Cheapest Dogs For Protecting Chickens?

[ravenvalor]

Hello My Fine Feathered Friends,

I switched from free range to chicken tractor over a year ago and I am ready to return to free range or a combination of both. Can someone please recommend the best dogs for protecting my flock? Marimmas are popular here in central North Carolina but I find them a little too expensive to feed. Are they actually expensive to feed or do they get alot of their sustenance from the chicken droppings?

Thank you so much !!!

Jim

 

[chooks4life]

Hello My Fine Feathered Friends,

I switched from free range to chicken tractor over a year ago and I am ready to return to free range or a combination of both. Can someone please recommend the best dogs for protecting my flock?

Maremmas and Anatolians are generally good if you get quality stock from proven bloodlines, but some use Great Pyrenees and swear by them too.

As long as you get a good dog from someone who has an established record of success, and as long as you know what training etc needs doing on your end, it should be fit for purpose.

Marimmas are popular here in central North Carolina but I find them a little too expensive to feed.

What's your idea of 'expensive to feed'? As in, what sort of monthly feed budget are you considering too expensive?

Are they actually expensive to feed or do they get alot of their sustenance from the chicken droppings?

No matter how good a guard dog is, if you want to scrimp on its diet to the point of it ending up searching for its own sustenance, chances are it will end up eating eggs, chicks, or whatever else it can find. A hungry guard dog isn't the best guard.

You get what you pay for, and the dog's health is no exception; if you want the best from it, you'll need to provide it with a good diet. It's cheap enough to buy decent dog biscuits in bulk, but it would get expensive if you want to buy tiny bags or tins only.

If you get a cheap dog from an unproven breeder, chances are you'll lose birds to it; likewise if you want to go too cheap on its feed, you'll either lose it, or lose animals to it, or end up paying for large vet bills to recover its health.

Best wishes.

 

[ravenvalor]

Thank you for the helpful advice chooks4life. I am trying to make an expense list of free ranging chickens. If I have 2 - dogs to watch a flock of chickens there has to be a point where the expense of feeding the dogs plus the chickens is equal to or greater than the income and food received from the chickens. Maybe if I have a couple of pigs in the lot with the dogs and the chickens I may strike some sort of an expense equilibrium where I am not digging myself a financial grave. I agree that dogs need quality food. Right now we are paying $2/LB for Nutro-Ultra dog food.

 

[Suzie]

You need to bear in mind that Veterinarian fees can be expensive...the larger the dog...the more expensive for the de-wormer and you should also have the dog(s) annually vaccinated...

 

[MeepBeep]

If you are looking to turn a profit and pay for the chicken food as well as care and food for 2 dogs you are probably looking at the reality of needing 100s of birds and a steady market for their eggs and meat...

Just the simple math, a 'larger' active dog will eat about a 1lb of decent food a day, you want 2 dogs that means 2lbs of food a day... You say you are paying $2/lb so to feed two dogs you are looking at about $4 a day or $120 a month... Consider vet bills, and vaccinations as well as incidentals and I would budget closer to $150 a month just to be safe...

Now if you want to recoup that $150 a month just to feed the dogs, lets say at $3 dozen for eggs you will need to sell about 50 dozen a month or about 12 dozen a week... To get that many eggs you will need about 200 laying chickens... Now that is just to pay for the dog food, you now need to factor in what the chickens cost to feed, even free ranging they are likely going to need supplemental food... See where this is heading?

Now of course I was playing it more on the safe side, you can pinch pennies and what not but you are really setting yourself up for disaster if you do...

My advice is if you don't have the financial means to pay and care for the dogs with an outside income you probably should not be getting a dog at this time...

 

[centrarchid]

If you are looking to turn a profit and pay for the chicken food as well as care and food for 2 dogs you are probably looking at the reality of needing 100s of birds and a steady market for their eggs and meat...

Just the simple math, a 'larger' active dog will eat about a 1lb of decent food a day, you want 2 dogs that means 2lbs of food a day... You say you are paying $2/lb so to feed two dogs you are looking at about $4 a day or $120 a month... Consider vet bills, and vaccinations as well as incidentals and I would budget closer to $150 a month just to be safe...

Now if you want to recoup that $150 a month just to feed the dogs, lets say at $3 dozen for eggs you will need to sell about 50 dozen a month or about 12 dozen a week... To get that many eggs you will need about 200 laying chickens... Now that is just to pay for the dog food, you now need to factor in what the chickens cost to feed, even free ranging they are likely going to need supplemental food... See where this is heading?

Now of course I was playing it more on the safe side, you can pinch pennies and what not but you are really setting yourself up for disaster if you do...

My advice is if you don't have the financial means to pay and care for the dogs with an outside income you probably should not be getting a dog at this time...

This very sound advice. I use two dogs not of the LGD type for guarding poultry. Fencing also needs to be taken into consideration and that might greatly reduce the need for large sized dogs. Ignore the high breeding bunk; look into a mix that has at least one parent with guarding tendencies. Dog will need to guard location, not the birds directly. You can train if so inclined to get dogs to drive off predators indicated by chickens.

I have seen some Blue Healer crossed with typical LGD's that are more than up to task you would put on it.

I run a good number of birds and have the opinion you need considerably more than 200 birds per dog to make economic sense. If you operate like a barnyard where other animals launder nutrients for a smaller flock not directly fed then you are bringing down the operating cost some.

 

[TLWR]

Can you locate a more affordable feed?
I feed Diamond Beef and Rice and we get ours for $25 for a 40 pound bag.

 

[ravenvalor]

Superbly to the point, thanks.

 

[ravenvalor]

This very sound advice. I use two dogs not of the LGD type for guarding poultry. Fencing also needs to be taken into consideration and that might greatly reduce the need for large sized dogs. Ignore the high breeding bunk; look into a mix that has at least one parent with guarding tendencies. Dog will need to guard location, not the birds directly. You can train if so inclined to get dogs to drive off predators indicated by chickens.

I have seen some Blue Healer crossed with typical LGD's that are more than up to task you would put on it.

I run a good number of birds and have the opinion you need considerably more than 200 birds per dog to make economic sense. If you operate like a barnyard where other animals launder nutrients for a smaller flock not directly fed then you are bringing down the operating cost some.

Great info, do you mind telling me what LGD means? Also, please explain 'launder nutrients'?
Thanks,
Jim

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Great info, do you mind telling me what LGD means? Also, please explain 'launder nutrients'?
Thanks,
Jim

LGD is Livestock Guardian Dog -- and "laundering nutrients" seems to refer to the flock picking feed from the feces of other barnyard animals - the undigested grains passed through horses, cows, etc. The economic benefit being that the feed that would be wasted by those larger animals is consumed by your flock and the overall waste is cut, if not all out eliminated (depending on the digestibility of those feeds for poultry being passed through the larger animals)