]

Inedible male hogs? Didn't you ever read "Old Yeller"? I doubt Disney thought it appropriate to elaborate in the movie, but it was in the book.

Or......for the now curious, read up on the difference between an boar and a barrow.......a ram and a wether.......or for that matter, a rooster or a capon.

And like just about every other large animal that comes around to bother your chickens.......an electric fence is the solution. Hogs are really sensitive to them.

 

[Member 482121]

No, I never read Old Yeller. I did see the movie, but we all know that as CNN invented "fake news," Disney invented fake nature. I never liked the maudlin anthropomorphism in Disney movies. I wonder how many ignorant people were killed or mauled by wild animals because of what they had "learned" from Disney's B.S.

Anyhow, the smelly boar that I killed on my property was one of two hogs that had gone through two different electric fences before stopping under my feeder. They must have crawled under the lower wires. I didn't have a chance to shoot the other one--it took off like greased lightning and disappeared behind a knoll before I could chamber another round.

 

[Howard E]

Can you elaborate on the e-fences the hogs got through?

What animals these fences were intended for......materials used......as in exactly.....number of strands of what and how far off the ground and how far apart? What type of charger and joules rating? Voltage they tested to?

Until I find out otherwise, I maintain that an e-fence can be built to repel wild hogs. And that is even before we get into the concept of baiting it to help them find it.