Help securing free range chickens..

[lazy gardener]

I would look at Premier 1 Electronet poultry netting. It will protect against most ground predators. Raptors will still be an issue. It can be moved fairly easily to give the flock a new grazing area.

 

[centrarchid]

My pens are covered with a heavy duty netting. I have electric wire around the perimeter of the coops and pens and concrete under the gates. I also have my game cameras up and see a lot of critters roaming around at night. I know I have posted these pictures on other threads.
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I wanted to put a second strand of wire around this coop and the pens but hubby said one was enough and so far no attempts at entry.View attachment 1417784
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Not backyard.

 

[cmom]

I started off like most people with just a few birds a coop and run. Over the years I've expanded some. Now I raise and breed birds for showing. My current avatar is one of my champions.

 

[TMChickens]

I have small kids and visitors as well. Fence can be powered off at certain times. Acreage required caries with location, season, weather, and how you manage the property. In some situations even how the surrounding property is managed is important.

Indicate your location and show pictures of your land birds forage. I still provide supplemental feed at the very least for most of the birds and that impacts a lot. You have to learn how to "read" birds to determine if they are coming up short with respect to nutrition.

I live in Southern IL (the bottom tip). We have about 80 acres but only 10 cleared. Our house backs up to Shawnee National Forest so lots of woods. They really roam mostly just around the barn and pasture with goats, Donkey’s and Llamas. Occasionally they will wonder off in a group but mostly within sight of our house.

We feed them chicken scratch grain twice a day and supplement our guineas with “meat bird” food (it’s not for us to eat them, it was recommended). They seem nutritionally sound but I think they do not feel protected or that they have ready protection.

We are not going to free range them anymore once we get a bigger coop & run built. We cannot take the chance. First we have to get something the guineas will like and get them to roost inside at night. It may be difficult but we will train them!! Then focus on the chickens.

I am looking at Predators Pride at TRC for the guineas. Any advice would be welcome. We will let them free range during he day. It train them to go into coop on demand. Hopefully if they like it, they will be more willing.

Not sure about the Chicken coop. It’s really hard finding what I want and building it is just not feasible.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/producers-pride-defender-chicken-coop?cm_vc=-10005

 

[cmom]

Probably the best way to train a guinea is the same with most things, treats. I did that with my chickens. I would give them treats nightly in their coops when they were young then gradually stop the treats in the coop and eventually give them some evening treats outside in their pens when I collect the eggs. Now they go in with no problem.

 

[TMChickens]

I've lost a handful over the years; it's the chance you take when you free range. You have to balance confinement against freedom, and do whatever's comfortable for you, with the well being of the birds in mind.
I no longer free range every day like I did last year, since I lost my only rooster (in my avatar) and one of his daughters within a day or so of one another. No trace of either of them; they just didn't come back to the coop one evening at dusk. Soon thereafter I surprised a hawk working on the carcass of my last RSL. I've since covered their exercise yard with netting & free range them every other day, instead of every day, hoping to teach the hawk(s) that their free meal isn't theirs for the taking on a daily basis. Since then I haven't lost a bird, but undoubtedly will down the road. I'd still prefer to let my chickens be chickens. On the other hand, most of my birds aren't pets, either.

I love the idea of every other day! That shows them, huh? We are definitely changing up our routine. The chickens lay their eggs everywhere and anywhere. We live on their schedule not the other way around. I’ve been working out of town so I know my husband has done his best but he’s not known for his structure. We’ll both be home full time starting next month and we are going to pull it together so I can say it’s been a while since we lost one.
I prolly do get to close to our pets; some are closer than others but Molly was special. She was our first chicken, first egg layer, she ran to us to pick her up and rode by us in the side by side! She just had a bunch of personality.

 

[TMChickens]

Probably the best way to train a guinea is the same with most things, treats. I did that with my chickens. I would give them treats nightly in their coops when they were young then gradually stop the treats in the coop and eventually give them some evening treats outside in their pens when I collect the eggs. Now they go in with no problem.

They are about 10 weeks old so staying in the coop right now is pretty easy it’s when the adults entice them up in the trees .
We are going to give it a try. Appreciate all the suggestions.

 

[TMChickens]

First, sorry to hear you are losing birds. If there is a Murphy's Law on chickens, it may be when a predator attacks, they get your favorite first.

Second, on free ranging........I have concluded a true free ranging flock is not that much different than sending a hormone laden teenager off to an unsupervised, all night bikini beach party at an STD clinic. What could possibly go wrong? An extension of both is that unless you, the one responsible for their well being, are willing to accept the consequences, you need to put your foot down and say no.

So a reasonable solution to the lost bird problem is to establish a safe zone of protection for them. An enclosed run is one option. A larger yard is another. But as the size goes up, so does the cost of building it. The most cost effective way to provide a large are area of protection is to use an electric fence designed to keep poultry in and predators out. You can make this as large as you are willing to maintain, but make it easy on yourself. An acre can easily support as many as 50 birds, so that might be a good place to start. The key to keeping the birds within this zone of protection, is to provide them with a variety of food and cover options so they will accept what they get and not try to push it as far as expanding their range.

And properly built and maintained electric fences do work well to keep predators at bay. That is by day........the coop protects them at night.

BTW, as you describe it, a fox is high on the list of suspects. They can snatch and grab a bird without a trace. They take it home to feed the kids today and come back for another tomorrow. They keep coming back until all are gone and keep coming back long after that just in case you were kind enough to restock the cupboard.

On your LGD notion, if you have regular visitors to your property, you may have issues with some LGD's. I've never had one, but I've been around properties and livestock they were protecting and they were not friendly. But that is their nature and job. Seems a dog like that may cause trouble for you?

Great insight! You are right about the dog..he may take his job too serious and not let anyone pet the livestock..which would not be good. We have dog friendly cabins to so lots of dogs (on leashes) but still pretty tempting if our guy is just wondering around. We think it was a fox too. We will have to step up our game!

 

[TMChickens]

My pens are covered with a heavy duty netting. I have electric wire around the perimeter of the coops and pens and concrete under the gates. I also have my game cameras up and see a lot of critters roaming around at night. I know I have posted these pictures on other threads.
View attachment 1417783
I wanted to put a second strand of wire around this coop and the pens but hubby said one was enough and so far no attempts at entry.View attachment 1417784
View attachment 1417785

What a great set up! I had no idea that their were people as invested as I was into chicken. Bet your chickens love their paradise and especially that sunflower. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[TMChickens]

I started off like most people with just a few birds a coop and run. Over the years I've expanded some. Now I raise and breed birds for showing. My current avatar is one of my champions.

What a beautiful bird! It’s crazy how much we can care about them. Thank you so much for sharing. We are going to get this down and we too can build our flock!