Yep...mine seem to be bottomless too, especially the young birds.I'd say that's it....never met a chicken that didn't get excited over food. My rooster pen ate double rations today, one right after the other and was just as excited to get the second batch as the first one...and then they hunted like starving hogs through the new bedding for the BOSS I threw in there. I think they would eat one another given half the chance...
In your case, that makes good sense...As for me, the dogs take good care of anything on the ground during the day and will go after anything that might swoop down to grab one, It would take a pretty big airborne predator to pick up one of my adult fowls and the odds are in my favor because there aren't too many eagles around here and for some reason, there seem to be far fewer hawks...of any kind nor have there been for many years.
We have hawks here, and they sometimes hunt in pairs. My birds scurry for cover if my Great Pyr or the rooster alerts. Fortunately have had no casualties. The Pyr enforces a "no fly" zone, looking up and barking at hawks or crows that fly over.....but not geese...go figureIn your case, that makes good sense...As for me, the dogs take good care of anything on the ground during the day and will go after anything that might swoop down to grab one, It would take a pretty big airborne predator to pick up one of my adult fowls and the odds are in my favor because there aren't too many eagles around here and for some reason, there seem to be far fewer hawks...of any kind nor have there been for many years.
When I was just a young boy, perhaps 13 or 14, I remember seeing lots of hawks around here but as each year passed, there seemed to be fewer and fewer spotted. When I went away to college and returned, they seemed to have been stricken with some kind of nefarious disease and just never did seem to regain any population. Perhaps poisoned rats were taken by them and that might have taken the toll.We have hawks here, and they sometimes hunt in pairs. My birds scurry for cover if my Great Pyr or the rooster alerts. Fortunately have had no casualties. The Pyr enforces a "no fly" zone, looking up and barking at hawks or crows that fly over.....but not geese...go figure
Bald eagles have recently been introduced a few miles away near a large deep TVA lake near here.
I'd say that's it....never met a chicken that didn't get excited over food. My rooster pen ate double rations today, one right after the other and was just as excited to get the second batch as the first one...and then they hunted like starving hogs through the new bedding for the BOSS I threw in there. I think they would eat one another given half the chance...
So far, mine don't seem to really pay a lot of attention to my Roo when he sounds the alarm. They just stand there. No running for cover. Nothing...Is that something they will start to learn to do? (without there being a huge problem that makes them get the point of his alarm) I mean THAT is why I have a Rooster! (and I want some chicks too) Duh girls..He's not just eye candy!We have hawks here, and they sometimes hunt in pairs. My birds scurry for cover if my Great Pyr or the rooster alerts. Fortunately have had no casualties. The Pyr enforces a "no fly" zone, looking up and barking at hawks or crows that fly over.....but not geese...go figure
Bald eagles have recently been introduced a few miles away near a large deep TVA lake near here.
That sounds nice..I would love to have 3 or more acres for my girls and maybe a few other things lol ( I am on a much smaller plot...decent room to roam but nothing near what I would like)My dog does the no fly zone too....but he's only one old dog and these birds range all over 3 acres of meadow surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland. You might say we have a large percentage of preds and one lonely dog. I like to prepare the birds for anything so if they start getting too comfy around my feet I'll startle them or reach out and try to touch one...they always escape well. I call it forage training.Sort of a free range boot camp that never ends...
If I need to handle them for some reason I just do it at night when they can be picked up easily off the roost and examined under a good light.
The last place I free ranged we had bald eagles aplenty, more species of hawk than I had ever seen, osprey, 'yotes, bear, fox, bobcat and puma. Here we have a couple of different kinds of hawk, no eagles and no puma, but plenty of 'yotes, foxes, bobcat and bear.
