Eagles and hawks:
- I tried cloth fishnet over the top of my runs but the snow sticks to that and tears it down
- i tried nylon fishnet, a hawk broke right through and still killed my chicken, AND the snow still stuck to it and tore it down
- I tried ropes with sparkly things on them as well as strips of flapping white grow cloth covering about half of the run area and the raptors dove down right next to the flapping cloth and killed my chickens
- I now have a run that is smaller but totally covered in stiff wire, no more hawks or eagles
Owls:
- an owl smashed itself through the small holes in my top wire, crawled through the pop door (left open because I thought the run was predator proof) and bit the heads off a couple of my chickens. The holes I think are only 4x4, and it is a great horned owl (I should go measure, I am just guessing on the size).
- we locked the chickens in the coop and shed, but since I had thought that the run was predator proof, I actually didn't even HAVE a door on the pop door hole. So, we propped something up against the hole, the owl pried it off the next night and ate one more chicken head.
- we wedged the makeshift pop door better, and locked the chickens up in only the coop (better protection than in my chicken shed) at night, and only coop and shed during the day, no outside time.
- planning to cover the entire run top with a second layer of wire. So, chicken wire over the stiff concrete wire.
Dogs:
- I hate them x20 especially since they belong to someone else, and are on my property (imagine 20 page rant...now deep breath, moving on)
- they will pop the welds off of welded wire fence and pull apart chicken wire, squeeze through pop doors, jump against doors to get them to open, etc.
- I have reinforced my gates and fences, planning to add more fenceposts (so posts closer together to give more strength). Best choice would be to build a kennel strong enough to hold in a pack of rabid dogs, but I just don't have that kind of money.
- i shoot with BB guns (bruise, but don't break flesh) any dog that I see on my property, as well as scream and throw things at them, try to make it clear that my property is not a friendly place to be. If they keep showing up I have kids hide out with BB guns so that they can be shot whenever they show up and they associate the pain with showing up on my place, not with seeing people.
- I kindly and clearly tell people, that if their dog kills another chicken I expect I giant financial compensation and that dog to never be let loose again.
Edited to add:
Bear:
Luckily we caught him in the act and scared him off before he ate anything, so he hasn't been back.
- I did reinforce my door a bit and make it a little harder to open (the bear had opened the door and walked right in)
- I tried cloth fishnet over the top of my runs but the snow sticks to that and tears it down
- i tried nylon fishnet, a hawk broke right through and still killed my chicken, AND the snow still stuck to it and tore it down
- I tried ropes with sparkly things on them as well as strips of flapping white grow cloth covering about half of the run area and the raptors dove down right next to the flapping cloth and killed my chickens
- I now have a run that is smaller but totally covered in stiff wire, no more hawks or eagles
Owls:
- an owl smashed itself through the small holes in my top wire, crawled through the pop door (left open because I thought the run was predator proof) and bit the heads off a couple of my chickens. The holes I think are only 4x4, and it is a great horned owl (I should go measure, I am just guessing on the size).
- we locked the chickens in the coop and shed, but since I had thought that the run was predator proof, I actually didn't even HAVE a door on the pop door hole. So, we propped something up against the hole, the owl pried it off the next night and ate one more chicken head.
- we wedged the makeshift pop door better, and locked the chickens up in only the coop (better protection than in my chicken shed) at night, and only coop and shed during the day, no outside time.
- planning to cover the entire run top with a second layer of wire. So, chicken wire over the stiff concrete wire.
Dogs:
- I hate them x20 especially since they belong to someone else, and are on my property (imagine 20 page rant...now deep breath, moving on)
- they will pop the welds off of welded wire fence and pull apart chicken wire, squeeze through pop doors, jump against doors to get them to open, etc.
- I have reinforced my gates and fences, planning to add more fenceposts (so posts closer together to give more strength). Best choice would be to build a kennel strong enough to hold in a pack of rabid dogs, but I just don't have that kind of money.
- i shoot with BB guns (bruise, but don't break flesh) any dog that I see on my property, as well as scream and throw things at them, try to make it clear that my property is not a friendly place to be. If they keep showing up I have kids hide out with BB guns so that they can be shot whenever they show up and they associate the pain with showing up on my place, not with seeing people.
- I kindly and clearly tell people, that if their dog kills another chicken I expect I giant financial compensation and that dog to never be let loose again.
Edited to add:
Bear:
Luckily we caught him in the act and scared him off before he ate anything, so he hasn't been back.
- I did reinforce my door a bit and make it a little harder to open (the bear had opened the door and walked right in)
Last edited:
