Keeping Chickens Free Range

[islandgirl82]

I have a friend who keeps a free ranging flock and has a pit bull terrier, a griffon terrier mix and a Chihuahua. The larger two are fantastic with her flock and are very protective of them...the Chihuahua on the other hand, chases them relentlessly any chance he gets and tries to attack them even though they're three times his size. She and her family do their best to make sure he doesn't get out of the house unless it's straight to the dogs' fenced area but once in a while he'll slip out the front door and he's so little and quick, he's not easy to catch.

 

[Birdy Buddy]

Make no mistake, dogs are the #1 cause of backyard chicken fatalities. I isn't a tight race, dog attacks are ahead by far as the most likely reason for a hen be found dead. It is always sad. For the bird has no defense except YOU the human. As humans we tend not to see dogs as threats. Then I end up here posting in another "Help a dog has nearly killed my beloved chicken what do I do!!!!!!" thread yet again.

So true. I have seen a heavy gage wire rabbit hutch torn open by a dog. Dogs don't always do their depradations in packs . Individual dogs can kill a lot of birds too. Often dogs don't wait until night like other predators. The worst thing about dog depredations is they don't carry off one chicken like a raccoon. A dog will run around and kill all your chickens. If your property is not dog proof then it's only a matter of time. I recently started raising chickens again and before anything, I built a 6' wire fence to dog proof my chicken area.
When I was young I was hiking in the local ranch with some other boys and we saw a terrified doe charging right by us. A few seconds later two German Shepard dogs ran by in pursuit. About a mile later in our hike we came upon the doe. She was dead with a large chunk of her hindquarters eaten. The dogs were gone by then.
I love dogs and own bird dogs. I introduced them recently to my new chicks and they were far more interested than I would have liked. I couldn't get my one pointer to quit staring at them. I had to drag him away.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Even if we had lost them both, we still most likely would have free ranged again, because the enjoyment they get from it cannot be outweighed by anything. In addition, we are in progress of adding wire to the split rail fence dividing our yard from our neighbors (because our naughty pig enjoys exploring their yard) which we are confident will add an additional layer of protection to our yard, and make free ranging a little safer.

Sorry for story time

, and happy free ranging to everyone!


And here is a picture of our no good free-ranging overseer! At least she's cute!

I'm sorry for your loss and I'm glad to hear from other free-rangers who have a sincere heart connection with their animals.

Is that a pet pig? I have 2, the eldest is 19 years old now. It's really important to keep our pet pigs from getting in the neighbors' yards-- pigs have such bad reputations, undeservedly, but roaming pigs seem to cause a lot of anxiety among neighbors. I was told around here that someone might stop and shoot our pet pigs if off our land, telling themselves they were ridding the world of a "wild boar". Ours look nothing like wild boars, but nevermind.

About free range-- I'm of the opinion that the happiness the free ranging brings is in itself protection for health. Let alone all the other reasons.

 

[Victoria-nola]

I had a coincidental post to Ramblin Rooster and his unfortunate loss of a silkie

I have not had any predator issues *yet* aside from a snake getting two teen ducks early on. I know there is a fox living on the other side of our hay field but he has not traveled all the way across yet. My biggest issue on hand is the deer eating 25 okra plants two nights ago, definitely not a terrible problem to have. We have started leaving our ducks out when we are gone a little more and I would like to have a dog around to chase anything off. Especially once we let the chickens out too. Neighbors dogs are actually the only thing we have had an issue with in the past (licking the dripped grease off the grill pre having ducks and chickens), another neighbor lost all his chickens to a neighbors dog as well.
The Georgia heat is also a factor in choosing a dog. It's been in the upper 90s all week and it's only June!

I have a trick I've used for years for a cheap way to make a fence too tall for deer to jump over-- someone else shared it with me and it really works. You just attach tall poles to every fence post or every other fence post, like bamboo or pine poles, so that they are 6-8 feet high. Then you run bright white rope, 3/16" more or less diameter, what is sold as nylon laundry line works great-- cheap and lasts many years-- you run that between the poles all the way around your whole garden or whatever area you are protecting from deer. Then tie some white flags from the white rope, like pieces of an old sheet. How this works is that to a deer, the barrier created by the white laundry line looks like a solid fence to them-- they will NOT jump it. I use the flags just to make sure it's very visible to them at night. I've used this for YEARS. If the real fence is only 4 ft high, I would put 2 rounds of the laundry line, the first about 2 feet higher than the fence, then another a couple more feet above that.

