Keeping Chickens Free Range

[AllynTal]

The old way that shocks most people I tell, is to tie a dead chicken to the dog. The chicken rots and becomes so disgusting to the dog, the very smell of a live chicken disgusts the dog. This is the method my FIL swears to.
I think you could probably achieve results with a shock collar, but really just keeping seperate might be your best option.

The problem I see with this is, my dog loves stinky things; the stinkier the better. I just don't see the smell of rotting flesh to be a turn-off. In fact, I'd have to chase my dog off from trying to eat the stinky, rotten carcass.

 

[islandgirl82]

@vpatt
Basic obedience training is a must, especially with a puppy. My current dog and all previous dogs (and future) have to wait for their meals until I say "okay". The last thing I need is to get bowled over by my 180lb newfie when he's hungry. You control the food and access to it, you earn their respect. The "leave it" command is also essential. Say this in regards to EVERYTHING you don't want him to have and redirect him to something he can have. Until he gets a handle on the basics, he's not ready to be around your flock.

 

[Tikkijane]

The Westie actually originated from the Cairn.  They were developed after a Scottish Laird who kept Cairns accidently shot one of his dogs when he was out hunting, mistaking it for a fox due to it's color.  He was so devastated he wanted a line of Cairns that could never be mistaken for a fox again so he started breeding for whites, thus came the West Highland White Terrier (originally named the Roseneath Terrier). 

I love them both.  They're independent, unlike so many other small dog breeds, not lapdogs (though they're considered medium sized dogs due to their stalky build) but they're fearless and love having a job.  Not only do they hunt small rodents/vermin but their ribcage is elongated horizontally to allow them to get into the dens of not only fox but badgers too.  Anything that's willing to mess with badger would have to be fearless in my book.  I was lucky to have one that didn't dig.  He would wait like a cat to catch squirrels, chipmunks, voles, etc. and never hesitated to chase off unknown (and sometimes known) dogs. No matter how much bigger they were than he was, they always ran from him. The only thing that ever seemed to scare him were my chickens.  lol

Yep. Which is why there will never be a white {or all wheaten} cairn, lol. Normally, we do rescue dogs, but this one we had to have. Even if she's huge for the breed.

 

[islandgirl82]

Quote:
She's a cutie.

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

The old way that shocks most people I tell, is to tie a dead chicken to the dog. The chicken rots and becomes so disgusting to the dog, the very smell of a live chicken disgusts the dog. This is the method my FIL swears to.

I think you could probably achieve results with a shock collar, but really just keeping seperate might be your best option.

The problem I see with this is, my dog loves stinky things; the stinkier the better. I just don't see the smell of rotting flesh to be a turn-off. In fact, I'd have to chase my dog off from trying to eat the stinky, rotten carcass.

It is the fact that they can never get away from it...even I with my mouth full of sweet tooth, would eventually get tired of chocolate, especially if it was a very overpowering odor.
Like I said, I haven't tried it, but most old-timers I have talked to agree it works.

 

[Tikkijane]

I'd have to disagree with you there.  I've been free ranging chickens for 40 yrs now and not just a few....large to medium flocks.  All that time I've also had cats and never once has a cat attacked a chick or chicken.  One set of half grown kittens was stalking one set of chicks and all I had to do was correct them, much as I would a dog, and that was the end of it.  In fact, one of those kittens was killed on the highway but the other lived with us many years and I could call him to round up the adult chickens for me that had gotten out of the fence.  He would round them up and chase them back over the gate, then lay down and look at me like he just had the best fun in the world.  It's all about what kind of relationship you have with your cats and dogs that dictates how they react to what is yours. 

Now, having said that, I wouldn't trust a strange, stray cat around the chicks at all and have had feral cats attempt to stalk adult chickens, even, but the dog soon put an end to that. 

Didn't know there was a thread on free ranging or I would have posted sooner.  I've been doing it for 40 yrs now and wouldn't keep chickens any other way.  Minimal predator loss in all that time until this spring, when I lost newly hatched 20 chicks from 4 different broody hatches to black snakes....but all those chicks were inside shelter at the time of predation, so free ranging didn't have a thing to do with it, a black snake can get into any building it wants and the dogs will not hear it, see it or smell it doing so. 

