Using a chainsaw....

[ThinkingChickens]

We have to take out some smaller sapling trees around the new walk in run this weekend. Should I just let the chickens be how they normally are in the larger fenced yard or should I put them all in dogs crates and move them while we chain saw? I don't want to freak them out. When we were drilling all the run together they didn't care, but the chainsaw might be a tad louder. We'll be finished in about 30-45 minutes at most.

 

[greenSearcher]

If you start at the furthest point from their run/coop and do the closest work last they should be OK, w/ time to adjust. When I am working on the coops, the babies will be less than 6 ft from me when I am cutting w/ the radial arm saw. As long as they don't feel trapped by the noise maker they seem OK.

 

[al6517]

I am constantly building onto the ccop's and run's using heavy power tools and use the loud riding mower around the immediate area. If I had to worry about their fragile mental state from loud noises I would never get anything done out there, I just do what needs to be done and they have to deal with that. WTS I have never noticed anything afterwards that would indicate they became emotionaly scarred, I live in tornado alley so big booming thunderstorms with horendous lightning strikes is the norm, and they get through that fine. In short I don't think it will be an issue for longer than a second or two, catching them and crating them and then moving them back will be more stressful than leaving them in there coop hanging out with their buds, while you go about your chores.

 

[mandelyn]

I had a game hen shoot 40 feet up into a tree when my dad started his chainsaw up on the far side of the large yard. Regular hens can't fly like that... but my birds sure didn't like it and they all got a little panicky. My current flock of heavier layers hide in their coop when my husband starts his chainsaw up. The ducks hate it though, and the lawnmower too.

To be safe, just keep them locked up while you're working. You don't want them scattering and going far. Took me 3 hours to coax that game hen out of the tree!

 

[so lucky]

One of my early childhood memories is of my dad sawing with an electric skill saw on a saw horse on the front porch. When the chickens got too close and curious, Dad kicked at them to make them scatter. He nearly severed three fingers. The blood and confusion that followed have been etched in my memory for nearly 60 years.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Excellent post. They are living animals and you never know how they will react. With chickens free to interfere, you are putting yourself and them at risk.

Mine normally panic and run away when I start up something loud until they get used to it. When I first mowed next to the run, they ran inside the coop. It did not take them long to learn that when I mow, I throw small bits of green stuff, grass and weeds, into the run. Now they crowd the fence when they hear the mower.

They are yours and your hands and feet are yours. Do as you wish.

 

[WingingIt]

Can you lock them in their coop or run while you're using the saw? I'd do that to give them a sense of security as well as keep them safe and out of the way of the saw and sawdust. Plus, it'll be safer for the humans, too, if you know they are contained and there's no way they can come over and get in the way.

 

[teach1rusl]

Thank goodness!! I thought for sure when I opened this up that it was going to describe how you'd used a chainsaw to start the processing of some of your birds

 

[Haunted Chicken]

Quote:
X2

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Quote:
Okay, you have as bad of an imagination as I do! Ha ha

I can't lock them in the run as the run isn't completed. It's just a frame. I may pen them off into an area though, or shoo them under the porch and gate that off while we work. My husband needs all his body parts for work so I'd hate to think of something happening like a chicken flying into his work space. Eek.