Chicken behavior? How about MY behavior?? Where's that forum?

[Jeffross1968]

7&8 :

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I don't think the invisible fencing works with chickens as they can fly over and such. Is there anyway you can fence off a section for day time use? I know it is not cheap to put up fencing, but for me, my babies are worth it. I just could not handle losing one of them to a predator.

worth. every. penny. Google, "electric poultry netting"​

I will have to look into that!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I always count heads whenever I go out - whether to collect eggs, close them up for the night, etc. Always counting. I also count eggs, I have a spreadsheet.

I have lost some over the years to predators and it's certainly not easy. (especially when the darn fox gets your favorite, and the hawk gets your kids chicken) But you learn how to better protect them and keep going. Just about everything eats chicken.

 

[sheila3935]

I do a head count every night and sometimes during the day if one seems missing. Last night DD had to put the chickens up cause I had to work the late shift. She said when she went into the big girl house she counted 1,2,3... 12, 12, 12 where is 13 she starts to freak then sees her on the nest. I didnt get to tell her we had one go broody cause she was already at work. We did lose a duck last year to what I dont know because DH forgot to lock them up. He makes sure he doesnt do that anymore. Pass the tequila

 

[mcjweb]

Yes, I have a magic chicken. I let my chickens free range twice a day for 2-3 hours, and they usually go to the coop when I start telling them to go home. I have lost count a couple of times and search for the runner ( my teenage girls, 12 wks) but yesterday I lost one and did the search, no luck, kept at it until full dark and locked up coop but left run open, just in case. This morning no lost one, so I figure my first predator loss and chalked it up. Went about the animal business and lo and behold a magical appearance out of thin air, poof there she was taking a dirt bath in the run..whew...

 

[janinepeters]

As far as keeping track of free rangers, one thing you can do is train them to come when called by rewarding them with a coveted treat, such as scratch grains and/or birdseed. Use a distinctive call, one that they can easily distinguish from normal human talking (I yell chick-chick-chicken in a high pitched voice) and reward them everytime they come. Start by using that call whenever you give them a treat when they are in the yard or coop. After about 2 wks, they will associate the call with food and come running whenever you call.

However, if you are that attached to your chickens, I urge you to fence them in. You will eventually have trouble with predators, and if you keep free ranging, predators will eventually learn where the easy pickin's are, and before long decimate your flock. Many people keep on killing predator after predator so their birds can free range. Some of these predators are currently common, so people who kill them are not causing ecological damage, but as more and more people raise backyard livestock and control predators lethally, wild animal populations could decline to dangerously low levels. This did happen in the age of family farms in many parts of the US. So, (as a conservation biologist), I don't think lethal control of predators for backyard livestock is sustainable.

My chickens do not free range, but have a 1/3 acre fenced in yard. I can easily get them back into their coop in late afternoon, before many predators come looking for a meal, by calling and sprinkling a treat in the coop.

 

[MareeZoCool]

hello from The Mid-Ohio Valley, ~Ohio.

One chicken NOT showing up when you're doing a roll call?

I trick my girls to come running to get treats.

They all know, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED!

IF anyone doesn't show up, BOTH my hubby & myself panic & we do an immediate search.

Chances are that MIA hen will be at the coop, gobbling treats when we return.

 

[sumi]

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[sumi]

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Oh, it's perfectly normal. You say you've only been at it 2 months. I've been keeping chickens for about 5 years and I've lost 10 chickens, 9 of them chicks, to predators and 2 to theft this year. I rapidly reached the point of searching every inch of our 7 acre property over and over and over, 'till nightfall, getting drunk, crying my eyes out and eventually passing out. Only to start looking again in the morning, hoping the missing chicken's back.

Sorry, Janinepeters, but after losing the 9th chick I set a trap and I caught the @#$! and DH killed it. It's a very common type of animal, mongoose, we got loads of them here and I don't mind them as long as they stay far away from my chickens.

 

[debber]

have you ever had to bawl out one of you chickens for being a bully? My girls were not playing nice together, and one night i stood in the door way of the coop wagging my finger at the bully and giving her a stern talking to.
~then i realized my neighbors can probably hear me and now think iv really lost my mind. Heh.

Chicken TV= sipping a cocktail on the back porch while the girls free range in the backyard ~ heaven!

 

[WilsonAcres]

I LOVE this forum