AAAAAGH!
I came home yesterday from work around 3:30...wet and rainy but warmer, so the chickens were out finding worms and the like.
I get a voicemail on my phone and begin to check it...I'm listening to the VM and staring out the window when I see a fox, out in the open plain as day, trotting across my driveway....
Oh, no.... I put the phone down, throw on my rain coat and run out. I am just in time to see the fox running away with something in his mouth - he is about 250 feet from me now, a trail of feathers leading from thee huge pine tree the chickens use for cover from rain... None of my 18 chickens can be seen or heard.
I grabbed my bow and quiver and ran towards where the fox was running, probably more out of anger than anything...the ground was wet and waterlogged and I didn't get far as I still have my tennis shoes on. Ran in to get my boots and tried in vein to find the fox which was, of course, by this time no use.
Back to the coop....one hen was still sitting on eggs. None of the other 17 could be accounted for.
Slowly, I began to walk around, looking for movement from either chicken or fox. They came home, one by one, but not all. The fox was on a killing spree. I discovered piles of feathers everywhere, as though my chickens randomly exploded...then I started finding the bodies. He got 5 of my hens, seriously wounded two FULL GROWN JERSEY GIANT hens. Took two roosters.
I found the bodies of 4 of the hens...its like he killed them, carried them about 100 - 150 feet toward his den, and then dropped them and went for another!
At the end, when night fell and everyone was back in the coop, there is still one missing jersey giant hen and two mixed breed roosters. I stitched up one jersey giant hen and I am hoping for the best - a big gash, but I have seen them heal from worse. I cant believe he went for the giants - I saw the guy, and he wasn't big at all - no way he could carry one off.
I am so upset! I get that free range means predation, and I accept the circle of life. If a hawk is going to start stalking I will lock up the chickens for a while and chase off the hawk and all is well. Most of my issues with coons, skunks and coyote happen at night, and the chickens are locked up tight so I havent had a problem in a decade. My only problem during the day has been dogs and hawks.
But, other than dogs, I have never had a wild animal just kill and drop and kill again. That just pisses me off!
Now I have a flock of almost all roosters....all of whom ran and sounded no alarm as they do with the hawks.
Had the same problem, except it was coyotes, and they just took one at a time. But it got to the point that I had to keep my birds behind wire at all times.
I had been reading up on Livestock Guard Dogs, thinking that was probably my best option. Then at last springs Lucasville swap there was a guy selling Anatolian/Great Pyrenees cross pups. Usually I put a lot of time into researching the breeder, parents, that type of thing, but the wife was taken by one particular pup, and I realized this might be my only shot to get her on board. Sooo.... we came home with 6 week old Maddie.
Now a year later she is growing into her role as protector of the flock. Her favorite thing is to lay out back and keep an eye on her flock, (Still behind wire), with the occasional stroll back through the woodlot to check on things. This picture was after one of those 3" rain events a little while back.
Here she was keeping an eye on a suspicious vulture flying too close to her birds.
They say that LGD don't mature until about the age of two, and better to monitor their interaction with fun livestock like chickens up until around that age. Then they should be safe alone with free range birds.
She comes into the house at night, as the coops are buttoned down at dusk. If she had a partner, and I had better fence on the one side I might consider leaving her out. But to date have never lost a bird after dark.
So far I have kept all birds in their runs, except for the occasional rambunctious guinea, but I am liking the prospects that free ranging might be feasible again before too long.http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm
