Keeping Chickens Free Range

[duluthralphie]

Are eagles common there? An Eagle would take one with no problem.

Eagles are a problem here only my dogs keep them away. and shooting one would be asking for a life plus 1000 year prison sentence. We believe we lost a cat to an eagle about a year ago.


I saw an eagle pick a 1/2 grown loon out of the lake a few years ago. It took it without landing, just swooped it, it was an amazing sight! If they can do that they can take a duck with no trace.

 

[K Epp]

My property is fenced in and I have several yappy dogs that tend to keep land predators at bay. We've had heavy rain today do I should be able to see tracks.

 

[duluthralphie]

My property is fenced in and I have several yappy dogs that tend to keep land predators at bay. We've had heavy rain today do I should be able to see tracks.

Bummer... Swooping predators are my nightmare, they are the one critter that can really hurt a flock and you can't control them easily.

Like a said taking an Eagle, hawk or falcon out of season* is a nasty crime up here..

I really do not know what I would do if they became a problem.





* for those of you with no sense of humor, there is no season on raptors anywhere.....

 

[LanceTN]

Bummer... Swooping predators are my nightmare, they are the one critter that can really hurt a flock and you can't control them easily.

Like a said taking an Eagle, hawk or falcon out of season* is a nasty crime up here.. 

I really do not know what I would do if they became a problem.





* for those of you with no sense of humor, there is no season on raptors anywhere.....

There isn't any provision allowing you to defend your own animals from a bird?

 

[duluthralphie]

Not that I know of, as far as I know. I could be wrong though. I had such a bad experience with federally protected wolves I will not contact the federal game warden again.

I lost over 100 lambs to timber wolves 30 years ago, I contacted the federal warden, he came out and said it was brush wolves (coyotes) taking my sheep. When I said "good, then I can shoot them"

He said "no, don't do that , they could be timber wolves"

DUH,,,,,,,, I am sure they were coyotes just so I could not apply for and get federal funds for farm animals destroyed by wolves. BTW my hired hand, my wife, the hired man's grandson and I saw the wolf, jump a 5 strand high tensile electric fence with a lamb in its mouth. No "Coyote" is that big strong or beautiful.


So I shake in fear over raptors....IF there is a provision for livestock protection in the federal regulations I would love to know it....

 

[Deckgirls]

i really REALLY want to free range my chickens but we live in the city. i have (evil at that) neighbors on all sides of me right left and back lots. how do i keep them within my yard if i don't have a fence? i know that sounds silly but i've thought about it and there is no way they will stay within our yard. when i do let them out the first thing that scares them they try flying away well two of them do and the other 4 run for the coop! my one chicken flew up in a neighbors tree!!! about 15 ft in the air and roosted there over night! of course the city was called and we got a slap on the wrist.

 

[duluthralphie]

Wow, deckgirl, tough call there...

Do you have fences? How tall are your fences allowed to be?

My brother has chickens "free ranging" in his backyard in Durham NC. But he has about 6 ft fences around his yard. I think he may also clip a wing, I am not sure. Of course he has FOO-Foo chickens and not real chickens like I have..hehehehheehe

 

[S5apiotrowski]

Something happened over the holiday weekend...

We went out of town on the holiday weekend. We decided to keep the coop/run (20x30 ft) area open to a larger wooded yard - this larger area is loosely fenced in, but over 1/4 acre - so sizable and gives room to roam and scratch around for bugs. Normally, we close the birds in the coop/run area overnight and allow access to the wooded area during the day (when we are not home), and then allow the birds full access to our land (3.5 acres) when we are present. We still have several neighbors with dogs that roam into our yard - so we don't allow full freedom of the yard when we are not around.

When we returned home, we saw that some animal got in the coop/run area and broke the steel feeder to empty out any supplemental food for the birds. We had all of our birds (#7) and 6 eggs (only 2 birds are laying) - so this is about right for a 4-day weekend. In the evening, after getting full range of the yard, none of the birds wanted to return to the coop area - they were looking for alternative roost sites on fences, decks, and balconies. We noticed a few clumps of white feathers and tail feathers in the large area the birds had free access to. These feathers belonged to our young rooster (we are happy to have kept our white brahma after it accidentally turned out to be a rooster instead of a hen)

I've noticed the birds seem more clingy than before we left - they still enjoy roaming the yard, but they follow us people around more when we are outside. I have to bribe the birds to get them back in the coop area at night. We are locking them in again. I am more concerned with letting them roost anywhere in the yard -- whatever came the first time, will come again. I still plan on letting them out of their coop/run area during the day with full yard access when we are home - but I will feel more comfortable locking them in at night. This is only night #2 since we got home - hopefully we can keep the birds both happy and as safe as possible

 

[RoosterLew]

i really REALLY want to free range my chickens but we live in the city. i have (evil at that) neighbors on all sides of me right left and back lots. how do i keep them within my yard if i don't have a fence? i know that sounds silly but i've thought about it and there is no way they will stay within our yard. when i do let them out the first thing that scares them they try flying away well two of them do and the other 4 run for the coop! my one chicken flew up in a neighbors tree!!! about 15 ft in the air and roosted there over night! of course the city was called and we got a slap on the wrist.

Wether in the city or not, allowing your animals to roam onto some body's property without consent is a fowl
It makes no difference be it a bird, dog, horse, cattle...any animal.
Without some type of barrier, it would be hard to keep them in. it is possible to train them to an area, but tough!

Good fences make for good neighbors !

 

[chicksurreal]

i really REALLY want to free range my chickens but we live in the city. i have (evil at that) neighbors on all sides of me right left and back lots. how do i keep them within my yard if i don't have a fence? i know that sounds silly but i've thought about it and there is no way they will stay within our yard. when i do let them out the first thing that scares them they try flying away well two of them do and the other 4 run for the coop! my one chicken flew up in a neighbors tree!!! about 15 ft in the air and roosted there over night! of course the city was called and we got a slap on the wrist.

Is there any way to fence your yard or even a portion of it? That would help a lot.