Chickens in nature

[Appalachickens]

Nice camouflage!

Looks like your girls are more adventurous than my rooster flock!

My boys used to roam around further. Then one summer, I lost a couple of birds - the ones that did not go to the coop at night (I was taking care of 2 flocks because other family members were on holidays). There were puffs of feathers where they were taken. I am sure my roosters have seen those feathers too.

Nowadays, my roosters are a lot more timid, always stay in the middle paddock where our cabin and their coop is, regularly coming to the door of our cabin to check upon us (possibly for re-assurance, lol).

Local predators (eagle, fox, wild dogs etc) are all relatively small, and have cunning ways of hiding from people and take chickens when no one is watching.

I read wild dogs, looked at your location, and immediately heard Elaine on Seinfeld saying, “ The dingo ate my baby.”

 

[Perris]

My question - how high up should it be?

@centrarchid might be able to help with that; he used to set nestboxes out on his property (maybe still does, I don't know, but I do remember reading some very interesting posts of his on this years ago).

 

[No Coop No Problem]

My question - how high up should it be?

The lowest nesting boxes here are 3 feet off the ground, and my RIR use them without any difficulty. The highest I've ever placed boxes is 6 feet but in all instances I make sure there are convenient branches for them to fly and reach the boxes with