May have to throw in the towel and give up the chickens..*updated!*

[the lovely birds]

HI there - I am brand new to the forum and here I go right off the bat with one of my most burning topics -- predator control.
In my years with chickens, I can say with great enthusiasm that the BEST way to keep out the nasties is with an
old-fasioned electric wire around the top of the fence-- it does no damage to the animals but "shocks" the bejeebers out of them and they do not come back. I have been through it all -- foxes -raccoons-opossom -- you name it -- and the wire keeps them all away. You can sleep at night.

The next step is to trim the flight feathers on one side of the birds so they stop flying out . I think many people here could advise on how to do that -- a very easy thing -- and again, you will be able to sleep at night.

I will never forget the time my husband set a cage-em-alive trap for a raccoon -- with the baby moniter set up next to it
so we could hear when it tripped -- when we went out, the trap was upside down 8 feet away - with the bait gone and no raccoon. The wire works much better, and again, it does no damage to the animals.

 

[parkersmom120106]

Well..got the fabric up. It looks redneck as all getout, but if it keeps the chickens in it's ok for now. It looks like a tent camp or something lol. Still have 4 girls who won't come out from under the shed, but 3 of them were part of the group roosting on the back porch railing last night, so hopefully at dark I can pick them up off the railing and put them back in the pen where they belong.
A determined animal can certainly tear into it. The pen is just on tposts and they could tear through the tarp/cloth if they wanted to. I'm hoping that this is enough to get them to move on.

As far as being able to do stuff..I have tried. I put up a pen with t posts and wire (my brother moved it to where it is now), and it turned out ok..I just got frustrated because I was fighting with the roll of fencing. I'm really clumsy and impatient and tend to give up easily. I am going to get someone to come out when it's not so hot out and help me. I'll try to learn all I can then. I have people who would probably come and help if I asked. My brother helped a lot, he built the a frames and some rabbit cages for me, but he moved to Texas for work. I also have 500 feet of field fence that needs to go up on the pen out back. That will certainly have to wait as the pen is overgrown with weeds that are like 8 feet tall. (You can kind of see it in the background of the pics.). Gotta wait for the cold to kill them off.

It's not as dark inside the pen as it looks in the pics. Both ends are opened for airflow and light and the cloth I used over top is not solid. It lets some air/water through.

Also I guess I should probably get the rabbits up off the ground to keep them from getting hurt by the fox too.
Here are some pics of my handywork lol.

 

[Royd]

Check your pm's if you'd like a little help.

 

[Ariel301]

Hey, nothing wrong with a little redneck lol. I'm not much bigger than you and I have to do all that stuff myself too. My chicken coop is built out of free hardware store pallets tied together with baling string. It does the job. It might even look kind of nice painted lol.

Can you trap or shoot the fox? If you can't do it yourself, try calling your local Fish and Game office (or whatever they call it where you are) and tell them about the problem, they might be able to come trap it for you and move it elsewhere.

A good roof over your pen will probably help a lot, something like chicken wire so it is difficult for a predator to chew its way in.

 

[parkersmom120106]

I was going to try and trap it and then have a friend's husband come over and dispatch it, but the only trap I could get ahold of was small, big enough to hold the fox, but probably too small to get the fox to enter it.


I've got an offer for some help from Royd. He lives nearby. I'll probably give him a call tomorrow or Wednesday when my Mom is home. No offense to him, but I can't have strangers at the house when it's just my son and I home.

I'm pretty sure I've got all the materials I need laying around to build a halfway decent coop/pen. I do have to get some hardware cloth because the fencing is field fence and won't keep things from grabbing the chickens. We were going to build the pen off an old shed that my brother got from a friend. He set it up way out in the yard in the horse pen, but now my mom and I aren't comfortable with the chickens being that distance from the house where we can't see/hear them at night. Dunno if the shed can be moved again. We'll see.


Thanks for the help everyone. I think they're pretty well contained for now except for a few stragglers that run under the shed every time I try to herd them back to the pen. Hopefully at dark I will find them roosting on the back porch railing like last night and can pick them up and move them.

 

[Ohhhdear]

Clipping your chicken's wings is a lot easier if you wait until they've gone to roost for the night. Wait until they're in the coop, but it's still enough light to see what you're doing. Once chickens settle down for the night they're rather sleepy and easy to deal with. Get a good pair of kitchen scissors with longer blades, not kindergarten scissors.
Pick up the bird with her head facing your back. Gently extend one wing and fan out the feathers. Clip 2" from the 10-12 primary flight feathers. Do both wings because they're used to flying. There's debates as to whether to do one or two wings, but frankly, doing both doesn't hurt. The feathers will grow back when they moult, so plan on doing it again in a few months.
I did my whole flock of 12 hens in less than 10 minutes, with no chicken chasing, no major squawking fits, no harm-no fowl

 

[ChooksChick]

I didn't read through everything, but I want to tell you, clipping wings keeps them in, but they can't evade predators as well.

Second, if Royd can come help, you make sure he TEACHES you how to use power tools and how to figure stuff out- there's a whole bunch of stuff you can do if you give yourself permission to figure it out as you go, and if you have just the basic skills.

I have 2 daughters who can build circles around grown men because they were encouraged to problem-solve. I don't intervene unless asked, and I'm not likely to help much, because they are quite capable of figuring it out if they have to.

Revolutionmama is not much bigger than you, and thinner, and I've watched her put together some amazing stuff- she likes to call me MacGyver, but I think it fits her just as well! Sometimes we girls put together things that look ghetto...but if it works, who cares! Didn't need our hubbys' help, and it's done!

 

[HarlansHollowFarms]

Quote:

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Yay for Royd for being a great BYC neighbor & offering to help! Check out this thread to find other BYCers in your area: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=305793

I'm another lady who has learned how to design & build her own coops & pens. You can join our impressive club! Although at times I wish I were Martha Stewart with a staff to do my bidding, & building, I take pride & find satisfaction in getting the job done by myself. I'm strong enough to do a lot with hand tools, but power tools make most things easier. The most strenuous part is digging the post holes, but even that is doable.

Try to make things as safe as you can now, & start planning for more extensive work when the weather isn't so awfully miserable. Maybe instead of hiring a stranger, you could invite some friends & treat them to a BBQ in exchange for their work. Or find some college kids who would exchange work for a home-cooked meal & maybe some mending on their clothes.

 

[KSue]

Yay for teamwork everyone! Another suggestion: If you are short on cash and need materials to reinforce your coop, go to Freecycle.org and join a group near you. It is a recycling network to keep materials and stuff out of landfills. Just request what you need (Of course if you have items to give away that is great too!). I have been a member for about 6 months now and have been able to donate and receive a lot a neat stuff. Of course there is no guarantee that you will receive what you ask for, but it never hurts to try! The best I received was a used round pen for my horses! How cool is that?