Howdy Fellow Chickeneers

[drumstick diva]

Rather than having to exterminate predators and have your wife and neighbors up in arms, try preventing them. Are you allowed to have electric wire fencing around your coop and run? If so the predators will learn to avoid your yard without you using them for target practice. Read the threads on predators and you'll find ways to fortify your coop & runs - so preds will go after easy prey.

As far as your goofy neighbors feeding wildlife - good gosh - BEARS too., I would think there are laws to punish people who do. Bears are about the worst predator you can have and feeding destroys any fear they might harbor about humans. They can be a serious danger to people, kids especially - some official needs to pound that into their empty skulls. Life is not a Disney movie with Bears being sweet and cuddly.

 

[Bocrates]

Rather than having to exterminate predators and have your wife and neighbors up in arms, try preventing them. Are you allowed to have electric wire fencing around your coop and run? If so the predators will learn to avoid your yard without you using them for target practice. Read the threads on predators and you'll find ways to fortify your coop & runs - so preds will go after easy prey.

As far as your goofy neighbors feeding wildlife - good gosh - BEARS too., I would think there are laws to punish people who do. Bears are about the worst predator you can have and feeding destroys any fear they might harbor about humans. They can be a serious danger to people, kids especially - some official needs to pound that into their empty skulls. Life is not a Disney movie with Bears being sweet and cuddly.

Yeah we have a lot of folks around here with a lot of money and no rural living experience, the old all hat no cattle syndrome. C'est la vie. We briefly contemplated the electric fence idea, as that is what I grew up with, but we are in the unique situation of living in a very high wildfire danger zone and the fire department discourages the use. In fact, we had only 20 minutes to get out of our house just this past spring when a tree knocked down a power line and started a 35 acre fire less than a half mile from the house. I grabbed a hard drive, the dogs, our documents envelope and of course the chickens. Luckily they were able to contain it quickly.