What can Protect My Free Range Hens?

[Chickenaddict]

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I forgot one.... Turkey tom! A friend of mine keeps call ducks and bantam cochins as well as royal palms and never has hawk problems. I have heard of others with turkeys in their flock and no hawk losses as well.

 

[Whittni]

Ohp, I have a male and female turkey pair...midget whites. I could get more turkeys but wouldn't they fight or something?

 

[7L Farm]

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I didn't say it never happens, but the large majority of people with chickens have never lost one to a hawk, and if you let your birds free range, it's a risk you have to take.

Also, I kind of doubt your neighbors story if his coop is as bad as you say.
I bet he really has no clue as to what is killing all his birds

The only realistic choices are either do it and not worry too much about it, or keep them totally enclosed all the time.

You could be right about him not knowing whats killing his chickens. Sorry about that. Its just what he tells me. This guys got holes in his coop that you could drive a bull dozier through. Its terrible that people raise birds only to have them killed. To me its very inhumane. Poor birds have no chance against predators.

 

[7L Farm]

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Yup A gun!!!!

 

[Whittni]

So everyone knows: I haven't lost a bird yet but I have at my old home.

 

[Whittni]

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Yup A gun!!!!

Ha, I can't get(use) a gun...I have a bow though...oh I have a paintball one!

 

[dufus]

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i got some bad news for you chickenaddict,, a hawk will carry a cat off in a heartbeat. one time several years ago, i saw a hawk go after a cat, and the cat ran under a monte carlo,, the hawk went under after him,, and carried it off. pulled up in the yard one day, and there sat a hawk with the neighbor's cat. the wife ran toward it, and it flew off with the little bells on the cat's collar just a-jingling every time the hawk made a wing beat.