Does a larger flock become a bigger target for predators or not?

[Freindly farmer]

Hello all!

I was curious if my large flock of 18 pekin ducks, 2 ruens, and 80 chickens(including a good rooster) would be at more danger or less given its size. My thoughts were that the flock makes so much noise, and is in the middle of an open field mostly.... that it may just be not inconspicuous enough for most predation. I know it may all depend on the desperation of the attacker and skunks i know are not spooked by much for instance. I was just curious on anyone's thoughts... My defense is minimal currently due to winter disallowing me to keep the electric poultry netting up, but summer months i would mostly have them surrounded in the stuff. Currently they are held up in a 100x14 greenhouse in the middle of a three acre feild. Let me know what yall think...

-thanks!

 

[The Moonshiner]

Yes the bigger the flock the more attention they bring on themselves.
More visual and more noise. Also more targets means better chance of snaggin one.
You know if you're hungry it might not be hard to drive by a McDonald's but a bit harder to drive by a McDonald's, burger king, hardees, pizza hut, sonic, KFC and subway.
More temptation.

 

[Mraya]

If I might butt in would this be the same for the color of the flock too?
ie: Small flock white birds

 

[Freindly farmer]

We have quite a mix of breeds and colors. My thoughts were mostly of the pekin ducks. They are the most annoying alarms ever. They see or hear anything and all of them are just honk quaking away like crazy. I have heard that geese are great guard dogs due to a similar response. Also i have lots of crows around which are loud and supposedly will deter hawks a bit due to their positions being called out continuously. I plan to have a couple pigs possibly too which i heard will keep deer away. But yeah, i do get the fast food analogy.

 

[centrarchid]

You have enough birds to justify fencing and dog(s) to protect free-range birds.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... I was curious if my large flock of ...80 chickens ...would be at more danger or less given its size. My thoughts were that the flock makes so much noise, and is in the middle of an open field mostly.... that it may just be not inconspicuous enough for most predation.... Let me know what yall think...

Honestly a flock of big, clumsy, fat, inattentive, chickens will draw more predation pressure simply because the odds of a predator scoring one of these big, clumsy, fat, inattentive, duel-purpose chickens is much higher than the odds of the same predator successfully killing an active vigilant chicken. On the other hand I have had 4 different American Game hens spend up to 24 months on their lonesome without a human protector with in gun shot range without any of these Robert Caruso hens becoming varmint scat. But these chickens were all of the Game variety and to a hen they were not in the least bit interested in being petted, stroked, cuddled, or in anyway interacting with humans. One of these hens became as wild as a pheasant before she vanished at 5 or 6 years old. All the others were eventually recaptured.

I guess what I am trying to say is that choosing the wrong flavor of chicken is like throwing bloody chum into the water while fishing for sharks. Chum is bloody dead fish and a chunk of chum has zero chance of evading capture which is what chumming is all about.