Responsibility to Secure Your Birds

[Historienne]

Amen, carlf. The lack of responsibility can be maddening. We have one neighbor who in a joking but judgmental way mocks our Fort Knox coop, then in the same breath tells us about the hawk/coyote/fisher cat that carried off one of his birds. One of these days I'll probably haul off and tell him "You do know you don't have to lose a bird a week? We certainly don't. It IS preventable!"

 

[Birdydeb]

I finally decided I just didn't care how much people made fun of me for creating Fort Knox. I am responsible for what I own not them and knowing I have done the best I can helps me sleep better at night. I would love to free range but the amount of hawks and eagles around makes that impossible. They stalk my runs even though they are covered. I can't imagine a more terrifying or gruesome death. Why would I want that for my chickens? At some point in the future I hope to maybe figure out some free range time. I haven't totally discounted it. Some of the posts mentioned have been really hard to read. But the ones that really get me going are the ones where knowledgable members have pointed out how to stop the losses and someone insists that, "No, it will be okay". My dad has always said you make mistakes to learn and if you don't learn then he has to wonder what is wrong with that person. That is what I think too. We all have to start somewhere and that learning curve can be steep but not taking good advice and needlessly putting innocent animals in harm's way? I don't get it. I figure at some point an overachieving predator or my own silly lapse of some kind will cost me a chicken. When that happens I need to learn from it and take measures to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[tomphot]

I'm new to this, my chicks are 4 weeks old. In building the run and coop, I've been paranoid about thinking of every area that might be an entry point. Every inch of the run, including the ground is covered with hard wire cloth. Every small vent opening in the coop is covered. All doors have 2 latches and D rings.
Question - are D rings Coon proof?

 

[PingoBags]

I'm new to this, my chicks are 4 weeks old. In building the run and coop, I've been paranoid about thinking of every area that might be an entry point. Every inch of the run, including the ground is covered with hard wire cloth. Every small vent opening in the coop is covered. All doors have 2 latches and D rings.
Question - are D rings Coon proof?

Same here, making a coop and sealing everything, my chicks are also 4 weeks. I'm not sure if a D ring would be coon proof. I was in HD looking at D rings but decided to buy another type. Looks like a D ring but instead of an spring loaded arm, it's screws shut. Turns about 20 times before I can remove it to open the coop. People say a coon can't turn a key in a lock so this is basically the same idea, but without the key.
We have lots of coons but I decided to leave them alone

 

[TerryH]

Our coop and run doors all have heavy duty barrel bolts with pad locks all keyed alike. Hardware cloth doors inside the windows. 4' hardware cloth with chicken wire above covered with 2x4 welded wire on the run. I'm not taking any chances period.

 

[Folly's place]

Very pretty coop! Mary

 

[TerryH]

Very pretty coop!  Mary

Thank you!

 

[MeepBeep]

Walt Disney has a lot to answer for;  wildlife is WILD,  not like the movie Bambi.  I loved the movie, but it's fantasy, so there!   Mary

You can preach that again...

When I was younger my dad would take my on Conservation Department sponsored deer harvest, counting and collection studies in forest preserves, only 'trusted' people were allowed to participate and you would get a call the morning of the study with only casual advance 'soon' warning in the weeks before, this was done so that word would not get out in advance to the 'Bambi' lovers so they could organize and disrupt the studies and culling... And I do mean 'Bambi' lovers literally as many would carry signs with pictures or text related to Bambi or scream something Bambi related over their megaphones...

The deer in these forest preservers needed to be culled back, on average they were about 60% the weight of 'healthy' deer in the area and there were huge winter mortality rates, there simply was not enough food to support their population in a forest preserve where hunting was forbidden and no natural predators existed... Still to this day as I walk through many local forest preserves you can see that there is very little good ground vegetation growth and every tree and bush is stripped clean to a height of about 5 feet...

Same with many other wild critters, they are not soft and cuddly pets, they are wild animals regardless of how they act in a cartoon...

 

[Mini Meat]

I just cant take it anymore, I have to comment. Sorry if I offend anyone, but sometimes it cant be helped.

We all lose a bird every now and then. Stuff happens. I lost one of Christmas to a possum (a now deceased possum).
But that should be the exception.

But I've a member here only a week and I have just read at least the 20th thread that starts out with:

"I've lost (pick a number more than 2, some as high as 10+) hens in the last (pick a multiple of days, nights, weeks). What's doing it and it and what should I do?"

OMG people, if you have chickens and you lose more than one bird to predators in a short time frame, you have a serious problem!
Your birds are dying. Don't wait until the 3rd, 4th, 5th + plus one is dead and then come on here asking what to do!

You have a duty to take action immediately.

You have duty to protect your birds because they cannot protect themselves.
Do not wait.
Take action.

If that means locking them up in a secure coop for days until you figure it out, that is what you do it. You do what is needed as soon as possible to secure the lives of these birds.

But, If you wait until you have lost 3, 4 5, or 10 birds over the course of a week before taking serious action, IMO you are simply not being a responsible owner and you should give your birds away. Period.

Sound harsh? Yep, but this is serious. You are responsible for the lives of these birds. Period.

Some things every chicken owner should have:

A lockable coop that is as predator proof as possible. Windows should have hardware clothe covering. All doors must be lockable.
A securable run that is predator proof as possible. That means quality chicken or welded wire with wire or net top. Lockable door.
A cage trap capable of catching raccoon size predators.
A means to kill a predator that you catch or a friend/family member that is willing to do it. Or you need the number for your local critter control company.
Never relocate predators, in most cases, its illegal.


Sorry to rant but I just cant believe some of what I have read on this forum.

Very good post. I would add one thing.

Inspect your coop regularly. I built a very nice predator "resistant" (the word proof underestimates the adversary in my opinion). It lasted for many, many years but I failed to notice that one corner of the plywood wall had rotted. A local raccoon did not fail to notice and the massacre was complete.

Now I go around and inspect my coops at least monthly.

 

[Howard E]

While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm going to offer comments that are a bit less harsh. I fear most of the folks who come to this forum seeking advice after loosing their birds are not so much irresponsible as they are inexperienced, with a fair dose of naivete thrown in for good measure. Many are simply in over their head with no appreciation for the extent of danger that awaits their birds until it is too late, nor are they aware of the extremes sometimes required to protect them if they wanted to. There was no test to take BEFORE they were allowed to bring 4 chicks home from the feed store. Unfortunately for them, the lessons they need to learn to pass that test are learned after the fact and come at them about as fast as sipping water from a fire hose.

Just as bad are the well meaning, but equally uninformed folks who are in the business of providing goods and services to new growers. The worst offenders in this category are the people building and selling "cute" chicken coops that may look like what someone thinks a chicken coop ought to look like, but in the real world are poorly designed and not up to the task of providing suitable shelter and protection for the birds. So folks buying these contraptions end up spending a lot of money on a coop, thinking they are doing the right thing when they are not. Regrettably, it is the birds who wind up paying the price.

The good news is most folks with a sincere desire to do things right are fast learners. Those who aren't will most likely lose their birds to a predator and will do a better job next time, or simply give up and get out, never to return.

The ones I admire most in all this are the experienced growers who frequent these forums.....who are patiently offer the same advice ad nauseam to these new folks. I don't know how they do it.