Guard Geese, Turkeys, and Guinea Fowl for my hens?

[Firefly13]

Hi,

I live in Upper Michigan and my new hens are going to be arriving at the start of June. I am getting about 20, of a variety of different breeds. I am new to chickens, although i am on a hobby farm with horses. The hens will be free ranging during the day, and locked up at night. I live in the "bowels" of the woods, so i know an attack on my hens is likely, although i would like to discourage it as much as possible.

We have coyotes, wolves, raccoons, owls, basically the works up here. We have a dog, a border collie, but he is very old and we don't expect him to be of much help with protecting the hens. I am curious as to what sort of animals like to 'guard' hens... or at least sound an effective alarm.

I've been doing much research and have come to the conclusion that it isn't a very definite topic. At first I was curious as to if mini goats and donkeys could live with the chickens and protect them, but i don't know. And as in live, i mean free range with the hens during the day, and potentially sleep with them in the coop... unless that is a definite no no. Then I was thinking how lovely it would be to see a peacock strutting around the yard with our hens, but after some research I do not know if they would even care about the chickens.

I have narrowed my search down to geese, turkeys, and guinea fowl now. Geese, i guess are very vocal and will sound an alarm, and have been known to attack predators too. Turkeys, basically the same as geese. And guinea fowl, in my neck of the woods, it is said that they are like little guard dogs and will protect chickens with their life.

What are your experiences and suggestions as to what I should get to protect my flock? They would have to live with the chickens in the same coop (very large and roomy), unless they could sleep in the horse barn.

Any advice is helpful!
Thanks a bunch!

 

[zazouse]

If you are wanting another animal to protect your flocks from predators than you need a predator and that would be a dog or dogs depending on how much trouble you have and how big your place is and weather it is fenced or not.

My place is large and i run a pack of dogs here, i have no losses to ground predators in 3 years and i have no pens for my birds, my pack keeps them safe.

The very few loss's i have incurred were due to an owl , it was able to strike and kill a duck but never got to eat it cause the dogs ran the owl off of the kill, the second strike did not kill the duck and i found one of my dogs in the morning guarding the injured duck..

 

[zazouse]

 

[zazouse]

I would also like to mention that i have guineas, geese peafowl, ducks and chickens and none of them can kill a predator, they will all tattle on one but then someone or something has to come out and take care of the critter, that is where my dogs come into play.

 

[The Farm]

If you are wanting another animal to protect your flocks from predators than you need a predator and that would be a dog or dogs depending on how much trouble you have and how big your place is and weather it is fenced or not.

My place is large and i run a pack of dogs here, i have no losses to ground predators in 3 years and i have no pens for my birds, my pack keeps them safe.

The very few loss's i have incurred were due to an owl , it was able to strike and kill a duck but never got to eat it cause the dogs ran the owl off of the kill, the second strike did not kill the duck and i found one of my dogs in the morning guarding the injured duck..

I love it. My dogs guard the pasture animals but I need some thing in with my Mandarins, Calls, Pheasants, Pigeons.But I can't think of any thing that would mesh very well with them.

 

[zazouse]

Beautiful dogs

I have Great Pyrenees, Pit bulls, an Anatolian/Pyrenees cross an Australian Shepherd, a Rottie and a Coy dog i could l pen them with any bird on the place neither the dog or bird would be bothered in the least with each other company but they both would want out of the pen cause they never been in one except when they were to little to take care of themselves but that did not happen overnight it takes years to build such a pack , i am retired now so i have time to work with many dogs even for other people sometimes.

 

[Firefly13]

What breeds of dogs would do best in protecting the hens?

And it sounds like if I get another bird, it would be more for the purpose of enjoyment and not protection. Am i right? What are the ups and downs of owning peafowl, geese, and guineas? Are they able to live in the same coop as the chickens? I have not built the coop yet, so it can be designed to fit the needs of every animal in it.

 

[bird-brain]

I have two german shepherds, a standard collie and a pit bull. My bull will run the predators, my shepherds hang back and control the perimeter and the collie herds them in to the coop and stays there. It is actually pretty awesome to watch them work.

I don't have fences (the dogs are on radio collars) and I have seen coyotes, bob cats, red and gray foxes and bears on my property. The coyotes will cross with in about 50 yards of the dogs range but no closer. My horses are at the back of the property and do a fine job of keeping themselves safe. The chickens free range all day and I close the coop when they put themselves up at night. The collie sleeps at the coop of her own choosing even in rain and snow.

My bull dog will actually run to the chickens if hawks are near. I was very surprised to see him even patrolling the sky lol. I have never lost a chicken to a predator.

Another thing to consider as one dog will have its hands full if you have an aggressive pack of predators is a donkey. Seriously, donkeys (full sized) have a natural hatred for canines and will tear up a pack of anything. You also don't have to worry about prey drive making them eat your flock. :/. The collie gets aggressive when necessary. I love all of my dogs but I couldn't make it with out her.

 

[OnceAroundTheBlock]

I can only comment from experience on the benefits of 2 of the different types of animals that you mentioned.....

Goats....are awesome alarm sounders to anything that doesn't belong on their place. They make a snorting noise over and over until you go to investigate or the threat leaves. I loved having my pygmy goats for the 14 yrs. they lived on my place.

Geese.....are also awesome alarm sounders to strangers or strange things. I used to have 2 females, Laverne and Shirley..ha ha, and they wouldn't even let the electric meter reader guy in the yard to read my meter. I like to think that I helped make the power company switch over to the current way of reading them from their trucks as they drive on by.

 

[coffeychicks]

I have a pair of brown Chinese geese and they do great as intruder alarm even the pizza man won't get out their car. However my gander is aggressive and hurts when he bites lol