ideas to keep away predators and pest

[chooks4jay]

chat about attacks and how you can stop them
it always annoys me when something attacks our chooks

 

[nzpouter]

Go on... have a go at them.

 

[chooks4jay]

does your dogs scare your chooks.

we have a next door naber with a dog that tries get into our chook run.

 

[nzpouter]

no, the chooks know their dogs.... but they do wary of strange/ unknown dogs.

 

[chooks4jay]

do you get many predtors

 

[chooks4jay]

can some one else join this thread

 

[PatriciafromCO]

I started my little farm with predator protection in mind. set the homestead buildings close together house and two barns with their own fencing areas and then another layer of solid fencing around that.. 3 intact male llamas on the perimeter which turned out to be good coyote killers once they were full grown and that stopped the coyotes from crossing through out pasture. i've always had a large group of dogs 13 GSDs at one time and am sure that didn't make us inviting. Once my GSD were old and passed on I switched over to a general farm dog Cane Corso and added two LGD's. also used as general farm dogs and have access to all the homestead area house, and barns, with the llamas still on guard on the perimeter

Got really lucky that one of my LGD is aerial sensitive , reacts to anything that flys Ravens, hawks, owls, are the main ones. any fly bys or attempts to land she barking and charging after them until they have cleared the area. That is new to me and am very happy to have her. only one kill last year one of the dogs killed a skunk in the barn. I had seen a baby skunk outside my fence line earlier in the month so I knew they were near by close, and that the LGDs were sleeping more in the barn instead of central in the backyard .

I was surprised that one of my LGDs was acting weird when he was first old enough to be left on his own, he wasn't doing anything wrong, but he was in a weird place in the barn and just stay'd there, so it was weird to wonder if he was ill or something. it was a week later the male had moved his position but still in the barn when i had the new LGD puppy with me for supervision coming in the barn doing chores.. My male sudden let loose rushed over and smashed my puppy to the ground.. I honestly thought my male had gone mad in the head.. A closer look it made sense.. This whole time my male had been watching over a Mamma goose on her nest as they were hatching and she had all her baby's behind a chest freezer where the puppy had walked over to investigate. So that was pretty cool of my male. it made sense the next time he was being weird in the barn not too far from him was a Mamma goose on her nest and a few days latter her babies had hatched he stay'ed close in the barn until the goslings were older then he went back to sleeping central in the backyard. What a big lug how much he loves baby goslings and to know the eggs were close to hatching.

Have to say Rattle snakes are an issue so i have let a Rat snake move into the barn to keep the Rattle snakes out, and that worked ok until the Rat snake got too greedy after a couple of years for young chicks and being in the egg nest that I had to re-home him out to the pasture. Brought in some guinea hens ,this is the first year the group seems to be helping as the snakes, have stay'd clear of the barn but moved in around the house. Am hoping the Rat snake under the house will keep the rattlers away. And that is about it. I have two pure breed cats Bengals I give them some time out side during the day and the LGD's will go after them for any stalking of the birds, and the Guinea Hens harass them too. The Bengals move on to go after the wild rabbits that are open game.

this is my male all grown up now..

 

[chooks4jay]

sorry what are LDG's

 

[PetesChicks]

sorry what are LDG's 

Livestock Guardian Dogs. Something I am looking into for the future, hoping to get a couple goats to keep my chickens company.

 

[chooks4jay]

oh thanks I love he look of them hey look reallycuddly