And, I discovered the same kind of technique can work to keep chickens in. In our previous place we lived in town and had a 6-ft chain-link fence between our yard and the neighbor. Our chickens took to hopping over the fence and browsing the neighbor's yard. I was able to construct tall poles out of 2x4s with an extra piece tacked on the top at an angle, to create an inward-leaning extra-visible place for the laundry line (sort of like how barbed wire is angled in/out at the top of fences). In that case I put 3 rounds of white line on the angled piece of 2x4 because I REALLY didn't want them going over there. Totally stopped them flying over-- to them it looks like a super high fence is now looming over them and they didn't even try.

These things are probably not good to use if you live in an HOA neighborhood or pristine suburb-- they are a little too country/ranch for that, but they really do work if you have the right environment.

 

[Victoria-nola]

I do like barred Rocks, How good are they on lookout? I suppose it depends on what the EE are (genetically) as to wether they are skitty or not...

Most of my EEs meet the standards for Ameracaunas-- the combs, the ear muffs, the beards, the slate-colored feet-- and have the natural brown/red/gold with penciled markings. They are amazing free rangers, incredibly wily. Our rooster is actually a purebred blue Ameracauna, and he's such an excellent protector. We currently have 10 chicks who are now 4.5 weeks old, hatched from our own eggs, and the rooster has been training the chicks to respond to his alarm calls since they emerged from the brooder at 2 weeks old.

So I'd say, the EEs you could expect to be good lookouts would be ones that are genetically closer to the Ameracaunas. I'll also have to say that we've had 2 different Ameracauna roosters and both of them have been testy with humans if he perceives us to be infringing on his territory, and that gets old when you're afraid you'll be attacked in your own yard by your own bird. It's a bit of a problem, the two roosters have had very different temperaments initially, this blue one was a very sweet bird when he was young, but become a bit difficult to love, though excellent at their job of protecting the girls. At this point we are considering replacing our rooster with a group of his offspring cockerels from this hatch, we are waiting to see how things develop.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Lol yeah the smaller dogs are not much of a threat, but dog packs can happen anywhere. Anywhere with several bored dogs and freedom to run. And the dog that attacked my father and his brothers was just a lab. The larger dogs can be more dangerous, but a medium dog can hurt you, especially in a pack.

Stray dog packs are listed as an official predator risk here in Mississippi. It's real.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

A common misconception is that EEs are mutt Ameraucana. But the truth is EE are a landrace, with only a couple shared characteristics (being very watchful seems to be one of them). The Ameraucana and Ancona breeds came from the EE landrace. (If you go on the EE thread they go into this in much greater detail, I am just repeating what I have learned from them)

 

[Victoria-nola]

A common misconception is that EEs are mutt Ameraucana. But the truth is EE are a landrace, with only a couple shared characteristics (being very watchful seems to be one of them). The Ameraucana and Ancona breeds came from the EE landrace. (If you go on the EE thread they go into this in much greater detail, I am just repeating what I have learned from them)

Wow. That is so totally not what gets said all over BYC and everywhere else. Ok, well there you have it. I'm constantly learning about new threads on BYC that are utterly fascinating and which could keep me very busy if I responded to everything that interests me. heh.

But, people are calling all birds with the blue-egg/green-egg gene "EEs", so the meaning of the term has been diluted.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

A common misconception is that EEs are mutt Ameraucana. But the truth is EE are a landrace, with only a couple shared characteristics (being very watchful seems to be one of them). The Ameraucana and Ancona breeds came from the EE landrace. (If you go on the EE thread they go into this in much greater detail, I am just repeating what I have learned from them)

Wow.  That is so totally not what gets said all over BYC and everywhere else.  Ok, well there you have it.  I'm constantly learning about new threads on BYC that are utterly fascinating and which could keep me very busy if I responded to everything that interests me.  heh.

But, people are calling all birds with the blue-egg/green-egg gene "EEs", so the meaning of the term has been diluted.

No that is one of the main shared characteristics colorful eggs (they can also be pink). But one of the original breeders who created the Ameraucana is on the EE thread. They also share the tuffs, Ameraucana have a muff (though I could have that backwards)

 

[gander007]

Quote:
What are your legal rights as far as protecting your live stock from dog packs in Mississippi ?


Where I live in Death Valley California once the dogs inter my property and yes I have a fence so they need to dig under or find a gape in the gates, anyway once on the property I my use a shotgun or a .22 funny part is absolutely no traps .