A couple of months ago, we lost a chicken to a predator in the daytime. The chicken appeared to be whole, but everything from her head to her breast except the spine was missing. The chickens were enclosed in 5-foot welded wire fencing at the time. Around the same time, I also found a dead one in the yard with her head twisted up under her, but no signs of being consumed.
A couple of days ago, something ate most of our lone white silkie, and left her remains under a giant oak tree near the coop. Whatever got her ate more than half of her, again in the daytime. The chickens are now enclosed in 5-foot poultry wire.
Much as I hate to think it, I'm beginning to suspect feline, though not one of ours. I thought maybe it was a hawk, but I figured one of those would snatch a chicken and take it away, not sit right out there in the chicken yard and eat it. We have a few coyotes around, but it seems to me they'd be stopped by the fence unless they got under it somehow and didn't leave evidence of digging.
There are also occasional skunks, possums, and raccoons here, but I figured them all to be nocturnal.
Our chicken yard is about 2 acres, so it's infeasible to cover it. We originally talked about getting a couple of livestock guard dogs, but that's an awfully big investment to save the occasional chicken.
This morning, I've been reading that geese can act as good guards against some predators like hawks. I wondered if maybe their size would deter a cat, too. Anyone have experience using geese to guard chickens, or suggestions for something else I could use?
What about a donkey?
A couple of days ago, something ate most of our lone white silkie, and left her remains under a giant oak tree near the coop. Whatever got her ate more than half of her, again in the daytime. The chickens are now enclosed in 5-foot poultry wire.
Much as I hate to think it, I'm beginning to suspect feline, though not one of ours. I thought maybe it was a hawk, but I figured one of those would snatch a chicken and take it away, not sit right out there in the chicken yard and eat it. We have a few coyotes around, but it seems to me they'd be stopped by the fence unless they got under it somehow and didn't leave evidence of digging.
There are also occasional skunks, possums, and raccoons here, but I figured them all to be nocturnal.
Our chicken yard is about 2 acres, so it's infeasible to cover it. We originally talked about getting a couple of livestock guard dogs, but that's an awfully big investment to save the occasional chicken.
This morning, I've been reading that geese can act as good guards against some predators like hawks. I wondered if maybe their size would deter a cat, too. Anyone have experience using geese to guard chickens, or suggestions for something else I could use?
What about a donkey?
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