New Flock, a few questions

[SquishyPandas]

I have a similar problem in my area, we have a fox who lives in the feild behind our house and he loves to snack on our hens, he's managed to kill three so far over the space of 2 years. :'(

What we do now, to make sure this NEVER happens again is keep the hens in the coop which has a roof, unless we are out in the garden with them to watch over them.

1) Will a rooster help?

From my experience, roosters are more of a hassle than an advantage UNLESS you want to rear chicks.
They make a lot of noise, are aggressive, don't lay eggs and mean buying more food, and cleaning up more mess. Don't know if they will help with protection though, sorry.

2) From what I've read Rhode Island Reds seem to be the most equipped for this scenario. Am I mistaken?

I'm sorry, I've never had RIRs, so I wouldn't know.

3) Do flocks learn from tragedy what will save them? Or will they all be susceptible to what got the first few?

I don't think so, chickens are not the most intelligent animals... hehe.

4) Pretty much expecting some losses (and knowing that they could be 100%) what would be a good start if I wanted to end up with, say, 4 layers (assuming the answer to 3 is "yes"). Do I get 30 birds and then struggle to have coops for them all (or have 75% empty coops) or do I get 10 birds who might be a bit crowded but expect some to, er, thin out?

I would buy enough coops to house as many hens as you want to keep, make sure the coops and runs have tops to protect the hens from hawks and make sure the runs are large so it won't matter that they are only free ranging when you are there to supervise! c:

I hope I helped a bit! Good luck!

 

[Mrs. K]

This is the scenario I was in 5 years ago. I tried it your way, repeatedly. It will not work. If you have that much rough country, the predators are there, whether you see them or not.

Chickens do not learn, but predators DO learn where an easy meal is to be had. And they will be back. I smiled at the lady above who had a shocking 3 head loss over several years. There have been times where that was my loss over a month.

A baby roo will do nothing, and raising them through the "teens" is a bit trying for people and hens. But a mature roo will seriously cut back on day time losses. I think those are mostly hawk losses, but not sure. I used to lose a hen or so about once a month, and when Captain finally turned a year old, that has been the last one I have lost. I have plenty of bushes and trees for my flock to be in, and it did not help with the predators, but the shade is important for the hens.

At night, one needs a totally enclosed coop/run. Roosters can do nothing against a night time predator. Chickens are nearly comatose at night. Racoons, love chickens, and once I had one leave a note in blood on the door, please leave BBQ sauce, I am tired of them plain

! The run needs to be built with chain link fencing, or some other similar strong wire. That keeps the predators out, then lined with chicken wire to keep chickens in. Inside of this fort knox, put your coop.

I know that you are thinking free range, and I do free range nearly every day. But if you are going to be gone for a few days, if you just leave them in the wild, you will come home to nearly nothing. I have tried this repeatedly, until the last time when my boys came home and built me fort knox.

Sometimes, if I start loosing hens, I will leave them locked in the run, for a few days until my predators move off.

I love my hens, I have 9 laying their butts off right now. The laying varies through the year. And if you want eggs in the dark days of winter, you need pullets hatched that summer. The older hens will nearly quit.

Hope this helps.

MrsK

 

[cubalaya]

knock on wood! the only losses that we have had here(10 years) are a couple of marans hens that were attacked by a stray dog. imo marans are a weak breed anyway. one winter i shot 5 possums that were hanging around and i have shot a couple of coons but neither were after the chickens at the time. i believe in having a few good hunting dogs around. they scare predators. my neighbor who had no dog was cleaned out of chickens several times.

 

[EeyoreD]

Quote:

HA! Hilarious. Well not really but... ok yeah it is.

Thanks to all, it sounds like it's kind of a crap shoot either way but the key to success seems to be dogs. Now, if only I can train my dog to not just run away. :-/ She's pretty good on protection and knowing what is and isn't acceptable (she's got a fair bit of border collie in her) but she also just likes to run. Forever.

Also I may not have been clear on what I meant be free range (it may not be "free range" at all).

I don't mean to say that they would totally be left on their own. I would put them up at night (probably in one of the A-frame type coops with the run underneath - still planning the type I"m going to build) but during the day they wouldn't necessarily be supervised. Late morning I would wander out and set them free and come evening lock them up safe. But my thinking was more to not be watching them every second while they're out and just let them have run of the property.

But again, if needed there would be a run for them - just not as vast an expanse as the entire yard.

Thanks again!