Do you believe in defending you and yours?

[Kim95037]

I'm in TX. We shoot first, figure out who or what it is later.

Thats the way it should be. Here in California the criminals have more rights than the victims.

 

[The Lazy L]

I do what ever is necessary. SSS

I had to post a new sign.

Please No More Trespassing
Back yard is full

 

[PartyOnARoost]

I will kick anyone's or anythings greasy ***** if they enter my property or lay a finger on my chickens. Naf said.

 

[cbenson6820]

If it breathes, i don't own it, and its on my land it risks being shot. I have a .22 at the ready for predators and a mossberg in my room ready for intruders. Protected or not i'd shoot a hawk out of the sky for eating my chickens.

 

[chickortreat]

 

[Matilda hen]

pine martins are protected over here , but as soon as 1 of them killed 2 of my fave hens , i went M A D!! i honestly do not care how protected they are , there was only one of each specific hen , and that was the line for me! put it that way

i will protect my chickens at all costs , no matter what! if i have to pay a fine for protecting who i love then give me the fine , ill happily pay it!

 

[AlbionWood]

Lot of emotional responses here. With regards to protecting my chickens - I tend to think about what will work in the longer term. If I shoot a hawk today, and another one comes along tomorrow (which is going to happen, as migration season goes into full swing) - what have I accomplished for my chickens? Not much. They aren't any safer than before I shot the hawk, so the effort was wasted. Better to invest my time into PROTECTION - puting up defences to keep the raptors away from the flock. Might not work 100%, but nothing does, including SSS.

Sometimes it's the other way around. I get a problem skunk once in a while, finds a place where I can't get the electric wire close enough to the ground (we have really small skunks), and I have to trap it. (The rest of them are welcome to come eat the snails, slugs, and yellowjackets.) In other situations people have the same situation with a raccoon - you get one that just figures you out, and the only thing you can do is eliminate the individual. Bears and mountain lions have large territories, so if you take one out you buy quite a bit of time before another will move in.

But in general, eliminating individual predators doesn't make sense for me, because there is a practically endless supply of them; if that was my primary strategy I'd be shooting and shoveling all the time, and losing chickens just as fast. I invest most of my effort into deterrence, which in the long run takes less effort and is much more effective.

Defending home and family against human intruders is another matter entirely - in that case the problem is definitely with the individual, and so the solution lies there as well. SSS is a high-risk strategy though!

 

[Matilda hen]

albion wood , sometimes what other choice do we have? i know that a fox once killed (by my dog thankgod!!) came back every day or 2! slowely picking at our flock at all hours of the day! we cant watch them 24/7 but as soon as i was out of sight , it would strike! if my rooster wasnt so brave and intelligent , it would have killed the whole flock , and by killing that one fox , we had no more problems for months , and in that we gained a lot so did my chickens! i mean it was the exact same deal with the pine martin , only that killed our neighbours WHOLE flock , and didnt eat mine or hers , just bit the heads of for fun! and building an enclosure was not an option

 

[chickortreat]

.

 

[Matilda hen]

AGREED^^^^^^^