Predators and free ranging

[Crooked Chicken]

Livestock guardian breeds are the best option...some herding breeds are a close second. My heeler is excellent and she is a herding dog. She's actually not even pure heeler, she's mixed but she inherited the drive.

Bless her heart I cannot thank her enough for what she does for my flock.

Crooked chicken, a good dog will have seen it in the sky and come for it before it even started down- and most birds will not come down to a yard with dogs in it, and if they try once, they get run out fast and if they grab a bird it is usually at the expense of their life- a dog will be on the hawk very fast. I watched a guardian spaniel who ran hawks and that dog knew the property line. As soon as hawks hit the line he ran beneath them, foaming and barking. He followed to the edge of the line and stayed until they were out of sight. No bird could have come down in that yard with him in it. He was a beast.

That's great that you have a good dog with that kind of instinct.

I have lots of big old trees on my property and believe it flew out of one very close by due to the angle it appeared from. My dogs are chihuahuas. One of them was in the yard at the time. It very well could have been her that got attacked.

 

[centrarchid]

Will this keep out fox?

Most of the time the fencing will keep the fox out. Keeping fence hot and taught is important.

 

[Crooked Chicken]

However; getting chickens to go into the fenced area was worse than trying to herd cats.

Sorry you lost a lot to the coyotes -- that really sucks. I laughed at your comment about herding the chickens as I did that this afternoon and they were going in every direction. Normally they would take themselves home at the end of the day, but now are banished to the house & run. I brought them out for just a little while -- to dust bathe in their favorite stump. Had a heck of a time getting them back. I was paranoid the whole time they were out -- waiting for something to swoop down.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

My ex lost most of his flock (8 out of 10 hens) to his neighbor's dog. In the state of Ct, if an animal is threatening your livestock you have a right to defend your livestock... He was nice about it; ended up walking the dog home, feather's still in its mouth, and telling the lady that he'd lost 8 birds to the dog and if it showed up once more he was going to shoot it. The lady argued that it wasn't her dog, until her kid ran up and face planted on the dog who started licking the kid.... After that, the dog never showed up again.

I'd be most worried about that dog, as it apparently doesn't have any respect for your dogs. I'd also be concerned about rabies, if the dog is lose constantly. Animal control would be involved, especially if it'd come after me and mine. I'd also have checked the laws in your area and if legal, let them know you're going to shoot it if it shows up again. You don't even have to own a gun, tell them you do and that may be enough to take care of the problem. Otherwise, animal control.

Otherwise, I only free range mine about an hour before they would take themselves to bed. We have all manner of predators here, I even woke up to Great Horned owls outside my window once. And my dog views chickens as running squeaky toys... so I only let them out when they can be supervised.

 

[Kwarner12]

Right now their coop and run has 1/4 in hardware cloth all around and on top, we have 1/2 in buried under the ground. (Call me paranoid LOL) I lost 2 to a raccoon break in their 2nd day in the coop, but it showed me where I went wrong with the locks.

I have 4 BCM hens and a Welsummer hen & roo.
I just don't want to lose my chickens. These are my first ever. My Bernese Mountain dog wants to chase the chickens. And they're kept behind a fenced yard when they're outside.
I have 2 acres and about 1/4 of it is wooded, we back up to a wooded nature preserve as well, which is huge!

 

[Kwarner12]

Thanks for all the wonderful advice everyone! I will run these ideas by my husband. I would really like to let my birds out, I know they would enjoy it. In the end, it will be my husbands decision. He doesn't like the idea of putting in fences more than what we already have for the dogs.
He may go for the wire fencing!
Thanks again!!!

 

[centrarchid]

As an alternative fencing option, consider using electrified poultry netting that. It is less intimidating to on lookers and easy to put up. I have a high with four fence units and initially no experience using the nets in in an urban setting very effectively.

 

[aswartzalso]

If it's a heavier chicken they won't be able to necessarily "fly" away...but full wings will give it an advantage.

We have guinea fowl and I trimmed their wings so they couldn't roost on the joists of the coop over my head last winter. We've have a predator, very confident it's a fox...slowly picking away at the guineas the as they venture farther away away from the yard. It appears the guineas that have been taken have been the ones with trimmed wings.

We have poultry netting on hand for such an event, this is our first time using it. The remaining guineas will occasionally fly out of the fence. But then they will also fly back into the fence if something was to rush at them. We will keep the fence up until the foxes have been taken care of. I may keep it after as well but the flock will be allowed to free range again.

The red dot is where the last guinea was taken from. I was in the yard at the time. Foxes are very brazen.
View attachment 1121696

Will this keep out fox?

 

[aswartzalso]

Will this keep out fox?

 

[aswartzalso]

You need to train those dogs and make use of them. I never felt comfortable ranging my birds until I started using the dog.

I use a heeler to protect my flock. She isn't out all the time but the time she is out is plenty to keep even airborne predators far far away. They don't want to tangle with her. Being a livestock breed as soon as she was shown not to chase them, she adopted them as her charges in place of cattle and guards them furiously. She even knows what chickens and ducks belong to us and which do not. If wild ducks come into the yard she will chase them away.

I also use her to herd the birds if I need to bring them in during the day for some reason. Heelers are bred to work cattle on ranches and it runs in their blood to do this sort of thing, so even though they are chickens and ducks, she loves what she does and takes it very seriously.