Hi All, I'm in Sarasota, but I haven't posted in quite some time. Although I do like to catch up with all that is going on with this thread.
Food for thought. I recently attended a "Chickens 101" class offered by the FSU extension program. I am new to chickens as well, and I thought it might provide some information that I hadn't learned in my extensive 11 months of raising chickens from egg to laying.I have learned so much from this website and the posters, that I knew most of what was being taught! Thank you to all the knowledgeable posters! One thing that I did learn, and I spoke with the speaker after the class as well, was about predation. I am in a community of 5+ acre lots and we have lots of wildlife here. Panthers, bobcats, coyote, fox, raccoons, possums, eagles, owls, hawks, snakes and gators! And I am sure I missed a critter or two in my list. Aside from having a secure coop, which is our obligation to the chickens, to keep them safe, he said most predators are territorial. If you remove one, another will come and take its place and claim that territory as their own. There are commercial products (Night eyes for one) that simulate the eyes of a predator and should send the current one packing. A simpler and cheaper technique he offered was to mount a rat trap about a foot off the ground from the area you want the predator to keep away from, set it with peanut butter and wait. It will not trap a larger predator, but should give them a good "bite" to the nose and send them packing. He says he has no issues with predators around his chickens using this method. I have not used this myself, I built fort knox for my chickens (because I didn't know you should have the sides open in Florida, I am from New England), and so far, last summer didn't kill them and neither have any predators. Keeping my fingers crossed the trend will continue. I am way too soft to kill something, even if it was eating my chickens. I would try to see where the breach was and reinforce it. I can't even process my extra roosters.
But that is just me. Please post if you have tried this method before, or would like to try it and post your results. Good luck!
another thing you can do is go to the local hair salon or barber shop and tell them you need a bag of hair most of them will gladly give it to you and spread it around the property line it will deter alot of predators from coming around