I've got some fine bird netting to place around the coop....snakes seem to get all tangled up in that stuff, which I found out by accident once, so now I'm going to use that knowledge to try and prevent it from happening next spring. 

{{{BEEE!!}}}

Interestingly enough, even the resident bobcat left my birds alone. I think it was the dogs that encouraged it to stay at the end of the driveway.....

 

[Tikkijane]

Thanks, I will throw  a Mike's in the fridge for you and see if I can get the EMT's and an ambulance to stand by...

Would you mind if I charge admission to others to this "Turkey Hen Wrassling" contest?

Better keep your guinea mob away from the admissions.....

 

[Tikkijane]

Yep, first post and thanks for the welcome! 

My cats are all outdoors cats but we have trouble keeping them for long at this place...the resident foxes and coyote pack love a good cat snack.  At my previous place I could keep them for much longer if they didn't get hit on the road.   As with all things, it's all survival of the fittest outdoors. 

People look at me funny when I say I want to start a cat breeding program here, as it's very hard to find replacement kittens when you need vermin control now that they have all these spay and neuter programs jammed down everyone's throats.  Used to be a person could find kittens anywhere you look but they have become very scarce in these parts....pretty soon they will be on the endangered list if everyone stops allowing them to procreate. 

4 of ours {3 left} were born and abandoned in the front barn. Sadly, we saw mom in the road a month or two ago. The most recent 4, we got from animal control {which makes 12 cats now}. We will get them fixed. But, there is no shortage around here!

 

[Tikkijane]

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a child we had chickens who raised their own peeps.  We also lived in the country near an SPCA so people would dump their cats, often pregnant cats.  My mother felt sorry for them and had a vet friend who would spay them as soon as possible.  What she couldn't find homes for, we kept.  Anyway, perhaps because these cats had been pets and continued on, they never bothered the babies.  I think it had a lot to do with protective mother hens, but we incurred no loses.
      Today my cats are house cats only but we do brood our peeps in the house and the cats show no more than a passing interest in them  I've had cats napping on top of the brooder where it was warm.  Up and down our rural road people have poultry and cats and barn cats who coexist.
      Truly feral cats can be a different story.

My equine vet will come to my house and neuter the males for $40. Females are more involved, so we have to go to a small animal vet. But those boys, she lays right out and fixes, just like our former stallion. We count it as science for the day.

 

[Tikkijane]

Though my older dog would never allow a raccoon to live, he was ignoring hawks and he's too friendly to stray dogs and has always been, so I got him a younger working partner last fall and have been training him to be around chickens~VERY easy, took a couple of corrections only~and humans~still training on that one....he still gets overly excited around new people and just wants to be loved, loved, loved...all the time. 

Though Jake has been an excellent chicken dog for the past 10 yrs, I started him out as a partner to my other working dog, and though she was doing fine on her own as well....sometimes an aging dog just needs some rest in the day after guarding all night.  They are less open to greeting other dogs if they have their own pack~even if it's just two dogs~and they can take turns being on guard, which works much better than one dog trying to keep track of 30+ chickens roaming all over 3-5 acres of meadow and woodland. 

It's well worth it to get that extra pup and put in the training time.  If you get the right breed and start them out at a young age right with the chickens, it seems to take very minimal training to get their minds off the chickens as prey.   I've been really tickled with the last two pups I've trained on chickens and both have been a huge asset to my homestead.  The previous two chicken dogs came to me as adults and seemed already trained on livestock, so I was blessed with those dogs as well. 

My border collies were easy, especially once they learned no nipping. The cairn didn't even look twice. The Jack Russell rough coat was relatively easy. Even the GSD mix we had {until he killed the cat and started going after the others} was ok once trained. The biggest problem was the dashchund, who, after almost 3 years of good behavior, went on a killing spree of my bantam babies. He got a new home with a small dog rescue for his troubles.

I think any stray- dog or cat- has the potential to cause mayhem.