How far will chickens wander?

[Eggseronious]

Some breeds will wander more than others. Most of the time the larger breeds stay closer to home. Also the flighty type explore more.

 

[pixiechic]

Quote:
I can't watch my chickens 24/7, so I have no idea who snatched my pullet last month, but it could have been a neighbor's dog, a hawk, a coyote, or even a bear. Some of the predators pose a bit of difficulty, whether you're talking about shooting, trapping, or beating -- for example, I don't really want to shoot every redtail I see, nor any dogs. But that's probably a whole other thread...

I guess what I was wondering is whether there is a good way to keep predators out of my chickens' free-range area. Now that I think about it, the easiest thing is probably to beef up my old pasture fence so most critters can't get in -- maybe with 4x4 wire fencing -- would be like a really large pen. Won't stop the hawks, but would probably take care of almost everything else.

 

[Davaroo]

Youre right about the "kill a pred" thread - best left for elsewhere. Suffice it to say you should rid yourself of those preds you can.
We never said all this was easy; responsibility comes on many levels when you take in livestock animals.

Hawks interest me. They don't saunter up, tip their hat as they open the gate and grab your chickens. No, they fly in fast, on the swoop and nail them broadside. So, that's the trick: defeat them on the wing.
Give lots of shelter for the cluckers to duck beneath and block the primary flight paths with approach barriers like tall plants and dangly-sparkly things. Then you will have done about as much as you can.
My sister had a problem with hawks snagging her Austrolorps, which were being kept in a large, open pen. So we put our heads together and came up with a plan. She moved the Alorps to a sheltered area, then scattered plywood "tepees" and brush piles around the chicken paddock. The hawks still tried, but their success rate fell dramatically. The "Lorps liked the brush pile and shelters, too. I know mine love them.

Along with shoring up the fences, you should also think about electric wires along the existing fence at strategic heights. Not terribly expensive, they do a lot to deter "nosy" preds like foxes, coyotes and dogs/cats. I dont know if they'll work on bears!

All in all, it's best not to let chickens wander aimlessly in the open, but to control their movements in cordoned areas and give them overhead shelter. If you remember thier jungle roots and try to duplicate that, it eliminates a lot of worry.

How does that sound?

 

[pixiechic]

Thanks, elderoo -- I love the tepees idea, and it will be easy to make brush piles. We have some extra pallets lying around too, so maybe I can make a couple of creative mini shelters out of those.

I measured the chicken paddock area yesterday; it's pretty large at 130' x 70', but fenced in. Kind of a semi free range, if that makes any sense. There are numerous trees (oak, maple, sweetgum), but I can't decide if these will provide shelter for chickens or give hawks a place to rest while picking out their dinner.

I think there's an electric wire controller here somewhere; our house's previous owners used it for horses. Will have to look into that.

 

[Davaroo]

We have some extra pallets lying around too, so maybe I can make a couple of creative mini shelters out of those.
Ever heard of colony rearing? It was a common practice, a hundred years ago. In short it is controlled free ranging, the focal point of the range being a simple range-shelter. Pallets would do well for that.

I measured the chicken paddock area yesterday; it's pretty large at 130' x 70', but fenced in. Kind of a semi free range, if that makes any sense.
It does. On those colony ranges in the Northeast, 500 chickens/acre was considered normal. Thats 43,560 sq ft/500 to give 87.12 square feet per bird. Your paddock will support 104.35 chickens in the colony fashion. You have unwittingly stumbled onto a very successful method of poultry management.

There are numerous trees (oak, maple, sweetgum), but I can't decide if these will provide shelter for chickens or give hawks a place to rest while picking out their dinner.
Both. But hawks need to get up to flying speed to make their attack. Watch and learn at this point, I'd say.

I think there's an electric wire controller here somewhere; our house's previous owners used it for horses. Will have to look into that.
Way to go! I think the proper wire spacing is at 6", 12" and 24" vertically. This covers about all the 'noses' that are liable to come in contact with it and which are liable to be deterred by it.
Most preds go about their preddy business nose first - so let that nose hit one of those wires and the critter looks elsewhere for food in a hurry! Thats the theory, at least. Ask over on the BYC pred forum. Someone will know.
Then let us know how that works out.

Heres some net stuff on colony rearing:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-I...Colony-Cage-For-Backyard-Poultry-Farmers.aspx

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/ppp/pppToC.html
THIS is one of the BEST resources you can have - copy in its entirety.

The Weeks Colony System:

http://www.mariposaresearch.net/santaclararesearch/SCBIOS/cweeks.html

http://www.collectiveroots.org/initiatives/foodsystem/charles_weeks

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=8276

http://www.archive.org/details/eggfarmingincali00weekrich
The ENTIRE Weeks book, "California Egg Farming," available as pdf. download

 

[pixiechic]

Wow - great stuff here, thank you! Will take me a while to wade through it all.

I hadn't heard of colony rearing before, just doing what felt right for the amount and type of space I have to work with, but I'm happy to hear that it will work well. I was originally planning to use 1 stall in my barn, but the barn is in a 2-acre pasture so I'd have to build an entire pen from scratch -- which would give the chickens a smaller area just out of $$ necessity. This way I will spend a little more retrofitting my hay shed into a chicken coop, but the fencing cost will be minimal, there are more trees in this area and they'll get a lot more space.

Most of my peeps are still babies (not quite 3 weeks old), and I still have a coop to build and fencing to beef up before setting them free in their range. Now I have lots of ideas for safety and shelters - will let you know how it goes!

 

[Davaroo]

Occasionally I'm of some little help. Hope it all works out.

 

[reveriereptile]

My first chicks I got I put them in a small pen outside when they were large enough. Our border collie would lay by the pen watching but couldn't touch them. After they were over half grown we moved them to a large area that we fenced off. We allowed the collie to come in and kept an eye on her each time we let her in and she would watch them. After a few weeks I got a surprise one day. I went out and seen the collie laying in the area and yelled at her to get out (she is very skiddish dog and usually obeys) but she wouldn't move and I got closer and yelled and one of my roosters ran from her mouth. She had it by the neck. I ran her out and got my boyfriends dad and we went into the area and looked around for the chickens. We found 2 dead outside of the pen (my bf's dad was just by the area 45 minutes before me), a bunch injured and scattered in/out of the area, and some still missing. The next day we found another one that later died due to bad neck injuries and never found our last one. We have another dog (golden ret.) also that never seemed interested in them when they were in the pen but must have helped also. My bf's dad took one of the dead roosters and laid it in front of the dog and hit her with it a couple of times (Amish told him that it works) and she never messed with them anymore till this summer. She went after one of my 2 month old hens that got out of the building we had them in and luckily we were looking for it at the time. So make sure your chickens are large enough that they might not get attacked if you let them free range.

 

[pixiechic]

reveriereptile, do you really have camels? DH keeps saying he wants to get one, but I had no idea you could raise them successfully.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

reveriereptile, I'm so sorry about your dogs attacking your chickens! We have two dogs and I'm worried about my boxer. He is a great listener and minds us well but when instinct takes over there is no stopping them. What we are going to try is ...lay the chicks on the dog every single day and allow them to "grow up" with the dogs. I'm going to have the dogs around my chickens WITH ME THERE as much as possible on a chain so he gets used to them. Our dogs are usually never out unattended anyhow...they are house dogs...we have to watch them so they don't go running over to the neighbors house. The DO love chasing out groundhog that lives under our pole shed! UGH! I hope I can manage to escape the chaos you had to endure!