Is anyone NOT bothered by predators?

[mom'sfolly]

So far no problems except for the neighbors puppy, who is now at doggy boot camp. I know there are possems and coons here, and coyotes in the area, and an occasional fox. They are doing construction near me, pushing all the critters away. I also chased away the fattest possem I have ever seen. He's probably eating the neighbors cat and dog food. The thing was so fat that he tried going under the fence rather than over. I know that they have come in houses on my street looking for food. The girls are shut up tight at night, and for most predators in my area, there are far easier pickings....suburbs are great that way. Considering the number of feral cats around here, coyotes aren't a worry.

 

[Ang]

I used to free range my chickens. Then this summer there were 2 known litters of fox pups born within a mile of my house. The foxes wiped out 30 of my chickens while we were gone on vacation and a neighbor was taking care of them. They wiped out all but 3 of the remaining chickens about 2 days after we got home. Other than the foxes we have not had any problem with predators. We are now trying to figure out how to safely pasture my girls.

 

[Crazy4Chicks]

well so far I have been pretty lucky - my neighbor hood is full of loose dogs all kinds from pits to whatevers, stray cats , and kids LOL
I have a large run open on the top with a large tree in it so putting netting over head would be very hard. I dont have hawks, or coyotes, or all those other chicken eaten critters you all have.
I dont let my kids out of thier run ( Clyde lets him self out all the time) there have been many times we have come home to our banty roo walking around the nonfenced yard where anything could make a meal out of him - but so far he has been lucky.
I plan on building a banty run that will have chicken wire over the top to move my two banty's into - to keep Clyde from wandering - and the rest of my yard will be fenced so if my bigger girls wanted to walk around they can and still be inside a fenced area.
other than that all I can do is hope they will be safe

Julie

 

[horsewishr]

So far, we've had no problems, and I don't understand why.
Here's an aerial photo of my property:

You can't see the coop, but it's basically in the backyard, near the house. When my chickens free-range, they're usually on my lawn (or the neighbors'

), or hanging around the horses.

I've seen coyotes, hawks, and skunks. I've heard owls. I've never seen a raccoon, but I'm sure they're out there. But so far we've had no problems. My coop is secure, but the neighbors' chicken coop has gaping holes under the fence, and they've had no problems, either. The only thing I can think of is that there must be plenty of food in the open land that surrounds us.

 

[cknmom]

We also have many predators. We live in the mts. in a valley.We have coyotes, badgers, bobcats,hawks, golden eagles, kestrels, mtn. lions, owls, several other birds of prey and five miles up the road they have been plauged with a few bears this year.

Luckily we have not had any problems with them even trying for the chickens. We only have five right now but will be getting a few more soon. I actually am surprised that we have not lost any. We free range every day, all day. They spend a lot of time at our neighbors (our animals go back and forth playing with each other) We have two roos and they seem to only protect our youngest hen, our two older hens are often off by themselves or one of them will get left behind by everyone else. Our coop isn't real secure as it is only a temporary one, our permanent one will be very secure. The only problem that they seem to have is our puppy likes to runthrough the flock to scatter them so he can eat poo! They are finally all doing better ignoring eachother though.

I will keep my fingers crossed but also know that it is only a matter of time, so we keep the rifle handy!!

Monica