Free Ranging? Help!

[CoopedUpChicken]

So I have my babies (6 weeks old) in their coop/run for a week now. They are starting to get better about roosting and figuring out who goes where on the roost. I want to wait until they are pretty full grown before I let them out to free range during the day.

I've been thinking about getting one of those movable electric poultry fences so that the cats, dogs and foxes around here will get a shock when they first try to go at the chickens and learn to leave the chickens alone... has anyone ever used those before?

My other alternative is to let nature take its course - but I don't really want to do that!

We have a hen here who was here before we moved in - and I saw her get chased by a fox at 11 am in the morning - I was able to distract the fox long enough for her to get away. That fox was right on her tail though - but she was unharmed. She's a tough broad!!!

We have neighborhood dogs that drop by sometimes and chase the cats up trees.

And of course we have the cats which are adept at hunting...

Any thoughts?

 

[cheekiechickie]

I'm a first time chicken parent... I took my 6 girls out for the first time at about 4 weeks. Put them in a guinea pig play pen and sat outside by them. Started out for just a few hours on nice days and eventually wotked up to ehole days. 14 weeks in and after watching them to see how alert they were of predators, they can be left alone to free range for a short time... Im constantly checking on them- We have hawks that nest nearby so I not just crazy protective lol

 

[jlmissouri]

Dogs are the worse predator for me. The good news is dogs are very sensitive to an electric fence, it will most likely catch them off gaurd and scare them all the way home. After getting shocked many dogs don't return, but some are determined.

 

[CoopedUpChicken]

Dogs are the worse predator for me. The good news is dogs are very sensitive to an electric fence, it will most likely catch them off gaurd and scare them all the way home. After getting shocked many dogs don't return, but some are

The dogs have come by almost every day now for about 4 months. I now know who their owner is as she sometimes stops by to pick them up from our yard...lol. I think I'll ask her politely to restrict her dogs because one of them tried using its teeth to pry open the hardware cloth on the run! I guess I'll try one of those electric poultry nets and see what happens too

 

[3riverschick]

Check your State regs. See if you can shoot dogs who harass or kill your "livestock", i.e, see if poultry are included in that definition. In PA they are. Then calmly inform your neighbor that you do have the lawful right to shoot the dogs if they kill any of your poultry. Get the statute in writing or print it out and give them a copy.
Best,
Karen

 

[azygous]

It sounds as if your yard is very vulnerable to predators, and dogs may be the worst ones there are.

I highly recommend a covered run. "Nature taking its course" is inevitable unless your chickens are in a secure run. Electric poultry netting may work to keep your chickens confined and ground predators out, but does nothing about hawks and owls.

I have both a covered run and electric hot wire running around everything. Peanut butter dabbed at intervals on the wire "conditions" predators to be uninterested in being persistent.

The problem with letting nature take its course is that when a predator achieves success in taking a chicken, it will keep returning again and again. Then the battle is on. It's stressful for you and for your chickens, and don't expect them to continue to lay regularly after experiencing such an invasion.