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Redhead Rae said:
Whatever we get, I am NOT having an indoor dog. I’m DONE with indoor pets. My in-laws has a dog in the old farmhouse when we moved up here. There was a MAJOR flea infestation that took the better part of a year to resolve. Since we had an infant in the house we didn’t want to bomb the house so we did it the long, hard way of vacuuming 2x a day for months only to have a resurgence later. I’m still very traumatized by this.
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In a warm climate, the fleas can breed all year. The Frontline or pills were the only thing that worked. The dog I used to have was an indoor dog, but lots of hunters keep Brittanys in an outdoor kennel.
 
Parront said:
We have coyotes, our birds of prey do not want to be on the ground like that at all. Your Christmas list might include a nice puppy. Even a good size Terrier will put the fear into a hawk. I would like to get a Brittany Spaniel again, my old one was a great bird dog. Easy to train, not to big. She would have never allowed a Red Tail Hawk to perch in her yard! They weigh ~ 40 - 50 pounds, not as big a food bill as a LGD, either!
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Nice (a little funny) but Todd is a forager. I know a LOT of folks who put them in the pasture and don't feed them. I feed him non-gmo dog food with red meat. I think the folks who don't feed are cruel but todd eats legumes, plants (he's hell on the garden) and grasses. Along with anything small that moves about. He's completely eliminated my moles and several other pesky garden pests, but he loses every time to the chipmunks. He kills raccoons and opossums and leaves them where he killed them. If someone or something kills a deer, he's happy to bring parts home to eat. That said, he's now afraid of bugs, hates the heat and rain and it terrified of lightning. He was eating those spicy popcorn bites that fly when one turned on him and stung him on the butt. He ran into the house and hid under the bed in my bedroom at the back of the house.
 
@Redhead Rae Your hawk put the word out about ground stalking littles. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was getting ready to leave for work and hear BB going nuts. I look out and he and one hen are in the big run. Not another bird in sight. I let the dogs out and still lots of chicken squawking but I don't see anything. So I go out and there it is on the ground staring down my grow outs in the little coop. That one is by far the most secure but I won't be surprised if I lost one to a heart attack. It flew into the tree overhead and I lost sight of it but my BCM hen sure didn't. She was giving that thing serious stink eye. I followed her gaze and when I laid eyes on it it finally left. I was holding the hose but couldn't get it before it flew. Poor little chicks were huddled in a corner. I couldn't even un-clump them to check on them. I went in and talked to them and told them IN the coop would be better. They didn't make a sound.
It was small but I'm pretty sure a red tailed hawk or maybe a coopers. If I see it again I'll try to be more prepared with the hose. I do have a crow call....🤔 I may need to dig it out and practice.
 
FlyingNunFarm said:
@Redhead Rae Your hawk put the word out about ground stalking littles. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was getting ready to leave for work and hear BB going nuts. I look out and he and one hen are in the big run. Not another bird in sight. I let the dogs out and still lots of chicken squawking but I don't see anything. So I go out and there it is on the ground staring down my grow outs in the little coop. That one is by far the most secure but I won't be surprised if I lost one to a heart attack. It flew into the tree overhead and I lost sight of it but my BCM hen sure didn't. She was giving that thing serious stink eye. I followed her gaze and when I laid eyes on it it finally left. I was holding the hose but couldn't get it before it flew. Poor little chicks were huddled in a corner. I couldn't even un-clump them to check on them. I went in and talked to them and told them IN the coop would be better. They didn't make a sound.
It was small but I'm pretty sure a red tailed hawk or maybe a coopers. If I see it again I'll try to be more prepared with the hose. I do have a crow call....🤔 I may need to dig it out and practice.
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Get a fake owl. Working well for us so far.
 
rjohns39 said:
Nice (a little funny) but Todd is a forager. I know a LOT of folks who put them in the pasture and don't feed them. I feed him non-gmo dog food with red meat. I think the folks who don't feed are cruel but todd eats legumes, plants (he's hell on the garden) and grasses. Along with anything small that moves about. He's completely eliminated my moles and several other pesky garden pests, but he loses every time to the chipmunks. He kills raccoons and opossums and leaves them where he killed them. If someone or something kills a deer, he's happy to bring parts home to eat. That said, he's now afraid of bugs, hates the heat and rain and it terrified of lightning. He was eating those spicy popcorn bites that fly when one turned on him and stung him on the butt. He ran into the house and hid under the bed in my bedroom at the back of the house.
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We would feed any LSG dog we got. It’s just mean not to. Plus we want to encourage the dog to stay at home. We have an outdoor cat who is our mouser/ratter. We feed her even though she likes to eat her prey. She shows NO interest in challenging the hawk. She was watching it from the porch, tail twitching at the frightened peeps.
 
The best deterrent to hawks I've found is crows. Turkeys sometimes work, but not too often and geese I'm told will work. Your average red tail is about 3.5 pounds but can take the head off an 8 pound bird using its dive. That said that 3 1/2 pound bird never wants to meet up with a 10 pound or larger bird that can fight back. I once saw a red tail make a dive for my pasture... it had already picked the chicken it was going for. I had four young toms who took flight to intercept the red tail. The hawk turned tail and ran. My turkeys have also killed a barred owl, but waited for her to return to the scene to eat the dead cockerel to do it. I have a friend who puts a single female goose out with his chickens and she goes stark raving mad at the sight of an aerial predator. But I still think that's kind of mean as she's not a chicken and misses her own kind. My friend says if she has a girl friend, they'll get to chatting and ignore the hawk and chickens. IDK, but his logic kind of makes sense.
 

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