Now i am just plain paranoid...how to predator proof their lives....

[Cetawin]

GotCochins? :

good ol' shotgun works great on most any predators ive encountered.

no no....that will cost ya 5,000.00...they are protected. LOL Hawks, Eagles, Owls, Falcons and Ospreys are a no kill thingy. Burrowing Owl will get you jail time

Florida is bad about it too.

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
How little is the dog? hahahaha Owls will go after them and cats in the evenings and at night. My son's cat got carried about 25' by an owl and finally got his claws into the owl's belly and got dropped. Amazed that mean cat survived but he is 17 years old now. hahaha

We always used 1/2" x 1/2" wire cloth/mesh and ran a layer of it over the chicken wire...it stops the snakes and birds.

then bury the chicken wire down about 10" all the way around and outward away from the run a couple of inches to keep out diggers.

Good luck with them.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Oh this worries me! We had always wanted free range chickens but after this I think I will have hubby make a larger run just in case we have to cage them

That is not what we want but I would rather have the babies safe! Is anyone else out there free ranging??

 

[orchidchick]

Hi there,
The new style of free ranging....picture this..i have done it 2 evenings in a row now. I have this huge quilt and have it tosses over my shoulders as i am sitting on the ground and the little peeps have no problem staying uner the "shroud" of protection as I raise my arms. I am going to have to see a chiropractor soon tho! I need to get a life!!!!

I actually covered 1 x 1 inch hardware cloth with 1/4 x 1/4'' on the run about 12" up for the snakes and keep the top covered with the tarp for now till I figure out the hoop house scenario. I haven't seen the hawk since that Sunday and their waterer hasn't been puddled underneath since either. Prior to that I thought they were knocking it around so I bought a bigger one and it kept happening..now I know why. But it hasn't happened since I ran at the sucker screaming like a banshee like I was going to rip it's head off!

The little dog is about 11 lbs, but it a Jack Russell although it is a tad brain damaged so it doesn't bark, run away, act neurotic or act like a Jack, except for the fact it does try to take birds down in flight! (likes chicks tho)
My girlfriend a block over just lost all her full grown chickens within several days once what ever it was found out there was free chicken dinners. She had them about a year and free ranged them with yard dogs, so that's not an automatic safety net.
so far mine don't seem to mind not free ranging because they don't know any other life...they seem very happy!
I was a little worried as I am recovering from a spinal fusion about letting them out but they are very easy to get back to the coop with just shaking a little of their feed back into the run.

Do you think enclosing the entire bottom of the run is as effective as running the wire down a foot or so? It is easy to do here because the soil is so sandy it sort of just settles down in there or you can easily just toss some soil over it. It is also very easy for the "diggers" whether it be the chickens or the predators.
Thanks all

 

[wefanjr]

I built my run pretty big because I new i could only free range if I was outside with them. I have coyotes, hawks and my own dog to worry about. So my run it completely surrounded with mesh wire top and bottom. Nothing can dig under my coup or climb in.