Basic Ways to Protect Your Farm Fowl

[sandraeric]

When you live on a farm, homestead property in the suburbs or keep chickens in a backyard coop in the city, you have to take steps to keep your chickens safe from predators that exist in all places. Raccoons, foxes, coyotes, snakes, bobcats, and other types of predators will find your chickens, no matter where you live. It’s important that you take the proper steps to keep them safe.

1. Ensure that your coop is structurally secure. Doors should be lockable, fencing should be of a wire that is not easily broken, measures should be taken to ensure that digging under and into the coop isn’t possible, and your chickens should be put in at night.
   
   
2. Have a guardian animal that will keep predators away. This can include dogs, such as the Great Pyrenees, which is bred to be a flock guardian and will deter animal predators but may not deter snakes. Some guardian dogs will attack a snake in their territory, however.
   
   
3. For snakes, you should use mesh netting that will cause the snake to become hopelessly tangled and die. Some sprays exist, such as Snake Away that can be used to deter snakes but these need to be reapplied frequently and after rains.
   
   
4. For parasites, you should spread diatomaceous earth which will kill mites, fleas, and other types of parasites. Chickens will eat ticks, grasshoppers and other types of insects. They are often beset with mites, however. Give them a place to ‘dust themselves’ which helps to keep parasitic mites at bay.
   
   
5. Consider using electrified fencing for predators such as fox, coyotes, or raccoons which are not easily deterred. They will dig and claw to break into your hen house. Electrifying a fence will ensure that they never get close enough to even try to break into the coop.
   
   
6. Donkeys and mules will keep coyotes away. They kick and use their teeth and are quite ferocious against these predators. They will also bray loudly, sounding the alarm to you that there is a problem in the pasture.
   
   
7. Keep a rifle with a scope and use it when you need to. Many farmers find the need to take out a coyote or a fox from time to time. While it is the last thing most of us what to do, it is an unfortunate choice that must be made sometimes.
   
   
8. Live-trap a big cat. Some people will bait a trap and catch a bobcat so that it can be either humanely dispatched or relocated by wildlife officers. Bobcats are very common and even though you’ve not seen one doesn’t mean that there aren’t several roaming the area around your home. They are very common.

** One additional note on keeping donkeys or miles to act as guardians - they need to be kept in pairs. Otherwise, they get very lonely and it is not fair to keep them as solitary creatures. They are intelligent and make humorous additions to your farm and you’ll get years of laughter from a burrow.

 

[ShannonR]

Good article, however there is a little bit of misinformation regarding use of DE for parasites and numbers 5-8 (definitely 6-8) apply only to those who live outside of towns and hold no relevance to more urban chicken keepers.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Another good tip is to invest in a game camera or two. We have a Wildgame Innovations picked up on sale from Walmart (also got camera card on sale). Runs on four AA batteries- use name brand batteries because the dollar store ones lose power really quick.

 

[cmom]

We are rural on a dead end road. I use both welded wire and chicken wire. I have electric wire around my coops and pens, netting covering all of the pens, concrete under the pens gates, all because of predators in the past. In some places I dug a trench a foot deep along the fence and buried wire in it and attached the wire to the bottom of the fencing with hog rings. I had a severe infestation of mites last year I tried just about everything including DE. The DE didn't work the birds looked terrible and still had mites so I had to try something else. I decided to try permethrin. It worked after a few weekly treatments and I got rid of the mites and the birds are beautiful again. I do have electric wire around my coops and pens and the predators know it's there. I have some live traps. I never caught a coyote or bobcat in a live trap but have caught fox, possum, coon and skunks. I baited them for a few days and let them take the bait then set the traps. I have several cameras around on my property and most nights when the predators roam here I see a predator most nights on one of my cameras. Here we have mostly coyotes. Here are a few pictures.

 

[SueT]

Donkeys and mules will keep coyotes away.

I had 2 donkeys, one a mammoth and one standard size. (not minis). They did chase dogs away. But one morning there was a coyote in their pasture, and they both quickly got behind me, as in looking to me for protection. They were not going to go after that coyote.

For parasites, you should spread diatomaceous earth which will kill mites, fleas, and other types of parasites

It doesn't really work that well. There are countless threads on BYC documenting the failure of DE to rid their birds of mites. Ditto here. I had to get Permethrin. Mites gone. Fleas in house, DE also failed to help.

 

[woodmort]

The reality of it:m No matter what you do, eventually something will find a flaw or loophole and you'll lose a bird or few. Just pick yourself up, repair the mistake and go on. It happens.

 

[cmom]

I realize this is not a predator but I had a big problem with flies in the coops. I used the permethrin to get rid of the mites and it was also an added bonus and got rid of the flies and there is no egg withdrawal period. When I would clean out the poop pits under the coops the flies were terrible but the permethrin pretty much eliminated them. After doing some research I learned some companies use it in cattle ear tags.