QUESTIONS ABOUT LOCAL PREDITORS BEFORE I RECIEVE MY NEW CHICKS

[chicksurreal]

I live in Death Valley and here the worst and most prevalent
is the Bob Cat this is the one you really need to watch out
for as it is quick silent deadly and wont stop till you stop it ....

Yep.

The one we have around here has decimated most of the flocks of our neighbors who let their chickens free range all the time, He's young and has been here for the better part of a year at least. He's been shot at numerous times, comes in at any time of day and is very fast. My neighbors dog has treed him several times but she never gets a good shot at him. He's still afraid of humans at this point, but I hope somebody gets him soon because he's just hanging around waiting for a chicken dinner all the time. I saw him around 5:00 PM yesterday just staring through the fence at my poor chickens. By the time we got out there with a gun he was gone, but probably not too far away.

 

[donrae]

Same here! We have so many crows here and usually when I see hawks around it isn't very long before a pair of crows will come in and chase them off.

My honey and I heard an amazing amount of screeching/screaming noise the other day--I literally thought someone was torturing a puppy

We finally looked UP and it was crows driving off a hawk--I'd never seen that before, but was pretty impressed at their teamwork. It took almost 20 minutes, apparently it was pretty determined hawk, but it finally gave up and left.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm far removed from your habitat, but I vote for what ever predator happens to be passing by your yard at the time. My biggest fear is weasel, b/c they can squeeze through an incredibly small hole, and are killing machines, one weasel being capable of wiping out an entire flock in a single night, just for the thrill of the kill. In the past, I lost almost an entire flock to a single raccoon, who showed up one evening, and killed all but 3 of my girls. He showed up again the next morning, and met up with a .22. It was curiosity that was his undoing. Because, my husband missed with the first shot, the coon dove under the coop, then stuck his head back out to see what the loud noise was. End of his story.

What is a Javalina?????

Never mind. Just did a google search. What an interesting, but potentially pesty creature! I bet they would be tasty!

 

[chicken farmer8]

the biggest problem i have had was raccoons and dogs the racoons are really smart and are able to get into latches so i put a lock on my coop so they cant get to them also i have a concrete floor in my coop and about an 8 foot fence i lined the bottom of the fence with bigger heavy rocks i first dug a trench then i set the rock down in the trench and covered the rock and i have not had any more problems since i hope this helps and good luck with your new chicks

 

[rockmissjess]

This is a JAvalina there are tonz of them around here as well as coyotes... I am going to have my husband tear down the 10x10 barn in the back yard and build a new one specifically for my hens... cause i was thinking of ordering one but im too scared with our wildlife that the ones that you order wont stand up to our nature.. i dont want it to have a run or any openings and i want it a little off the ground cause of our monsoon rains... why no run? because those ^^^^^^ Javalina up there will dig and dig till they get what they want... if i have my husband build a barn off the ground that is super sturdy and heavy duty i wont worry about something getting to my hens at night... im home all day everyday and our neighbor hood is out in the boonies... (i have one neighbor actually next to me) so im not super worried about them being out during the day... but if it becomes a problem yeah ill get em a run or something... i would like the chickens to roam about the yard tho... and my husband wants to reinforce the chainlink fence with chicken wire? thats what he said yesterday.

 

[chicksurreal]

This is a JAvalina there are tonz of them around here as well as coyotes... I am going to have my husband tear down the 10x10 barn in the back yard and build a new one specifically for my hens... cause i was thinking of ordering one but im too scared with our wildlife that the ones that you order wont stand up to our nature.. i dont want it to have a run or any openings and i want it a little off the ground cause of our monsoon rains... why no run? because those ^^^^^^ Javalina up there will dig and dig till they get what they want... if i have my husband build a barn off the ground that is super sturdy and heavy duty i wont worry about something getting to my hens at night... im home all day everyday and our neighbor hood is out in the boonies... (i have one neighbor actually next to me) so im not super worried about them being out during the day... but if it becomes a problem yeah ill get em a run or something... i would like the chickens to roam about the yard tho... and my husband wants to reinforce the chainlink fence with chicken wire? thats what he said yesterday.

We have tons of Javalina around too, don't usually see them during the day, but they cross our property to get to the creek at night. I counted 20 in one group one night!

we have our coop raised up about two feet off the ground as well. Just a note about letting them free-range during the day, not sure where you are, but here in the high desert we have hawks and coyotes out during the day and a bobcat actually killed two of our cockerels in broad daylight. Once was at noon and I had just literally been out there 5 minutes before it happened.

I used to let them out to run around free all day and just check on them every little bit, but now they aren't out unless I am with them because of the predator situation. If something is hungry, they will find a way to get them if you leave them out, at least in our area (we are literally surrounded by wilderness). We now have a run that is fenced with heavy chain link and a skirt coming three feet out from the fence that is buried. Also covered the top with chain link. It may be overkill, but I don't think anything can get in there, I caught that bobcat looking through the fence at them yesterday. He ran off when he saw me, but I think he got a couple of our neighbors chickens last night that free-range.

And our coop is like fort knox inside the run, gets locked up with a lock at night because we do have tons of raccoons too just in case they did manage to chew through the chain link! Lol!

 

[chicksurreal]

Oh, forgot to mention that we have that small wire garden fence coming up about three feet all the way around the run too, that was for when they were small and could have gotten through the chain link, but we left it up to keep snakes and things like that out of there.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Have a suggestion - We have let our chickens free range for 2 yrs and not a single wild predator loss. We run our dogs loose with them (thats the losses- it does take a few months to train the dog, espec if its a puppy)-- we have bear on top of all the other predators (wild boar here not javelinas though) and our dogs even prevent aerial predation....they even chase the Canada geese out of the fields!

 

[chicksurreal]

Have a suggestion - We have let our chickens free range for 2 yrs and not a single wild predator loss. We run our dogs loose with them (thats the losses- it does take a few months to train the dog, espec if its a puppy)-- we have bear on top of all the other predators (wild boar here not javelinas though) and our dogs even prevent aerial predation....they even chase the Canada geese out of the fields!

We also have two dogs that now hang out outside way more than they used to. My PitBull mix has chased coyotes and the bobcat away. Our problem is that we had our dogs for several years before we got chickens. While they are actually very good with the chickens, they're spoiled as all heck and want to come in whenever they feel like it.

We're talking about getting a couple of pups to train for protecting the chickens, but I've heard it takes a couple of years to get them trained for it. What kind of dogs do you have? We haven't been able to decide on a breed or if it's even all that important to get a certain breed.

 

[rockmissjess]

I heard German Shepherds are great dogs to have to watch/protect your chickens plus they are HUGE! Im not allowed to have a dog... (my dad owns my house) but he said i could have chickens so thats a reason we are doing it... they are going to be our pets