Free ranging, be honest about losses

[Sir Birdaholic]

I have 100 birds & 66 freerange. 14 are turkeys, & very good protecters of the flock. I don't loose any during the day, but before I started useing a Nite Guard,(a red flashing light) I would loose a couple of hens a week to coons. Between the turks, & red light , I haven't lost anything to predators in about 2 years.

 

[FromChaos]

I keep my hens and one rooster penned up. You can call me a bad chicken mom but I've free ranged 3 roosters for a year without a loss (darn-it). Earlier this year had a run in with a bloodhound who almost rid us of our roosters. Just pulled out feathers and sent them into depression for awhile though. Aden, Ugly and Red are still roaming the yard. The only thing that bothers me is when it rains, they tend to hang out on the front porch ... hence poo everywhere. I'm getting really tired of the rain!

 

[markb816]

What does the red light do? Makes it sound like a chicken brothel in the red light district....lol
Does it have to blink?

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

We've been free ranging for about a year now. We lost one early on to our own dog (seems like a theme here), lost 2 last fall (we suspect the neighbor's dog) and one recently. The one we lost recently was apparently going broody and didn't return to the coop at night so she could sit on her newly built nest. All we found of her was a bunch of feathers.

This is out of a flock of ~ 24, give or take. (we have less than that laying now because some were roosters that we had processed)

 

[FrenchToast]

We have 25 that were free ranging. This was their first year with us so their first year free ranging. We lost 2 so far to a fox in broad daylight. We were out working on the horse fence and I noticed all of the chickens were going their seperate ways, getting further from the coop and not remaining in the flock. Then all of a sudden we heard a squak and they all came running. Hubby grabbed a gun and went to investigate. There was a fox. He didn't get a shot, at first he thought he had a chicken staring at him (he needs to get glasses)
So they were kept in the run after that. Then two weeks went by. My sister was coming to visit from out of town and I wanted her to see the chickens free ranging. Well, needless to say that evening one was missing again.

So now they are all in the run. I have two Great Pyreneese dogs that were tied but that didn't do any good even with all of their barking. They were allowed to run but decided to meet and greet every car that came down the gravel road (they would hear it comming and them meet them in the middle of the road) so that put an end to their freedom ! Now on top of building more coops, runs, horse fence we need to fence in a huge area for the GP's !!
If it ain't one thing it's a couple dozen of another !!!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Quote:
It's a red flashing light that predators take as an eye reflection from another predator. It works GREAT!!

 

[herefordlovinglady]

I have 9 game hens, 2 roos that free range 24/7. they roost in the trees. I have 8 "princess" hens (BR RIR BO WR) they free range during the day and i lock them in the coop at night. I recently lost one that had gone broody in the bushes, i should of moved her that is another story, the weekend she was to hatch her eggs a possum got her and the eggs. i caught the possum the next night in one of my two live traps. I keep two traps set 24/7, I keep my back porch light on at night, i have even put a radio outside to play at night. I recently bought 4 of the niteguard flashing lights. we also purchased last year a skeeter vac, it has a flashing light on it and my DH remembered that last summer while it was on we did not lose any. last year after summer and the skeeter vac was off, i had 5 hens taken in a course of weekend. I guess since the beginning of my chicken owner career about 4 years -- i have lost one roo, 5 hens, and 9 baby chicks to preditors.

 

[tammyd57]

After many years of keeping chickens and having hundreds of them, I have only lost about 5 to a predator. Those five were in one incidence and NOT while they were free ranging. They were locked in their coop and my own dog chewed through her steel cable and got into the coop, while I wasn't at home.
At that time I lived in town, in an unincorporated area with 12 acres of pasture to free range in, and they were out dawn to dusk every day. I had 50+/- chickens.
When I moved out of town, I had a little over an acre that was completely fenced in chain link to free range. No losses, and about 25 chickens then who were out dawn to dusk every day. There was a huge owl living in the tree that shaded their coop, and it never bothered the chickens.
I have had more chickens in other locations that free ranged from dawn to dusk every day with no losses.
Now, I have 10 acres and can't free range at all because of the loose dogs in the area, just not safe and I'm not willing to lose any of my chickens. I've been getting more fencing from Freecycle, so hopefully I will be able to at least expand their run which is now about 15' x 30'.

 

[CoopCrazy]

I have been free ranging my 10 girls for over 6 months and have only had two losses .. Both of which were from the nieghbors dogs....

 

[For-The-Love-Of-Chickens]

We had 9 chickens and started free ranging them this winter after they ate everything in their run and fenced yard and they found that the grass is indeed greener on the other side. We have lost one so far in the last 6 months and it was to our neighbor's dog. We lock them in a big enclosure when we are gone and they stay in their run if we are going to be gone for a long time. We lock them in the coop every night after they go to roost. We lost our bantam because it was the ONE and ONLY time I told my boys to leave them out while we were gone.