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

[STKFarms]

We've had a bobcat attack and kill three of our chickens so we raised the fence up higher. It is well over 6 feet. Also, we strung line over the whole free run area and tied tree ribbon to the line to keep out hawks.

 

[wilwingswaterfowl]

There's jaguars in Arazona?

We do have a small number of Jaguars in the states. Their used to be a pretty big widespread population before they were hunted to almost none back in the commercial hunting days.

 

[Birdsonghill]

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

Mannequins, rubber snakes, plastic owls,etc. work best if moved every day or two. The animals quickly become accustomed to them, if they never move. A side note: I had a mannequin that worked best on people. They can work well for a while and help on new predators moving in. That is what we did with scare crows for the last many hundreds of years, at the least!

 

[Birdsonghill]

We've had a bobcat attack and kill three of our chickens so we raised the fence up higher. It is well over 6 feet. Also, we strung line over the whole free run area and tied tree ribbon to the line to keep out hawks.

That is a good first step! Bobcats, minks, raccoons, grey fox all will climb easily any height fence, 10 feet tall will not stop them. Be sure and lock them in a secure coop every night! If minks get in, they sometimes will kill dozens in one attack and only eat their favorite organs from one or two. They can fit through a hole 2-3 inches in diameter, similar a common rat. But narrow tall sided runs with lines and fluttering rags/etc. is very effective on preventing hawk attacks!

 

[Jeanierose]

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

That is simply hilarious! I hope it works LOLOL

 

[Birdsonghill]

5’ Fence with 4 electric fence wires above it. Ground predators have quite a gauntlet to get through. Then 2 guard emus that have significantly reduced the hawk attacks. The emus kick and stomp when they see activity. One khaki Campbell didn’t make it, but a chicken survived because of them.

The main issue now are bald eagles. They are large enough to grab a bird and fly off with it. Not able to net off an acre, so will add even more cover when possible.

The guard emus are your best defense , most likely! I have had large long haired dogs, coyotes and mink totally oblivious to 7000 volts of electric wires or at least not stopped by woven wire and multi stranded electric fencing used together. The dogs/coyotes have killed thousands of dollars in sheep and goats over the years. Guard donkeys work fairly well, also. Electric fencing will not stop a determined predator , often. They work better at keeping domestic animals inside! A combination of protections strategy, seems to be the best at preventing attacks from a wide range of predators. Everything that eats meat, seems to like chickens! That's what made Colonel Sanders so popular! I suggest setting up netting for pasture chickens in long narrow runs instead of wider areas. Also use strings or poles with fluttering tape/rags/strung across the run. The strings do not necessarily, have to go full side to side over the run. It can be cheap light fishing line or staging, if moved often, that you wrap onto the poles that support it when moving the run. Large predator birds do not usually like to fly into tall narrow enclosed spaces, especially when clear flight paths do not exist leaving their intended target!

 

[Birdsonghill]

That is simply hilarious! I hope it works LOLOL

Move the mannequin every day and more often if you can. Rubber snakes, plastic owls and Mannequins work well, but predators/birds quickly get used to them, if they are not moved frequently. That is how we have used scarecrows for generations! We moved them several times per day. The mannequins work well to fool people too! Change the look, use eyeglasses or a different coat/hat, use a fake moustache somedays! My dad did this 60 years ago when having theft at his surplus/salvage yard business and cut losses from common to rare!

 

[Coop-de-coop]

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

 

[pgr]

We have a tall wire fence around our perimeter (dug into the ground), bushes and forested areas for hiding, our rooster is alert, our (not trained for property protection, ignores the chickens) dog is outside a lot, and we lock the coop at night.
However, after two VERY near misses with a falcon, we turned our yard into a used car lot. So far, so good! Hoping it will continue to do the trick!

 

[cmom]

your chickens are safer than my own kids! i have 23 dom coppers, one barred rock roo, and 15 blue bresse...but the netting to cover my entire run would be more expensive than the occasional loss of a $2 chicken...obviously, i hope the hawk would grab the roo, then a DC, then a bresse

When I bought the first section of netting which covered most of the pens, I bought it on eBay. I put a ridiculously low max bid in and to my surprise I won the bid. That netting has been up for over 10 years now and still good. In the section I was short I originally bought some deer netting. It wasn't nearly as good as the original eBay netting I bought but worked but did deteriorate after a few years. I replaced it with some crappy netting which wasn't what I thought it was. I should have returned it. I thought it would still keep aerial predators out. An owl went through the crappy netting three times and each time killed a bird. Each time I replaced that section with another piece. I put a camera up and got a picture of it going through the netting but had moved the birds to another coop and pen. I replaced the crappy netting with some good netting. The owl tried to go through it but got caught. We managed to get it into a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it. Also I originally had the section put together with cable ties. The also deteriorated after a few years. There was a gap and a Red Tail hawk discovered the gap and got into a pen and went on a killing spree. I was away on an appointment and errands so I was gone for a few hours. When I got home I heard the birds fussing so I knew something was up and went out to the coops and first saw a lot of bodies then saw the hawk. I went in and got some of the dead birds and opened up one end of the pen and got the hawk out. I lost 23 birds total from the hawk. Some died from their injuries the next day. They were all about ready to start laying. I replaced the cable ties with hog rings.
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