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

[jus10inla]

Thank goodness the wild boar aren’t interested in chickens ?

Think again on that.. tho they won’t attack them first

 

[jus10inla]

Savages!!!! We keep savages for help with predators....A Savage .17 hmr by one door and a Savage 6.5 creedmoor at another...both ready to go!

93r17 with a bull barrel ready for the little predators & 25/06 for the long range yote or bobcat

 

[Orpingtons Mom]

Currently my people free range during the day, then get put to bed in their coop, which is inside the garage.

 

[Ryguy3684]

We have a large, covered, run that they spend most of the time in. Now, they get about 2-3 hours, in the evening, of supervised free range time, and more on the weekends. If the dogs are out, I don't need to worry about predators. They look after the chickens well. A word of warning, the cds hanging in the trees doesn't always work. Our pullets were in the yard last summer and my wife went inside for about 15 minutes. A falcon came down and killed one. We had about a dozen cds hanging all around the yard. It didn't deter it at all.

 

[cmom]

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 use netting to cover my pens but my pens are smaller than yours. Mine are 60'x200'. I do have some wooden T-posts I made to hold up the netting because it will sag. My fences are 5' tall which is my height but I still have to duck some where it sags. About in the middle of the picture I have a very tall T-post that you can see in the picture.

 

[cmom]

This is a piece of the netting I used. I originally bought some crappy netting online and it wasn't what I thought. I should have returned it but thought it would still deter aerial predators. I had an owl go through it. Each time the owl went through I put up a new piece but the owl kept going through it. I did eventually replace that section with the same good heavy duty netting I had over the rest of the pens.

 

[cmom]

To protect my birds I have fairly large pens. I don't free range anymore due to losses in the past. I have electric wires around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering all of the pens. I have had no intrusions. They have to get past the electric wires first. My fence is also grounded so if anything touches the fence and the electric wires they will know it but even if they only touch the hot wires they will know it and will hurt for awhille. I use both insulators and step in posts. I added another coop so I had to move the wires to accommodate for the new pen. I also have several game cameras. I love my cameras. I think the adult predators teach their young that a chicken isn't worth getting zapped for.
Here I used the fence insulators.

Here I used the step in posts When I added a coop and pen.

 

[David Barkey]

I just bought a realistic looking mannequin to keep away the hawk that recently attacked.View attachment 2517668

Now if you can make it move every so often , might just work . Animals get use to things that are stationary. Oh ya pee on its pants , the smell of a larger pred. (man) helps keep a lot of them away .

 

[CHlCKEN]

I just bought a realistic looking mannequin to keep away the hawk that recently attacked.View attachment 2517668

OMG WHAT?!?!!

 

[CHlCKEN]

I just bought a realistic looking mannequin to keep away the hawk that recently attacked.View attachment 2517668

Those eyebrows need some work, I’ll tell you that.