Ozark Mountain Man New to Forum

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So I am new I am just gonna tell you all what I got in my coops at the moment I have 12 cinnamon queens,17 barred Plymouth rocks,3 buckeyes,and 6 rhode island reds those are the egg layers I got 2 buckeye roosters,and a Quail bearded D anver rooster as well separate from the egg layers of course.
 
I live up in north east ohio.
400
 
flinter536 said:
I am in the Missouri Ozarks.

I am planning to let my chickens free range. The small flock I have now are in a chain link enclosure. A neighbor had 14 hens. They lost all but 2 due to an owl. They told me they even tried locking them in the barn at night, but the owl would fly in through the loft and knock the hens off the roost.

I didn't know an owl would do that.

Should I allow my free range chickens to raise chicks and just collect eggs from the enclosed flock?
Click to expand...

I was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but my grandparents on my father's side used to live in Branson, Missouri, and we really enjoyed our visits there. The large, Great Horned Owls are especially bold, ferocious predators. There were a pair of them nesting beneath the water tower near the house on the street (in the middle of town) where my wife and I first lived when we married. We assumed that they were feeding primarily on rats as there were a lot of them in that area. Before long the neighbors began complaining that their cats were missing. One morning, just about sunrise, I was standing on the curb waiting for my carpool ride, when I saw a cat trotting across the street between me and the water tower. Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the great horned owls swooped down and sank its talons and beak into the top of the cat's head. The cat must have died instantly. With its wings churning furiously, the owl began to lift the cat into the air, and slowly flew off to the owls' nest beneath the water tower with the cat dangling from its talons. I told some of the neighbors what I had seen and a couple of days later one of the neighbors bore eye witness to the same thing. At least we knew what had happened to the cats; and the neighbors quit letting their cats roam the neighborhood at night. If you decide to free range your chickens, you will lose some of them. Of course it will be up to you to figure out whether or not you think the losses are acceptable.
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

Sounds like you have a lovely flock!

Nice picture too! That is a big fish
 

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