Official BYC Poll: How Do You Protect Your Chickens From Predators?

[Artichoke Lover]

Always look for snakes. As they can fit through anything and with PLENTY of rodents to eat. They learn a pattern. At my old place they simply liked eating the eggs every night while I was gone. I work on the road. At that time only a week or 2 at a time. A friend took care of them and took the eggs every few days ALWAYS got the same amount of eggs no matter how many days in between visits. When I came home the same number of eggs.
After I wasn't working I found I got that many eggs every day. Then I got more chicks. After they were older I started leaving the brooder box open. Then I started losing chicks. Pondered me for a awhile, wet heads none missing, random dead chicks not in the "coop" of the brooder box. Then locked them up and later found the smaller of the 2 rat snakes I got the next 3 days my profile pic on a 4 month old RIR. The next day or the day after I got a 6 footer on it's way.

Every gap in my coop bigger than 1/4 inch is covered in strips of hardware cloth for just that reason.

 

[Carson213]

ANY coon, snake, possum, I DON'T CARE predators learn an easy meal. If you ever find a problem start trapping, hunting whatever to get rid of it. Not live trap a coon or possum and let it go 2,3,5 miles down the road. They'll b back tomorrow.

i don’t uber predators anywhere...but i do dump them away from the coop where the coyotes can eat them.

 

[cmom]

Aviary netting (nylon not plastic) is pretty cost effective. The bigger cost was putting 12ft posts into the ground to keep the net up nice and high.

I made T-posts out of wood to hold my netting up. So far it works.

 

[Shezadandy]

i have posts for the fencing but how big are the sheets of netting? my run is 175x200’. will snow fall through it or pull it down? do i need posts in the middle?

I found the limits for aviary netting. We're finally at the tail end of a horrible ice storm that's gone from Thursday until today. I've got so many downed trees that all I can do is start at the shop to get the tractor out and try to clear the driveway first. For days we've had no power (thankfully, a generator that works- still on generator now), and the only sounds have been of tree limbs falling, trees breaking in half and trees falling over. Constantly. 20 years here and I've never seen anything like this. None of this is snow- it's 100% ice.

Back to the netting ... It held up to the ice for the first couple of days, no problem, but enough ice that got heavier and heavier with all the mist-like rain that stuck and froze instantly- as thick as a pinkie finger- built up on every last strand and so it fell through the posts, and of course as the big trees at the edges of the run dropped all kinds of huge branches, breaking the net. Again... no snow for us- only ice built up from days of freezing rain.

I fully expect to be able to patch and repair and restore it to full function. The flock has been contained to the coop because of serious safety issues- the glaze ice on the ground, and both with the threat of the sheer weight of the net if it pulled all the way down as well as someone getting tangled in a low spot- but also the size of the falling debris, including ice the size of large cube falling from way up. Tomorrow the repair job begins and I'm sure the chickens are looking forward to coming out, though to a reduced area at first.

 

[Jp617]

22 magnum and a pulsar thermal scope

 

[spartacus_63]

i don’t uber predators anywhere...but i do dump them away from the coop where the coyotes can eat them.

Yes, Live Trap is simply the name of the type of trap. My catches get dispatched and then into the burn pit. Chickens love roasted predator.

 

[Birdsonghill]

We here in the midsouth, are getting hammered with ice and now snow. Temps down close to zero, rare here and expected all week. I have not had the level of damage yet, as some past storms of the 1990's. But trees are still cracking up and coming down. Our local power is off and on. So far they have kept up well, with the repairs around me! They (our local power coop) did a lot of right of way clearing the past couple of years and it is paying dividends now! God bless and keep safe to you and your neighbors! I was without power 5 weeks in the biggest ice storm in the 1990's. I pray nobody is going to go through that!

 

[CLSranch]

een anything like this. None of this is snow- it's 100% ice.

Oddly that's our normal. The rare thing now is the -3 this morning and 4" of snow on top of the 1/4"-1/2" of ice. We can usually go from 75f rain to 10 rain turns to ice back to the 50s all in a 10 day forecast.

 

[CLSranch]

My chicken tractor has a piece of solid tin left over from the roof job. Covers the full length over the chicken wire. It's more for rain and sun than predators as they free range.

 

[Birdsonghill]

Oddly that's our normal. The rare thing now is the -3 this morning and 4" of snow on top of the 1/4"-1/2" of ice. We can usually go from 75f rain to 10 rain turns to ice back to the 50s all in a 10 day forecast.

That is describing my area as well. Ice is more common than snow here, we just pray it doesn't get too heavy, when it comes, and it usually does not. It might be 74 degrees one day and 30 the next, all winter long here. Typically, we do not get temps below about 20 degrees or more than a few inches of snow per year. Some years, rarely, can see temps below zero and we have had up to 18 inches, snow, but that was a lifetime event here, more than 50 years ago! I have lived through several bad ice storms here, that caused extensive damages, deaths and weeks without power for some. I don't mind snow, but ice is dreaded. Good luck to all under this storm!