MJ's little flock

[MaryJanet]

MJ, I know you have foxes. I wouldn't clip for that reason. Flight might give her an escape route if one came round.

That's a very good point.

 

[Ribh]

Ivy saw me emerge from the house 20 minutes ago and put herself back in the yard. Clever chicken. I'm grateful.

But I'd rather get a tall fence that Ivy can't fly over in the first place.

Yes, well, I know this story. What a naughty girl! Facebeak is allowing the sharing of information that should be banned. Is she Beak friends with Ha'penny perchance?

 

[Shadrach]

Do you have deer netting? Very light-weight and relatively inexpensive. Can be strung from poles and I found keeps the birds in just fine even at only 5’ because it is too flimsy for them to land on. Of course it doesn’t protect them from any predators but it does keep them contained.

Covering the top of a run would seem initially to be a good option. The problem is, if anything gets into the run and the chickens can't get out, they're not in with much of a chance.
It's the chickens ability for flight and run that often saves them from predators. If for example the chickens here could not run and find decent cover many would have been killed by the weasels we have here. As it is, the weasel latches on to the back of the chicken after an ambush and the chickens just keep on going. The weasel here doesn't have the weight to stop a medium weight chicken from trying to escape. There must have been over 50 weasel attacks here in the last decade and only one resulted in a dead chicken and she was just too tiny to get away.
So, if you're going to cover the top of a run it needs to be bullet proof. As an example of what isn't bullet proof, some people on this mountain had problems with a Goshawk. They covered the top of the run with chicken wire. The Goshawk flew through it slightly injuring it's wing in the process but still managed to kill three hens who couldn't escape.
In short and imo and based on experience of my own and others. If you're going to keep chickens in a run then that run needs to be either easy to escape from or secure.

 

[Shadrach]

Ivy saw me emerge from the house 20 minutes ago and put herself back in the yard. Clever chicken. I'm grateful.

But I'd rather get a tall fence that Ivy can't fly over in the first place.

Here that would mean eight foot minimum. The bantams here can reach a tree branch a bit more than eight feet from the ground in one leap and flap.

 

[MaryJanet]

That's really good advice. Thanks.

The new chicken house I'm planning will have a very large covered run. It'll have a corugated iron roof over one half and 2mm mesh panels, about 2cm aperture, over the other half.

The chickens will be allowed out into the garden when I'm home to intimidate predators, although the run will be almost as huge as our chicken yard is today, so they won't be confined.

 

[MaryJanet]

Here that would mean eight foot minimum. The bantams here can reach a tree branch a bit more than eight feet from the ground in one leap and flap.

Ivy is not that agile (yet). It takes her some effort to fly over the fence, which is only 1.25m. None of the others bother - the older hens are largely ground dwelling and Peggy only manages to fly at knee height.

 

[Ribh]

Here that would mean eight foot minimum. The bantams here can reach a tree branch a bit more than eight feet from the ground in one leap and flap.

That's rather impressive. My Campines can do that & pretty much straight up. They are pretty good fliers & I'm sure some of what Ha'penny does is just for the exercise & because she can.

 

[Shadrach]

Ivy is not that agile (yet). It takes her some effort to fly over the fence, which is only 1.25m. None of the others bother - the older hens are largely ground dwelling and Peggy only manages to fly at knee height.

Well, the first thing that should get considered when getting chickens is can they cope and can the keeper cope with the environment the chickens are going to be kept in. Unfortunately it often doesn't get considered at all.
The Marans here for example know they should be going up trees to roost but just don't have the flight ability. Apparently some of the Marans in Marans in France do now have better flight capabilities but this has taken some generations of free range breeding.
If you want your hens to stay put then the sensible thing to do imo is get a breed that isn't noted for it's flight ability. Here in Catalonia, one of the reasons the Catalana del Pratt is favoured is because it doesn't head up the trees at night. The proper Black Minorcans on the other hand will roost in trees.

 

[rjohns39]

Good evening folks

We had a wonderful, busy Saturday MJ. Started by taking trash to the depot, then headed out for feed. On the way we stopped at Tennessee Legend Distillery for a tasting and to pick up a couple bottles, then off for a nice lunch. After lunch we finished the drive out for feed, got loaded up and then off to the grocery. Basically made a whole day of it.

 

[Grammy60]

Good evening everyone