Best lookout animals

[Elsveta641]

It's been a rough year for poultry at our place. We've lost ducklings, poults, chicks, hens, and 1 rooster. Due to raccoons or foxes and dogs. Possibly hawks. Most were taken in 2 massive attacks. 1 was raccoons, 1 was neighbor's Huskies.

The only pen that hasn't been affected was a sturdy hoop coup with 8 laying hens. Yesterday I fortified an old dog run with hardware cloth. So that one is secured now as well now. Free ranging is completely off the table for the time being. We had years of no bird losses. Now this.

I'm wondering is there is an animal that raises hell when there is an attack. The noise from the chickens alone isn't enough to alert me in the house. Geese, guinea hens, or maybe even a burro? Anyone had luck with using a different species as a guard animal? If so what was it? I'm open to everything except an actual livestock guardian dog. Thanks in advance for any input and help.

My breeding program is especially for people like you, who need predator protection but dont want a dog. I breed huge, quiet roosters with big spurs who tolerate eachother but despise intruders.
I'd recommend the Liege Fighter to you. I lost nearly half my flock since mine died because I'd already cut out the other adults and kept their sons in preparation for next year. He was the only adult male left. Once he died we were bombarded with coons and possums, man had he been doing his job! They are massive, dignified and very respectful of their master. He never once challenged me, not even when he was young. They are an expensive bird but worth thier weight in gold for flock protection.
If you cant or dont wanna spend the cash or time finding a Liege fighter, I've heard geese and donkeys both can be great at protecting chickens. And of course nothing beats a small cat army for small predators

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I would read up on guineas prior to getting them. I read Gardening with Guineas and decided, as a beginner, to try chickens first. They have to be raised carefully or they just fly away. And noisy. They startle at anything.

 

[Folly's place]

Electric poultry netting, or electric fencing, will keep out most ground predators, won't make noise (guineas are loud!) and won't need food, shelter, or vet care.
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

All that is true about guineas. They are so noisy that after a while you just tune them out. I did, anyway.

 

[BullChick]

I’ve seen llamas in action, and it was funny to see a coyote run like mad when the llama simply walked towards it.

 

[Gizabelle]

Kind of a novel approach, but it has worked for us.... Our coop and run are situated within our mini pigs fenced area. I doubt she would actually go after a predator (or even wake up for that matter) but her scent seems to keep the varmints away. There are wild pigs in our area so I assume any small predator that smells pig assumes the worst and just keeps on moving. It could be a coincidence that we haven't had problems since she's been around, but (knock on wood) it's working for us.
A warning though, not all pigs are good with chickens!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

My breeding program is especially for people like you, who need predator protection but dont want a dog. I breed huge, quiet roosters with big spurs who tolerate eachother but despise intruders.
I'd recommend the Liege Fighter to you. I lost nearly half my flock since mine died because I'd already cut out the other adults and kept their sons in preparation for next year. He was the only adult male left. Once he died we were bombarded with coons and possums, man had he been doing his job! They are massive, dignified and very respectful of their master. He never once challenged me, not even when he was young. They are an expensive bird but worth thier weight in gold for flock protection.
If you cant or dont wanna spend the cash or time finding a Liege fighter, I've heard geese and donkeys both can be great at protecting chickens. And of course nothing beats a small cat army for small predators

Wow, I had no idea. I'll look into them. When you say expensive how much are we talking? I've spent as much as $25 a chick on my Black Copper Marans. They were the ones that got munched last month I'm not excited about spending that much on replacements again. So I'm just going to keep my Blue, Black, Splash Marans and mixed hens group. Which are not nearly as expensive.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I would read up on guineas prior to getting them. I read Gardening with Guineas and decided, as a beginner, to try chickens first. They have to be raised carefully or they just fly away. And noisy. They startle at anything.

Thank, I'll look into that. My only experience is my neighbor's Guineas coming onto our lot. I'd agree they were loud and flighty. I assumed it because of how they were raised with minimal human contact. But maybe that's just how they are?

 

[007Sean]

My vote is for geese, not only will they sound an alarm they will go after a predator if they feel threatened by it.
Anyone walking or driving up, they will sound an alarm too! Mine were people friendly even with goslings.

 

[cmom]

Electric poultry netting, or electric fencing, will keep out most ground predators, won't make noise (guineas are loud!) and won't need food, shelter, or vet care.
Mary

I agree with Mary, I have electric wire around my coops and pens, heavy duty netting covering all of my pens and concrete under the gates to the pens. There are some places where I dug a trench along the fence and buried some wire a foot down and hog ringed it to the bottom of the fence and filled in the trench. All done because of predators in the past. If you forget to turn off the electric wire while working around it you will get a shock, but better than loosing birds. I also have several game cameras on my property and hardly a night goes by when I don't see a predator on one of the cameras, usually a coyote here. Here the predators come out mostly at night.