How did my grandmother do it?

[Mahonri]

yup... grandma had outside dogs and a gun and traps.

As a kid we shot anything that looked like a predator or set traps for them (then we shot them) and our dogs protected all of the other animals.

 

[le neige homme]

I read a story once, probably on NPR, about a chicken farmer who had just had it with predation so he gave up, turned all his chickens loose to free range. The dum-dums and the savvy ones were sorted out with a quickness and with each successive generation, he had a much more predator-savvy flock of free rangers and finally wound up losing far less of those than the original confined flock.

 

[zazouse]

Quote:
Good point, mine hit the ground right after hatch, when they can fly out of the outside brooder they become part of the flock , they learn from the older flocks and there is safety in numbers here, lots of eyes to keep a look out.

 

[Camelot Farms]

Quote:
I really envy you. I go bananas with guilt feelings if I'm watching TV, realize it's 20 minutes past the time to close the run's gate. Afterward, I thank God nothing killed them before I did my nightly routine of locking them in an ultra-safe area.
BTW, where do you live?

We are in extreme Southwest Virginia.

 

[atimme]

We had a "chicken dog", a shotgun by the door, and a lot of traps. It's funny now telling people in the city that I shot a fox and regularly trapped coons.

You'll always loose some once in a while though.

 

[33yardbirds]

Granny looked at them as chickens, just another crop. collected the eggs, lost a few, shot varmits, had old Smokey running around, and on some Sundays she would grab a nice plump bird. I can still see the bird hanging featherless over the kitchen sink head and feet still attached. Everything was s matter of fact. I'm a little softer, can't kill them. Now my wife, not a problem.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

In our area 50 years ago it was very very rare to see a deer and we never saw a fox or raccoon. All the land was farmed and fencerows were narrow. What we DID see were pheasants by the flock! Farmboys hunted groundhogs and trapped furbearers regularly for pocket money.
Now many of the farms are absentee investment properties growing up in brush. Deer are all over the place and foxes have been sighted with kits and carrying dead cats. Raccoons are regular roadkill. Coyotes have been sighted nearby too.
One of these days rabies will make a huge comeback over the landscape. Mange is more prevalent too.We hear of a few confirmed cases every year in the county. I keep a shotgun handy because we need to dispense unhealthy critters before they reach our stock.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this is how we did it in western NC as well

 

[dieselgrl48]

Yea thing's have changed a bit since way back When.More people and houses.More traffic so a lot of smaller prey like rabbit's the like get run over on a daily basis so there is les natural wild food for like fox and coyote to hunt.Stricter law's on gun control and some states vary on preservation on some specie's of animal's.I have to lock all mine down every night and have still lost bird's over the last 6 year's due to dog's, fox, coyote, coon's etc. I live rural but still populated and We still hav all the wild critter's out here.But no law's against protecting livestock SO FAR!WE have another hawk just tried for my mallard's yesterday so keeping an eye for it cause my bantam's (chicken's) are free range right now.

.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
I really envy you. I go bananas with guilt feelings if I'm watching TV, realize it's 20 minutes past the time to close the run's gate. Afterward, I thank God nothing killed them before I did my nightly routine of locking them in an ultra-safe area.
BTW, where do you live?

We are in extreme Southwest Virginia.

I was living near lexington for a spell I never met so many fox,yote and bobcat trappers as I did out your way they are serious about controlling preds out that way.

. that was one of the few areas I trapped skunk on purpose.