Free Range predators?

[five t guineas]

A lot of good advice! We lock everyone up every night in predator proof housing; small square netting behind cattle panel wire or chain link and metal about a foot below ground in a concrete trench.
I don't think anyone has mentioned not letting your birds out too early in the morning. Ours don't come out until about 10:00. A lot of predation occurs in the early morning hours.
We do have dogs and roosters, but I have to chase off the occasional hawk from time to time; we have lost a couple of birds to them over the years. One time I happened to be in the barn when a dirty hawk swooped under the barn and was attacking my silky hen. Luckily I was close enough to scare him off. I agree with the man who said that the predators learn who you are and what you are about. Presence is a great deterant. Good luck to you and your birds

 

[speckledhen]

Chicken Caravan 130 is $9,900 including GST. Wow!
$8527 usd

http://chickencaravan.com/130-2/

Yeah, WAY overpriced! I think he's just trying to copy it, though, not buy that one, right?

 

[duluthralphie]

I put a lot of faith in my dogs. BUT they can not always be with the chickens.

I put more faith in traps and a 12 gauge.

Flying predators are a pain in the rear. I have a terrible eagle problem, and was forced to make a covered run. I always have provided a lot of "things" for them to take cover under, but losses will happen.

That coop you showed the link of to me as many major problems. It might look good but it appears to be too shut up too tight, not enough ventilation. And if that hold 130 chickens my coop holds 20,000.

My coop is 8 x 12 and with 10 foot ceilings and roosts up to 9 ft. I have it over crowded for winter with 35 birds. if I did not have a covered run connected to it I would not try to have that many chickens in it.

I was told to dangle cd's on fishing line to try and keep hawks away. They did not work for me.

Raptors being protected in the USA make them a pain in the rear..

Good luck.

 

[wwarren8200]

The doors always stay open unless moving. It ventilates through the bottom. I'm not buying one. Just copycatting haha

 

[wwarren8200]

A lot of good advice! We lock everyone up every night in predator proof housing; small square netting behind cattle panel wire or chain link and metal about a foot below ground in a concrete trench.
I don't think anyone has mentioned not letting your birds out too early in the morning. Ours don't come out until about 10:00. A lot of predation occurs in the early morning hours.
We do have dogs and roosters, but I have to chase off the occasional hawk from time to time; we have lost a couple of birds to them over the years. One time I happened to be in the barn when a dirty hawk swooped under the barn and was attacking my silky hen. Luckily I was close enough to scare him off. I agree with the man who said that the predators learn who you are and what you are about. Presence is a great deterant. Good luck to you and your birds

Thank you!

 

[speckledhen]

I put a lot of faith in my dogs. BUT they can not always be with the chickens.

I put more faith in traps and a 12 gauge.

Flying predators are a pain in the rear. I have a terrible eagle problem, and was forced to make a covered run. I always have provided a lot of "things" for them to take cover under, but losses will happen.

That coop you showed the link of to me as many major problems. It might look good but it appears to be too shut up too tight, not enough ventilation. And if that hold 130 chickens my coop holds 20,000.

My coop is 8 x 12 and with 10 foot ceilings and roosts up to 9 ft. I have it over crowded for winter with 35 birds. if I did not have a covered run connected to it I would not try to have that many chickens in it.

I was told to dangle cd's on fishing line to try and keep hawks away. They did not work for me.

Raptors being protected in the USA make them a pain in the rear..

Good luck.

Those CD's only work in a pen that is small enough to be crisscrossed so they cannot make a dive into the pen. They don't actually repel hawks because a hawk only sees the prey, not the surroundings, which is why he'll take a chicken right at your feet. The CD's worked fine in my pens for years, but I have one pen that is about 50' by 20' and that is way too large to put string across (I never used fishing line, too hard to handle, only neon mason's line, which is so much easier to deal with).

I find most commercial coops way overestimate the number of birds they hold, including all the Amish coops. I have an 8x8 with only 6 birds in it, used to hold as many as 10. I have an 8x12 that has only 9 birds, used to hold 13. When those two coops were not divided up and functioned as one 8x20 space, it held as much as 40-something birds, too many to keep really clean, by my standards.

I have an 8x4 holding 9 little bantams, another 8x8 holding 8 elderly hens and 3 "teens", 2 of whom I am trying to rehome, plus a couple other coops that hold way less than they could, but no one is at all crowded even when they must be locked inside for days. And they all have lots of ventilation up high, plus all but one, the 8x4, has functional windows (that small coop has very generous ventilation on two sides above fixed windows, plus a turtle vent in the roof)


Edited for too fast typing.

 

[matt44644]

http://www.plamondon.com/sare.pdf
decent free range article

 

[duluthralphie]

Those CD's only work in a pen that is small enough to be crisscrossed so they cannot make a dive into the pen. They don't actually repel hawks because a hawk only sees the prey, not the surroundings, which is why he'll take a chicken right at your feet. The CD's worked fine in my pens for years, but I have one pen that is about 50' by 20' and that is way too large to put string across (I never used fishing line, to hard to handle, only neon mason's line, which is so much easier to deal with).

I find most commercial coops way overestimate the number of birds they hold, including all the Amish coops. I have an 8x8 with only 6 birds in it, used to hold as many as 10. I have an 8x12 that has only 9 birds, used to hold 13. When those two coops were not divided up and functioned as one 8x20 space, it held as much as 40-something birds, too many to keep really clean, by my standards.

I have an 8x4 holding 9 little bantams, another 8x8 holding 8 elderly hens and 3 "teens", 2 of whom I am trying to rehome, plus a couple other coops that hold way less than they could, but no one is at all crowded even when they must be locked inside for days. And they all have lots of ventilation up high, plus all but one, the 8x4, has functional windows (that small coop has very generous ventilation on two sides above fixed windows, plus a turtle vent in the roof)

Thanks for that,. I thought I had messed up with the CDs. I have huge pens and mainly free range. I break my flock up in the summer, if it was not for all the sub-zero temps here I would not have all those birds in one coop. But with the cold temps they huddle on the roosts and seem to do okay.

I am buying up game bird netting now. I will be changing my pens to sizes I can cover with the netting next spring. I will still FR but. I want to control mating and have a place for birds to be safe outdoors when the dang young eagles start feeding themselves.

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks for that,. I thought I had messed up with the CDs. I have huge pens and mainly free range. I break my flock up in the summer, if it was not for all the sub-zero temps here I would not have all those birds in one coop. But with the cold temps they huddle on the roosts and seem to do okay.

I can see how the body heat would help at night where you are and only you know if things are getting out of hand in there. It's all about management, right? I know someone in Florida who crammed all the birds into one building at night and they were all free range during the day, not many days they couldn't get outside. It was easier for her than building numerous coops.
When I had the 40-something in the main coop, that was years ago when I was a victim of chicken math; actually, I was adding to the flock, had done multiple hatches that year and had extra males so some were going to leave eventually, but even then, it wasn't overcrowded by the standards of most people. My coops are a little sparse now because I am losing them by attrition, elderly hens passing on, etc, not adding to the numbers to replace them, going for the day when I will be back down to around 20 total birds again. I have about 40 total now between all the coops. So many of mine are 6, 7 and 8 years old, but a few of those are still laying, beating some of the younger ones by a mile right now, so they will be here until they have gone to that Great Roost in the Sky.

 

[wwarren8200]

The thing about the coop is the only times all of them are in it is at night and you leave the doors open all the time anyways....I read up a lot about it and everyone who has one says it really does hold 130 birds.