Keeping Chickens Free Range

[Tikkijane]

A chicken cannot escape at night. It cannot see. It is nearly blind at night. They just sit there and get picked off.

Further, daytime predators can come from the air or the ground.  Are you telling me you have no eagles or hawks out there?


No Weasel, mink,  skunks or raccoons? 

Listen to beekissed on this. Lock your birds up at night, give them a place to hide during the day.   If you want them for lawn decorations that get stolen over time, just let them run around and never protect them..

I have a ton of hiding places for mine and I still lose some.

The ONLY hawk attack I've had was under the cover my birds had gone to, and the victims were two of my roos {d'Uccle and silkie, but still. }

 

[Tikkijane]

Did you even read my first post? I said I have hawks. Geez some people. I'm not asking for opinions and I think that's where some are getting confused. I don't live in some little suburban neighborhood where I'm just starting off and I've never seen a chicken in my life. I'm just wanting other people's own experiences that have done this so I can make my own decision. Not one based off of others opinions. Furthermore not once did I say I'm going to throw my birds into the wild with no shelter. I'm pretty sure even if people don't like me, my views or anything else I don't really care. I don't respond well to snotty attitudes and people acting like they are better then others. Everyone has their own way of raising their flocks. I don't think you would like it if I got on you for slaughtering your chickens even though I think it's wrong and we are vegetarians because of that I don't push my way onto someone else. This is why I hate threads because their will always be a gang of people who all have the same view trying to push it on others because their way is the only right way. So far I haven't experienced this with byc. Hopefully this will be the last time since most the people I have met are wonderful people. I would like diversified answers of people with different experiences for me to make up my own mind. So thank you for your input. It's been heard. Now that you have said what you want maybe someone who has done it can give me some info about how it worked for them..

I'm confused. My opinion is based on my experience, and the experiences of others who have, well, experience. I think the bulk of us here are actually currently free ranging; do not have fenced back yards, have sizeable flocks, and have been doing this numerous years. I appreciate the input.

I believe one of the largest parts of having any animal is being able to provide the most safe environment possible. Even my cats have access to places the coyotes can't get to.

 

[Tikkijane]

When I was growing up there were no hawks, racoons, coyotes, eagles, bobcats, mink, weasels around here. They had been systematically hunted to extinction. If you had told me we would have turkey, deer, and bear here? I would have said you were crazy. But, once conservation caught on thirty years ago? We have them all, in large numbers. Predicted to have cougar in next ten years, too.

Listen to what experienced chicken keepers are telling you about protecting your flock. Different breeds and ages are vulnerable to different threats. I have some Sumatra hens, for example that are pretty Wiley and street smart. And, I have had Silkies that were so tame they were totally vulnerable.

Having a many layered approach is best. If one layer of security is breached hopefully other layers prevent/reduce losses. I know folks who have good luck with lots of cover for birds and five or sic Chinese geese preventing hawk attack. Until I had secure night time coop and a livestock guardian dog I had losses. My current coop needs quite a bit of work to make it bear proof, but we are working on it.

Bears are tough. When we lived in NM, there was a gal that had a bear repeatedly demolish her solid wood coop {s}. After the 3rd rebuild and demolish by the bear, DNR got involved. They trapped, tagged, and relocated the bear- even though it was a rural, mountain community, the bear was getting more and more bold around people. Bears are tough.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

I'm confused. My opinion is based on my experience, and the experiences of others who have, well, experience. I think the bulk of us here are actually currently free ranging; do not have fenced back yards, have sizeable flocks, and have been doing this numerous years. I appreciate the input.

I believe one of the largest parts of having any animal is being able to provide the most safe environment possible. Even my cats have access to places the coyotes can't get to.

This post was aimed at someone else and we have already talked our differences out.

 

[Tikkijane]

Yes I heard the dogs. And that's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear. Once again people are confusing personal opinions with experience. I wanted to hear things like yes I have done this and unfortunately my whole flock was eaten or yes I did this but found that it worked better if I used guard dogs to protect my flock etc.. maybe this is just a misunderstanding. That's what I'm hoping and I'm not to good to say sorry if I misunderstood. Maybe I wasn't being clear enough about the information I was seeking. By experience I just wanted to know some of the problems, solutions that occurred when this was tried by the person responding. The tone sounded condescending but that's easy to misinterpret when writing something out. I never said I was not going to provide protection. I think I barely said we are free ranging and just started and only a few hours a day. I shouldn't have to say this because I don't think it's anyone's business unless I give it over freely which I would have if I hadn't felt like I was being belittled.. again maybe a misunderstanding but I just don't like people assuming things. Instead of saying your whole flock is going to die instead you could say are you planning on not keeping protection... that's all I'm saying. Ibe been on here for a little while now. I don't fight people and I'm the first to defend someone if they are being attacked. If I'm upset maybe it's because of the way things were being communicated...

My dogs are great. They can't do a thing about the owls or things that climb. Fox; coyote= yes. Hawks- not so much, but better now. I'm down to 3 dogs on-site now- two border collies and a rough coat Jack Russell. Hawk protection might be better if I had LGD breeds, but I'm in the South, which is likely too hot.

