best guard animal for lynx?

[tielie135]

hey so on my farm i have been loosing ALOT of ducks to lynx in the last few months (20 ducks all female except 1 drake dead in 2 months due to lynx) now that the lynx are gone (4 different individuals) we have another hawk hanging around. i am fed up with lynx and with the very few ducks i have left, i want to protect them. i want some sort of animal that can stop both hawks and lynx (along with the foxes, yotes, owls and wolves who come along) so i want to know what you think. i free range them and keeping them in the fence just makes them easier to corner allowing them to kill even more. i cannot fully cover the run as it is HUGE so i think an animal that would protect them would be best. i am wondering how well geese and guineas work or would they last long? have alot of land so could get something like a donkey or goats but i dont think that would do much against hawks. i have a dog but she is a rescue that is scared of everything so i dont really want to get another dog. i wanna know what the best options are. thank you

 

[MysteryChicken]

Here's another suggestion, but you may not like it.

Pen your birds in a predator proof coop, & run?

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

There is nothing that is going to protect birds against wolves. (Except for a rifle.) Anything that you could get to supposedly "guard" them would just me even more "wolf bait". A Llama, alpaca or even a donkey would all easily be killed by a wolf. (And IMO, Llamas being great guard animals is not really that true. If it were, why would a lot of Llama breeders have livestock guard dogs to protect their llamas? And this is in places where they largest predators are coyotes and dogs.) IMO, you either need to get used to loosing animals, OR pen them up somehow. A donkey might work against a lynx. IF it is the "right" donkey. Because they aren't all created equal as far as protecting their "herd mates". Heck, the donkey might take out the birds itself.

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

just thinking, how well do livestock guardian dogs work?

They really need to grow up with birds from the time they are tiny puppies. (Before they are even old enough to go to their new homes.) Because they are STILL dogs. And WILL "get" birds" if they don't know not to. This is why GOOD LGD breeders have their puppies and their mothers out with the animals EARLY. And even with a dog, you are STILL likely to have issues with birds of prey. A dog can only do so much. And if the birds are spread out over 3/4 of an acre, a hawk can get one and be gone before a dog could even get there. Dogs don't really pay much attention to birds (high flying birds,) that I have ever seen anyway. Though just the presence of a large dog may deter a hawk. A dog (puppy) would also need to be watched closely for a while, unless you were able to find an adult that has been used with birds. All LGD's are NOT created equal! You can't just get a dog of a LGD breed and plunk it out with any animal and expect it to go well. It doesn't work like that. (I know someone that though it was that easy. The LGD's killed all of their chickens.)

 

[tielie135]

Maybe a dog?

i know that is probably the best option but i dont have the time to train up a new puppy, and i already have a dog (she is really scared of everything so is useless with guarding)

 

[tielie135]

Maybe some Malay chickens? They're good flock protectors, & hawk fighters. The roosters get upto 3ft tall, & 11-15lbs.

those fighting breeds are to thinly feathered to live up here, it drops below -40 here and we have about 4 feet of snow right now.

 

[tielie135]

Malays are winter hardy. I'm getting some from a breeder in Ohio.

i was just reading about them and i keep seeing that they are bad in the cold. here is a quote
Malays Can Fight Anything … Except the Cold
Though these birds would kick a hot summer in the face without getting their feathers ruffled, the same can not be said of their reaction to the cold. Malays just don’t have the feathering to make it through a cold winter.
not to mention they would be just to hard to get in canada (probably for this reason)

 

[tielie135]

Yes, that's what most places say about Malays, but I can post the breeder for you if you have questions.

It's just an idea.

Hopefully someone else will have other suggestions.

okay yeah, i am very hesitant getting more poultry especially expensive ones as the larger predators like to just kill as many as they can. i have gone outside and seen predators surrounded by dead birds. lynx are the problem right now but the foxes, coyotes and wolves have all done a number on my birds.

 

[tielie135]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-3-tal...-/184612744825?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292


If someone else has another good idea, that'll be nice too. I just can't think of anything else that'll help.

yeah, i dont think i could get eggs up here to canada. and -40 doesn't even include Windchill. i dont want to go through the work of getting them only to have them freeze.
and yeah i want to know how much success people have had with those

 

[tielie135]

Guineafowl are also on the list for Guard animals. They scream when there's danger, or get disturbed. I have 5 of them.

how well do they work? and do they scream at land predators too? i always hear about them with hawks but nothing on large predators