What do you use to guard your flock?

[lindseythefork]

We haven't had any issues with predators, really (hopefully that doesn't jinx us!). We live in a residential area with a secure back yard, but when the chickens are out free-ranging I try to keep the dog out there. Our dog is really really lazy (she doesn't do anything except sunbathe) so she's there more for fear factor than anything. lol There aren't any aggressive cats in the area and we have a giant apple tree in the back so the hens are out of view from the hawks.. as far as night time goes, the coop is super-reinforced (the run has double-wire buried over a foot down and the coop is racoon-proof). I am also a believer in keeping the coop really really clean as to not attract anything. Oh, another factor is probably the fact that we only have three very quiet hens that don't attract much attention.

 

[Kansaseq]

In nice weather, Mica the rescue Am Staff stays out in the yard, which is adjacent to the chicken pen. Since switching to chain link runs and leaving her home, I haven't had any losses. (knock on wood)

 

[ajplmama]

We keep our chickens, goats and ducks locked up tight at night. During the day the goats are in their pasture and the chickens and ducks free range. We have two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers that keep an eye on things.

So far we've only had one critter seriously attempt to cause any harm. A weasel snuck up on the baby ducks and the dogs killed it. We've seen bear sign around the property but they haven't come into the yard. I hope they stay that way. We have hawks and eagles that fly overhead a lot looking at the hens. The dogs barks and threaten and they go away.

One of our dogs is fiercely protective. The other is much easier going but will join in if the protective one seems to need him.

 

[emvickrey]

Quote:
What experience do you have with a Great Pyrenees? From earlier posts I read you and your wife recently bought a farm and are new to chickens. You own two German Shepherds.

Well, in our LIMITED experience with GP's they have eaten a few dozen chicks and ducklings and chickens and ducks - any that dare get in the back yard where they must be kept (or they would kill and eat everything.) Of course they are still only about 8 months old and I am holding out hope that they will grow out of this stage and learn. In fact, over this past week, I've discovered something quite unique about them. If put right smack in the middle of the run, or yard, or coop, on a tie line, baby chicks can sleep on them, chickens and ducks will be eating out of their bowl, and they don't bother a single one. Take them off that tie line or let them get out of that fenced back yard and all bets are off. First, they differ from the GSDs in that they don't mind me. They are smart, however, and will take off into the woods and not come out till I've given up calling and gone back in. Meanwhile, they circle back and catch, kill and eat whatever they can while I'm looking for them on the other side of the property. So thus far, that's our experience with GPs. The plus is they are very laid back, no where near the high energy (play with me non-stop) drive that the GSDs have. Still holding out hope they can become the Livestock Guard Dogs we've heard tell about but I have people lined up to take them if they don't improve. The tie-line discovery/phenomenon is giving me hope so that's what we're doing with them now - staking them out right in the midst of the action. However, this is a short term trial - I won't keep a dog that I have to keep on a tie line. This is a farm, surrounded by thousands of acres of woods and predators - we need our dogs to work the farm non-restrained and not to leave our farm for any reason.

Addicus and Scout:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/GPs1.jpg

On the other hand - my several year experience with GSD's is that there is an instinct, at least in mine, that was not taught.

This pic was taken within a half hour of my bringing home those first chicks three years ago. Rex went on guard with them and never left their side:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/Rex-with-new-babychicks.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/Rex-with-new-babychicks3.jpg

As they grew and freeranged - he stayed right with them:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/Rex-guarding.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/Rex-on-guard4.jpg

Three years and 200+ birds later - he's still on guard - always watching the sky for hawks:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/rexwatchinghawks.jpg

We were so impressed with how well Rex guards the freeranging flocks that we got another GSD puppy to raise and learn from him. Scarlett is now a little over a year old.

Scarlett is the peacekeeper. She works the coop when they all start returning in the early evenings and makes sure no one bothers the babies running around and that the roos don't gang up on a hen (if they do she pulls them off); and she nudges them up onto the roosts and breaks up roo fights. If she hears a hen yell, from anywhere on the property, she goes running to find out what's wrong. She can almost always be found sleeping in the coop or near the feed station that all the babies hang out at.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/scarlettonduty2.jpg

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/scarlettonduty.jpg

So not sure how much experience you're looking for but this about covers our experience with our dogs. As Boaz mentioned, we also have a Min Pin and a Catahoula that don't bother the birds but I wouldn't say that they guard or protect them either - just coexist - just like the two cats who also never bother them. One cat, Morris, really loves to sleep with them. But then, you didn't ask about our experience with cats and chickens.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/coop-cat.jpg

My Lab, Lady and Chow mix Sissy would do the same thing. I found the Lab many times sleeping with the pullets. She would let them walk all over her.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Sounds like you are not the alpha of the pack, and therefore do not command their respect. I agree that these may not be the dogs for you, and be best that they find a new home.

Kind of funny I seem to be the "alpha of the pack" for my other 4 dogs who mind and don't run off. Pack of six dogs, all raised by me, two dogs of the pack are just "different".

In any event, I was generalizing about the differences in breed characteristics between a German Shepherd Dog and a Great Pyrenees. Surely you aren't saying there are NO differences between breeds?

 

[DiVon80]

at a cute face!!
Quote:

 

[katherine712]

Did you raise your GSD from a puppy? How did you train them?? Those pics are ADORABLE!!!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I agree and am allowing them their "puppiness". Scarlett, though she never bothered chickens or chicks and they freeranged, did kill and eat 4 different Mallard drakes when they would fly out of their fenced yard. She was also about 6 months old. Lucy, our Catahoula killed our first 6 ducks the first time we let them out of the yard. I realized that neither dog knew who/what the ducks were since the ducks did not freerange and were kept in their own fenced yard with their own house. So, I introduced both dogs to the ducks by taking them in their yard with me (and as I mentioned, all my other dogs mind and don't have to be on leash and will stop if told "no"). After I introduced the dogs and knew that they knew the ducks were part of the farm, I let the ducks out. The ducks have been total freerange and never locked back up since. Neither dog bothers them. In fact, the ducks sleep all over the farm, on the ground, and the dogs don't let anything get them either.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thank you. Yes, I raised both GSDs from 5 weeks old. However, Rex was already about 4 years old when I, on a total impulse, brought home 4 baby chicks from the feed store. I had stopped just to get pet supplies. You can tell in those first photos, I had to do a make-shift setup for them that first night. In any event, after I introduced him to the chicks, it just "clicked" with him. He laid down by the bin I had them in and would not move. For the next week, he went out only to pee/poo really fast and then would run back in, stick his nose in there and give each one a sniff and count and then would lay back down. He would not be moved. He even growled at me once when I tried to drag him away. When I moved them outside to a Chick-N-Hutch on the back deck, he went with them and though he had never slept outside in his life, always in the house with me, he would not come in. He's been that way ever since so I can't take credit for "training" him.

Scarlett, however, I did work with by taking her with me as I went in and out of the coop and feeding areas and watched her with the chicks. I just posted about how we had an "issue" with the ducks when she was a puppy but it was my fault for not introducing her to the ducks. In my mind, ducks, chickens, peacocks were all the same but she needed to be shown the ducks as well. Now everything freeranges but she is still particularly motherly and protective of the chickens, especially the baby chicks.

 

[Sissy]

Best stopper a double barrel.
and Dh does the rest.