 

[centrarchid]

Racoons can climb. I've read info that says it takes about 2 years for predators to find a new food source {chickens} and go aftef it. That was my experience as well. And owls hunt at night. A lot of people get them in their barns up high, eating their chickens.

Locally here we do not have a consistent pattern with respect to how long chickens are present on a given parcel. Of the six poultry keepers I know of within a 0.25 mile radius all but two have experienced total losses with most rebooting flock at least once. Some can go longer than two with no losses while another can get hit within days of getting birds. I can often predict when Great-horned owls will be a problem but some years they do not make their seasonal visits. My neighbor to immediate north and not 100 yards away is loosing birds in a very fancy coop very regularly whilei have birds roosting trees and on ground each but suffer no losses to same (raccoon) even though it hits another neighbor to my northeast on an trregular basis, Based what I wrote, their is no logic to what goes on. The devil is in the details i left out. Most time when we make predictions about free-range predator management we are over extrapolating from what we think we know based on only one location over all short time while changes your neighbors make to landscape and random chance play their games.

 

[Tikkijane]

I wish I could do this!

I lose 15-20 birds a year and I lock everything up at night.  I lose them during the day.  They simply go!   I thought I would let some teenage turkeys stay outside with their parents. It went well for a month. Then one night I lost all 4!   I am forced to lock the turkeys up again.

I think that was a dog.  At first I blamed a cat I caught on my game cam. More evidence indicts the dog.

You are living on luck right now. I understand the desire to let the birds run free. I hope you can for a long time. I fear, one day it will come to an end.   I know of a person in Minnesota that actually captured a video on a game cam into his coop during the day and coming out with a chicken!

Good luck, Just know it could come to an end.  I would. of course, go as long as I could like you, before becoming Fort Knox.

I think dogs are prolly the worst predators. Being in the country, we get a lot of dumped dogs. Initially, we kept 3; recently unloaded 2. One decided to leave the chickens alone, but started going after and killed one cat. The other one was a dashchund we kept for several years and then went off the rails and killed a bunch of babies. The non-hunting dogs, we leash and call animal control. The hunting dogs out here leave the birds alone, and usually have collars with owner info on it. If they slip the collar, you can bet the owner is out driving around. My dogs, as a rule, do the best job keeping strays away from my birds until we can leash them. A stray dog can decimate a flock in a really short amount of time.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

My dogs are great. They can't do a thing about the owls or things that climb. Fox; coyote= yes. Hawks- not so much, but better now. I'm down to 3 dogs on-site now- two border collies and a rough coat Jack Russell. Hawk protection might be better if I had LGD breeds, but I'm in the South, which is likely too hot.

We use to have an Australian shepherd but she actually started killing my chickens. That's when I have up and got rid of my flock the first time. Back then I had the property but my dog was everywhere and a total problem child. We now have other dogs that would cause problems if they had the chance but we keep them locked up tight. I would love to have a dog I could keep with my flock at night. My biggest question is how are these dogs trained by your everyday Joe blow kinda person? We have 4 kids and a very hectic schedule. I spent most of my time being the only one caring for our flock which as of right now having them in a coop is becoming to much for one person. It would be easier if I wasn't nursing a baby but I can't have him around the chicken dust and poop at this age so it can be difficult. On the flip side of this I'm not going to get rid of my flock because I have a baby. I love them to much and honestly they are my passion. So guess my questions are how can you train a dog to be around your chickens without eating them when you have a hectic lifestyle? Not being locked in a coop may not work but if I was going to try it and see how it works what's the safest way to do it? How can free ranging help our family? Does location matter? I'm curious because not many predators in my location. To many people with killer dogs in our neighborhood. Everyone own Adleast one bully breed to guard their property including us. I know if a racoon fell into our neigh or yard it would be ripped to shreds.. I can't see owls having a feast on an animal roosting in a covered outbuilding. It seems like my chihuahua would have been taken by now lol jk..

 

[Tikkijane]

            Have a nutcase going way too fast down the County Rd, stop below my place one night, Concerned for Dixie, went down to check, Either a bull Snake or a NOW beheaded, and tailed Rattler...

Dogs cornered this last week....

 

[Tikkijane]

Locally here we do not have a consistent pattern with respect to how long chickens are present on a given parcel. Of the six poultry keepers I know of within a 0.25 mile radius all but two have experienced total losses with most rebooting flock at least once. Some can go longer than two with no losses while another can get hit within days of getting birds. I can often predict when Great-horned owls will be a problem but some years they do not make their seasonal visits. My neighbor to immediate north and not 100 yards away is loosing birds in a very fancy coop very regularly whilei have birds roosting trees and on ground each but suffer no losses to same (raccoon) even though it hits another neighbor to my northeast on an trregular basis, Based what I wrote, their is no logic to what goes on. The devil is in the details i left out. Most time when we make predictions about free-range predator management we are over extrapolating from what we think we know based on only one location over all short time while changes your neighbors make to landscape and random chance play their games.

That's why it's important to be observant and stay on top of it. Spring is always worse here- new predator babies and after winter, the boys are feeling more randy and maybe not as observant of their environment. Although, I haven't seen as many fox or coyote since the cows went out front, and they don't even have a donkey with them....