Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Pozees]

this does not always work. it will work to keep away most but when they start to target your chickens as there main food source it will not.
I had put 50lb heavy game fishing line in a net pattern 8" to a foot apart with reflective tape. He broke through and killed a hen. It did have him trapped for awhile as I saw him and was running up there to free him

he saw me and got away. He went through it like it was a hot knife through butter.
Now since then he has not been back in that yard but may only be time. I added Galvanized stucco wire to the top in certain areas to help keep him out and more reflective tape.

Wow, that is sobering.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Electric fences are one of the best ways to keep predators out of your chicken area. I have 6' fences here and foxes can climb them with no problem at all. On a quite night you can hear them yelp when they hit the hot wire.

To be clear.....everyone has predators that can/will kill your chickens if they want to. They may not being doing it now, but trust me they will at some time.

Walt

Walt do the chickens not touch it? Or is this on a outer fence?
I was thinking of putting a few 8ft lodge poles in my chicken yard with a hot wire at the top to see what they thought of that.

 

[Chris09]

This is one dedicated and hardy free range mother hen.
It's 25* out and she has her 2 day old chicks out pecking and running around. (3 out of 5 eggs hatched)
In my eyes you can't beat a good American Game, they are a true "Heritage" breed.





Chris

 

[Chris09]

Electric fences are one of the best ways to keep predators out of your chicken area. I have 6' fences here and foxes can climb them with no problem at all. On a quite night you can hear them yelp when they hit the hot wire.

To be clear.....everyone has predators that can/will kill your chickens if they want to. They may not being doing it now, but trust me they will at some time.

Walt

I agree Walt if a predator wants to they are going to kill something, I just try to deter them as much as passable.

I haven't had or seen fox around here but we do have coyot, hawks, bald eagle, coons and possom.


Chris

 

[Arielle]

I'm still back on 12/7 posts trying to catch up .. . . .

Predators-- I have sheep and deterents work best. I keep big dogs with big voices to keep the coyotes at bay. Dogs are territorial and the coyote, being a dog, respects the presence of my dogs. THey pass thru on the deer trails, and I have placed 3-4 foot fencing along those trails to keep the coyote moving along and prevent any more detours to the free ranging chickens. THe fox climbed right over, and DH chased it yelling and screaming hoping to impress upon it that this was not a place to get free food. We know we will loose a few, lost a really nice SS , and so I keep the SS confined now until fencing can go up in that area where the SS hangout.


Can I ask a question and hopefully start another discussion about which "heritage" poultry might be good choices . . . . .

It occurred to me that most breeds of animals were developed in specific regions because they thrived there. For ex, in England it is my understanding that when a farm changes hands the sheep stay with the farm, they have adapted to the region and the terrain of that farm. It occurred to me that perhaps for my area the Rhode Island reds and Narrigansett turkey may thrive best here at my farm. As these two were developed in southern New ENgland.
I do see a few holes in this idea, especially if stock is not here regionally anymore; and to get those breeds for ex. to get RIR from Bob, would they thrive here having lived and survived at Bob's farm for say 50 year.
Perhaps it would work to find good stock from the best breeders and return them to their original regions.

THe question is. . should folks try to locate breeds that were common at one time for the region their "farm" is in?

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Chris,
I have all the same predators including black bears! I call my set up Chicken Alcatraz. All coops are attached to a chainlink dog kennels.
The floor of the kennels have wire underground. The tops are wire and tin. Barbed wire around the tops of the gates where they close because coons and possums sneak in around the top of the curved gate. I live on top of a Mt. so keeping the Hawks and Eagles away is impossible. I was attacked by a hawk yesterday that tried to get one of my BA hens. I ran after it with a walking stick at the ready and it flew in my face. The bird and me are fine, and the hawk escaped needless to say. The only thing that will keep the bear away is electric fence or a shotgun with rubber bullets in the butt has worked fine for me. I rotate freerange only during the afternoon so I don't have to search for eggs and most of my predator problems have been dawn and dusk.

 

[melroseladi]

We are having major fox problems with years of nothing here preying on the fox. My neighbor heard his favorite hen screaming and he went running out, saw a fox on her. He ran in for his gun but the fox had bolted. He left the hen right where she lay and sat on his porch and waited. He said he could tell where the fox was moving by the squirrels alerting in the trees as the fox moved through the woods, it is all woods here. He heard the squirrels at his neighbors, then through the woods at the next home site, through the woods on the back of my property, down my side property, across the dirt road, and back to where the hen laid. The fox eats no more of our chickens. This was at 11 in the morning.

We have a Pit who is awesome at chasing predators and has knocked one fox off it's feet but because we are not fenced we don't let him run unless we are outside with him or if he hears the guineas alerting. We do take him all around the property marking and so far it has kept the coyotes off the property but the fox could care less.

Penny

 

[fowlman01]

Walt do the chickens not touch it? Or is this on a outer fence?
I was thinking of putting a few 8ft lodge poles in my chicken yard with a hot wire at the top to see what they thought of that.

I have two hot wires. One is at the very top of the 6' fence and one about 12" lower on the outside of the fence. There is nothing that a predator can get into and in 50 years nothing has dug into this place. They could, so I keep everything inside the fence secure as well. I never have problems with hawks, but it may be because I have over a hundred pretty aggressive geese here on the outside of the cages. A fox took on one of my Egyptian geese and came away with one eye gone. Actually that fox had very bad experiences here....it also lost a leg..but that is another story. That male fox .....even with the bad experiences here and having only three legs came back, went over the 6ft fence and was in the process of carrying a runner duck back over the fence when he met his demise. The electric fence had grounded out or he wouldn't have been here in the first place.

Walt

 

[melroseladi]

I have been thinking about how I can put up some electric fencing around my animal pens. I just know I am going to zap the heck out of myself. I am going to have to do something though to protect these heritage birds, and I think electric is the way to go. We do have hawks here but I think because the woods are so thick the chickens have lots of hiding places.

Penny

 

[Chris09]

Chris,
I have all the same predators including black bears! I call my set up Chicken Alcatraz. All coops are attached to a chainlink dog kennels.
The floor of the kennels have wire underground. The tops are wire and tin. Barbed wire around the tops of the gates where they close because coons and possums sneak in around the top of the curved gate. I live on top of a Mt. so keeping the Hawks and Eagles away is impossible. I was attacked by a hawk yesterday that tried to get one of my BA hens. I ran after it with a walking stick at the ready and it flew in my face. The bird and me are fine, and the hawk escaped needless to say. The only thing that will keep the bear away is electric fence or a shotgun with rubber bullets in the butt has worked fine for me. I rotate freerange only during the afternoon so I don't have to search for eggs and most of my predator problems have been dawn and dusk.

I think some of your Black Bears are making it this way but I can't confirm that yet. Some of my friends in Rogers Ohio (down not to far from the OH/WV line) said that they have seen them but I haven't seen any up here yet. Now there was a puma running around not to far from here but he didn't last long. It got shot on dairy farm by some dairy hands that was working late.

I agree that the two thing that are going to keep a bear away if a good gun and electric fence.


Chris