Freeranging unsupervised?

[Ursuline Chick]

I know y'all will think we a crazy, but we have coyotes in our neighborhood in the city. They will eat small dogs and cats, etc. We have problems with possums, which we trap. our hens free range the yard all day and on occasion 2 hens hop the fence and go outside for a short period of time and then come back in on their own, we have vacant lots on either side of us. But back to the coyotes, My husband pees along the fence line occasionally and we have not had a coyote problem ever. We have had chickens around 6 or 7 years. Our neighbors have seen coyotes walking down the street we live on.

 

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

I'm under the impression that every city in the continental US has coyotes.

 

[Ilypecknbushel]

This thread was so helpful! I have been toying with the idea of letting my gals have the whole yard ( fenced but certainly not “secure”) during the day. Now I am certainly only going to do that when we are home. I have lost single chickens to racoons ( & maybe other predators)over the years, but would be devastated to lose the whole flock in one go. They are happy in their protected run & have a good amount of space to explore there, but I agree with others that they just seem really happy to be out on the grass & in varied terrain.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

I'm under the impression that every city in the continental US has coyotes.

We did not have coyotes in the actual city of New Orleans until after Katrina! And then we had them in abundance right after Katrina.

 

[ChickenRelatedUserName]

The history of Coyotes in the US is pretty interesting.

 

[Kabootar]

This thread was so helpful! I have been toying with the idea of letting my gals have the whole yard ( fenced but certainly not “secure”) during the day. Now I am certainly only going to do that when we are home. I have lost single chickens to racoons ( & maybe other predators)over the years, but would be devastated to lose the whole flock in one go. They are happy in their protected run & have a good amount of space to explore there, but I agree with others that they just seem really happy to be out on the grass & in varied terrain.

There is more risk of losing chicken in one go when they are in a run. I free range my chicken often unsupervised and I lose one or two in a year. When I buy chicks I select flighty and unfriendly breeds. The hens that tend to get killed are usually Aseel hens with small chicks that cannot run fast so instead of running away they attack the predators. I have seen them chasing away stray cats and dogs, but more determined predators like jackels sometimes get them. But I just keep few of them for raising chicks, they are best mothers in the chicken world

 

[EggWalrus]

We also have healthy population of great indian owls (bubo Bengalensis) they have an intimidating deep and resounding bu-bo call in the morning and in the dusk you can hear them calling from a mile. They will even attack and kill peacocks. By the way a group of owls is called Parliament not army.

And I thought they were called a herd of owls!

 

[adstowe]

The comment about loosing multiple birds in a coop and individuals when free ranging has been my experience too. Also, I tried the "only when I'm home" approach and it didn't help. Something snagged the little roo in my avatar so quick that by the time I made it outside he was gone and there was no predator in sight. Just some feathers. Granted, this is free ranging on open land. Letting them run around the backyard is entirely different and location will of course play a part.