The Economy and Your Chickens

[Birch Run Farm]

I had an odd thought this morning. With the economy and confidence plummeting and many people facing hard times ahead (and I think it is going to last for years). I started to wonder when our livestock might suffer?

Will people steal our chickens, cattle, goats, etc to survive?

With that thought, how will you protect your animals? I have some game cameras I can set up if such a problem happens.

Have any of you already experienced such?

 

[kinnip]

A lot of folks here have had to deal with two legged predators. I haven't, but thanks to reading a million posts about it, I've started padlocking my birds and have plans for a game cam. I think we'll also be installing a gate across the driveway. I don't think it will be wholesale chaos with chicken thieves roaming in packs through the night, but my neighbors already worry me a little.

 

[cajunlizz]

we electrified ALL our fences and pens . All entrances are padlocked .

Yes , with this weird strange economy you can bet people will stop at nothing when the going gets tough

 

[speckledhen]

What the economy has done is make me feed the less expensive feeds, not the ones I want to feed like game bird breeder, since that is way more expensive than layer feed. I hate it, but the humans must survive here, too.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

I've read posts on here about people losing chickens and eggs.

My thought is that we should use the economy to our benefit in what ways we can. If we have the land, we should grow food (meat, eggs and vegetables), process/can it, and sell some of it for prices cheaper than the grocery store. We should get our neighbors into raising chickens and they won't complain about ours.

 

[BettyR]

We have always locked our chicken house at night...you never know...but we are so far out in the middle of nowhere it would cost way more in gas to get out here to steal a chicken than it would to just buy a chicken.

 

[setter4]

Quote:
Personally I don't think things are going to get anywhere near that bad but...
Unless your game cameras are different than ours they won't be much good. We had ours set up by a salt lick to get pics of the deer someone came and stole the salt lick and took the camera because it took their picture! We are pretty sure that's what happened because all the salt licks in the area were stolen that week. If we had had the camera locked to the tree they would have just smashed it to keep from being identified.

 

[ChickenToes]

My one neighbor has chickens and the other is a farmer, so I don't have to worry about my neighbors at least!

At the moment, it costs as much to feed our chickens as it does our dog every month, so the cost isn't an issue. But I am looking for cheaper feed to try and save what little money I can. All the local feed stores have jacked up their prices, so I have to drive about 40 minutes to buy feed.

 

[MichiganWoods]

One of the reasons we decided to start raising chickens was because of the economy (and the snow). We found out once we started building our coops that the neighbors down the street had already decided to do the same thing and had chickens already. Then the neighbors next to us told us they were going to get some, and the neighbors on the other side of the other chicken owners said they were going to get them too. I don't think we'll have a problem with chicken thievery. We're at the end of a dead end private street and we're surrounded by thick woods, and farm land. It wouldn't be easy for anyone to just walk onto our property to get to our livestock.

And we've already decided that when we start getting eggs, we're going to talk with the lake association that's just down the road and let them know they can put a blurb about farm fresh eggs in their association newsletter. I'm sure the residents would be happy to just have to drive less than 1/2 a mile to get eggs. The nearest store is 9 miles one way from here.

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

Well I already lock my cages when I am away etc.. because there is already people who enjoy to STEAL my chickens..

I have noticed people getting tight with their money, I used to could sell a full grown hen for $15, not I cant even get $10