Can coyotes catch a small, flighty breed such as brown Leghorn?

[UrbanEnthusiast]

This is why I like mixed breed rescue dogs. Those breed-specific instincts are less intense. Plus you can get a much better idea of their personality when they're older than when they're just weaned. However, I would not be so quick to blame your dogs' misbehavior on breed.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Leghorn and similar alert, light and decent fliers will easily get away from coyote if not penned in and with some cover. Heck just last month I was having a cigarette outside spacing out on a flock of turkeys scratching on the wooded hillside 80 yards behind the house. Out of the blue a lone coyote ran through the flock, made a J turn to make another run through but by then they all had flown up into the trees. So a flock of thirty wild turkeys with sole intent on scratching managed to see and avoid coyote at full run then flew to limbs out of harms way until it left. All this took place in two seconds.

 

[MeepBeep]

I would not be so quick to blame your dogs' misbehavior on breed.

Built in hard wired instincts in breeds are not 'misbehaviors' they are traits of specific breeds, and is why those breeds were developed and used for their specific purposes... To suggest that dogs are universal in their behaviors, and if one doesn't do this or that they are misbehaving is just silly...

 

[TalkALittle]

UrbanEnthusiast you won't need a dog to sniff out nests if you confine your birds to the coop when they start to lay. They are creatures of habit so just limit their environment to the coop and a small (temporary) run until they are in the habit of using the nest boxes. Once the habit is established even when given the option to free range they will come back and lay in the coop.

 

[wamtazlady]

A dog will take time to get trained. Have you ever considered electric poultry netting? I use it and have enclosed an area of about 1,000 square feet for free ranging. I have never lost a chicken that stayed inside the netting. Lost one young pullet that insisted she had to fly out. Mr. Fox got her one morning. The other young escapee pullets learned their lesson and stay inside the netting now. The netting gives the chickens a safe place to semi free range when a known predator is in the area. When I feel it's safe they have several acres to wander around.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

A dog will take time to get trained. Have you ever considered electric poultry netting? I use it and have enclosed an area of about 1,000 square feet for free ranging. I have never lost a chicken that stayed inside the netting. Lost one young pullet that insisted she had to fly out. Mr. Fox got her one morning. The other young escapee pullets learned their lesson and stay inside the netting now. The netting gives the chickens a safe place to semi free range when a known predator is in the area. When I feel it's safe they have several acres to wander around.

I'm going to start out with a small run. They will have increased run space as our budget and schedule allow. I do want them to spend most of their days free ranging.

 

[scooter147]

Honestly if you free range without the watchful eye of guard dog or yourself you will be out of the chicken business very quickly.

If you have coyotes as you describe they will hunt and catch every last chicken you have.

I had a friend that tried "free ranging" with the electric netting and movable coop. The coyotes simply jumped it, grabbed a hen and jumped back over with hen in mouth. At first he noticed feathers, then realized his flock was getting smaller (he had around 50 hens to start). He set up a video camera and the coyote returned every day for his free dinner. After 5 days he moved his remaining birds back to his stationary coop with covered run.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

So I have raised chickens in the city before, but I just got my first batch of chicks since moving to the country. I cannot afford a bunch of fencing, nor do I see the point in keeping chickens in a run all day. If I wanted eggs from confined hens, I could just go to a store. Of course, we have a secure coop for them to roost at night, and adequate run space for them if there's a local outbreak or terrible weather. I will provide feed, but I want my birds to live off the land for the most part. Yet coyotes pass through here frequently, even during the day. Bald eagles are around too. I even worry about our cat. She's a pretty good hunter. Sadly I cannot have a rooster per on-site landlady's request. So I did my research, and I figured I wanted alert, lightweight, flighty breeds of non-white plumage that I thought would have the best chance of free ranging successfully, and I also wanted a good feed to egg ratio. I went with 4 brown Leghorn, 2 Ancona, 1 blue Hamburg, and 1 EE. Supposedly they are all females (I hope). Our property is five acres, mostly wooded, with a lot of brush, and some clearing. There are plenty of places for cover. I can't afford to keep a large flock (8 is the max for now), so if I get any losses, I was thinking of trying to find a couple Egyptian Fayoumis hens or some kind of game breed, something that will make a racket whenever predators are near, like a substitute rooster.

Any tips from experienced free-rangers? Does my scenario seem sustainable? I don't mind replenishing birds occasionally, but I don't have the time or money to be raising chicks constantly. How do you find their eggs, especially with the "wilder" type breeds? Do y'all think I could possibly train a dog to perform such a task? We're getting a dog pretty soon, probably before we get any eggs, some type of herding breed, maybe. It will be a rescue. I'm pretty decent at training rescue dogs, though I haven't done any search stuff before.

The operative term here is "FLIGHTY" which brings to mind the idea that the leghorn family of chickens are comfortable taking to the wing. But it is a long road that don't turn in the coyotes' favor every once and a while or that it is the rare ambush that never succeeds. Leghorn style chickens in a true free range environment should escape more often than not but that means that the more hens that you own increases the total number of eyes and ears on the lookout for coyote or golden eagle trouble and also more birds increases the chances that the alarm will be raised in time for your hens to seek safety in a tall tree or on the roof of your home. The only predator protection that the heavy so called dual purpose or pet chicken breeds provides is that they may give the coyote a hernia while it is carrying your chickens away. You would be more advised to have a Brown Leghorn rooster or two so that you can use an incubator to replace your loses in a timely manner or as needed. So we have come full circle back to flighty. Hope this helps you decide.

PS: Remember that the more foraging that you force your chickens to do by making them to live off the land, meaning you force them to range far and wide or in dangerous places will result in more of your chickens being converted into coyote scat.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I'm going to start out with a small run. They will have increased run space as our budget and schedule allow. I do want them to spend most of their days free ranging.

This is not a criticism but a reminder that in a free range environment that a single young, healthy, adult chicken will freely range over 25 acres, or in other words about 11,000,000 square feet if that chicken has free access to that much ground.

 

[varidgerunner]

Coyotes would be way less of a problem than hawks, and if you have eagles, they might discourage the hawks from hanging around. Shut your coop at night, don't let them out of the coop or at least a fenced run until later in the morning and you will have little coyote problems with leghorn type chickens. Silkies, Polish, big fat dumb breeds, turned out early in the edge of the woods, yes, you might have a problem. Leave the coop open at night, and yes, coyotes might learn where you keep the food, but it will likely be from cleaning up Mr. 'Coon's leftovers.