Getting back into it

[raeleigh26]

Sooo, I've had chickens for 20 ish years. Not a pro, but not new to any aspect either. I've sold eggs, hatched and sold chicks, bought/ raised and sold laying hens, butchered my own meat birds, hatched for others, let broody hens sit, I've had them contained and free ranged.
So when I tell you I'm frustrated with my inability to make this work now please understand its not for lack of trying.

I got tired of predation and feed costs vs store bought egg prices, and cut down from 60 ish to 8 chickens 2yrs ago, didn't do anything at all last year. Just had the 7 RIR hens, 1 Roo, free ranged all day, locked up at night, DE/sand on coop floor , (9x12 with a 9x40 ft run attached) In summer, they're thrown some scratch, clean up after cows feed, and have the full run of 25 acres. In 2 years, I'm down to 5 hens and the Roo, and 4 ducks from 10, they share the coop at night. Skunk the likely culprit, but turtle and coyote suspected too. The disappearances are too randomly spaced to tell.

I had a broody duck and hen at the same time. I don't have broody houses, they all share one nest box, both are wild and were setting in the safest places they could be- outside the coop. But something got the hen, then something got the duck eggs, both about a week from hatch.
Duck went on about her business, I hatched the chickens eggs.

-which spurred the issues I'm dealing with now... sorry it's so long...

So, before all that, I bought 25 week-old pullets. I've bought young and sold at 16 weeks before. Typically, they're in the brooder until fully feathered out, then into the coop, where they're locked into one half, the other half being open for the adult birds.
Then, at 8-10 weeks or so, I let them into the run for a couple days and then they free range with the rest, But they get feed still. Medicated. It's the only thing available unless I want to go with 16% all flock.

So, they've been let out for right at a week, 6 just disappeared and 1 dead in the coop today, not a predator, not sure what exactly but I think probably another bird. (Had 2 missing, then just one, then 4, now 6. Sometimes they show up the next day) so I'm down 7.

I've got the chickens 6, 17days old in the brooder now. I've got 26 in the incubator due to hatch in 10 days.

My intention is to keep a couple hens to replace my coming 2 and 3 yr old birds, and sell the rest in the fall.

I've raised healthy birds this way for years, but I have about the same percent from hatch to sold as my hatching rates. About 80%

Aside from building a separate coop and run and keeping chicks locked up until they're grown, idk how to protect them better.
If I keep them locked up all summer, my feed costs double, and I've found its harder to prevent illness and mites.
So you trade one hazard for another.

Any advice on increasing the odds they'll survive to adulthood?
TIA

 

[cavemanrich]

Wishing you BEST, in your current venture. I also have chickens for over 20 years, but as pets only. Keep small flock, currently at 5. Many are already older and no longer lay.
Include your general location in your profile, so those reading may take that in consideration on advice.
Climate, and Location of known types of predators, is helpful to those responding.

 

[gtaus]

So, they've been let out for right at a week, 6 just disappeared and 1 dead in the coop today, not a predator, not sure what exactly but I think probably another bird. (Had 2 missing, then just one, then 4, now 6. Sometimes they show up the next day) so I'm down 7.

I'm not really following you on what happened, other than you lost 7 birds. Are your birds going missing in the daytime, at night, or what?

Any advice on increasing the odds they'll survive to adulthood?

I understand your concern about the feed costs going up if you do not free range your birds. Is it possible to keep the birds in a protected fenced in area and bring the "free range" to them in terms of grass clippings, weed pulling, etc...?

Since I put my ten, 10-week-old chicks, on a protected fence 13X13 grass run, the pullets eat half of the starter feed from when they were confined to a brooder. But I cut and bag fresh grass clippings every other day and offer that to them, plus kitchen scraps, plus weeds pulled from the garden. I always have starter feed available for them, but they prefer to eat everything else first it seems. They seem happy and healthy, so I'm not too concerned.

Hope you can find a solution to your problem.

 

[raeleigh26]

I'm in NE oklahoma. It's been a wet year, so disease is in the forefront of my mind.

-they're disappearing during the day. Sometimes they show up. But for all intents and purposes, I've lost 7.

I need to build a hutch inside the run, so the adults can come and go, but I can keep the chicks contained. Split the run in half.

There is no other way to keep them protected. Our place is too big. Neighbors too close (they don't mow now that they've gone through every type of farm animal and decided none are for them. They did get a billion dogs though. )

I've told dh I want to move the coop to the other side of the yard, away from the neighbors fence, but they'll still have predators from the pastures.

I have 2 this morning that look run down. Not lethargic, just not perky.
Could be the rain in the last 24 hours, could be parasites, could be these two haven't gotten enough to eat.
Gave everyone a dust bath. Well, 14 of them. The rest had already followed the adults out.

It's gonna be raining all week. Again. Another reason it's about impossible, and more dangerous, to keep them locked in a small area vs out in the clean grass.

Idk .

 

[Mrs. K]

You need a better rooster. I live on the prairie on a ranch in western SD. If I have a good alert rooster, my day time predation drops nearly entirely. If you free range, as you are describing, you need to expect losses.

Once predators find you, you need to go into lock down for several days. I find that if I do not keep a consistent schedule - sometimes let out at 7:00, sometimes at 3:00, sometimes not at all, predators move on. I don't let mine out on windy days - too much advantage to predators.

Coyotes, hawks, and owls tend to be my day time predators, coon are my nemesis at night. I do have a set up to fit my flock. I laughed when I read turtles? Must be the eggs? Once I had a bull snake.

What I am suggesting is a middle ground, more lock up than you are currently doing, but not 24/7...however, you might go 24/7 for a while. It will up your feed costs, but only about half. Or you could sell your chicks early.

 

[raeleigh26]

@Mrs. K , that's a good idea, I've done that before, put everyone on lockdown for a few days.

Yes... turtles. And I've lost full grown ducks to snapping turtles. Found them, and a chick or duckling a couple times, floating in the pond. Usually just a bunch of feathers, or a wing.
They've been dealt with, so far we haven't seen any more.

Found scat by the north fence earlier, mulberries? Coon?

My dogs are too prissy to be left out to guard the yard. Shameful.

 

[gtaus]

If you free range, as you are describing, you need to expect losses.

The local 4h poultry program coordinator told me that he gets parents telling him every year that they had "bad luck" raising their chickens and that their kid will not be showing any birds at the county fair. When he asks what happens, he is usually told that a predator got them when the birds were free ranging in the backyard. So he asks them if this was an attack by a neighborhood dog or what, and if they were all killed in one attack. No, they replied, it happened over a period of months. To this the 4H coordinator responded, you don't have a predator problem or bad luck, you have a flock management problem.

I don't free range my birds as I know there are wandering dogs around the neighborhood, and I live on a lake where there is always bald eagles and hawks overhead looking for easy food. When my birds get old enough to be retired from active laying, I think I will just build a large fenced in pasture area, but without bird netting cover, or maybe even just let them free range and fend for themselves, providing some shelter and feed as required. I think that would be a good life for them. But my younger laying hens will be in a predator proof coop and protected chicken run while still producing.

 

[aart]

To this the 4H coordinator responded, you don't have a predator problem or bad luck, you have a flock management problem.

This applies to many situations!

 

[gtaus]

...To this the 4H coordinator responded, you don't have a predator problem or bad luck, you have a flock management problem.

This applies to many situations!

I believe that was the point of his story, and I took it to heart. Learn from your mistakes and adjust. Keep moving forward.