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[sharonelan]

Hi - my name is Sharon. We've had backyard chickens for close to 15 years now, and I just discovered this site. Even though I feel like we've been "inventing the wheel" for everything, I also feel like we've a lot to learn. When we started, our chickens had a beautiful coop for the nights, and were totally free range in a very large yard during the day. However, predators eventually put an end to that. We dealt with raccoons, coyotes, and recently bobcats. At present, they have a 2 room coop - just wired in - where we give them all kinds of good food, but they're not free to wander the yard unless I can figure out how to protect them - even during the day! That's the problem - bobcats are so silent, that one came in and grabbed one of our girls, about 15' away from us, while we and our 2 large dogs were sitting on the patio and didn't hear a thing - until our chicken started squawking. Then it was too late....

Over the years, we've had up to 25 girls, and at present have 8 girls and our 2 boys. About 8 months ago, because we only had 1 girl left - Rhoda - our, you guessed it, Rhode Island Red, and she wasn't broody, we started all over with peeps - in the house. They're now 8 months old,buddies with Rhoda outside but 2 have become beautiful boys. We love them, but our neighbors don't, and in Santa Barbara, we're not allowed to have roosters. I can't seem to find a home for them, and my neighbors complain - rightfully so - as Prince Ali begins crowing at 4 a.m. If I can't find a home for them soon, I'm wondering if insulation on the inside of the coop would work. But I need a quick solution! And that's why I went looking online for solutions and found this site.
Thanks!
Sharon

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Sharon, and

! Pleased you joined our flock! Sorry about your predator issues. It is too bad you can't free range them but it sounds like that would be inadvisable at this time. Have you tried - either yourself or hiring out - a way to trap or otherwise deal with them? I see you've already located the re-homing thread so I hope you are able to relocate your roosters. Best wishes and thank you for joining our BYC!!

 

[NickyKnack]

Hello, Sharon!

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to join the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC.

 

[DancingWthDucks]

Hi Sharon, and welcome to BYC It will be great seeing you around the forum, especially with all of your experience with chicken keeping.

As redsoxs suggested you could put an add in the rehoming part of the the forum, or you could try rooster crow-no-more collars.

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to Backyard chickens.

 

[Chicken Girl1]

 

[LauraBrown]

Glad you joined us!

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under Sharon

Welcome!

I am sorry to hear of your losses to predators

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends

 

[sharonelan]

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome! I look forward to learning and sharing!

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

I'm sorry to hear about your predator troubles. It's never easy, but we can live and learn to provide a safer and better home for our flocks.

I agree with the advice given- You can look into rehoming him, or definitely check out some no-crow collars.

Glad you joined!