The jury is still out on this one, but I have tried something different - It's been four months and we live in an area where we are surrounded by woods. I placed a ten foot cedar pole in the center of a 40' x 40' chicken run and from it I've strung car lot flags on streamers from the pole to the weld wire 2x4 fence. Even the slightest breeze causes them to wave and I believe that it confuses hawks and even the raptor that frequents the area. Higher winds can cause a racket as the flags snap in the wind.
What about placing a barrier of rocks at the base of the chicken fence? Then if something tries to dig under the fence the rocks would fall in the hole, preventing them from digging any further.
That ending, though!!!! I couldn't help but LOL!!! I love these Q and A's. We save a lot of the rocks that we pull out of the yard and garden and stack them in piles around the bottom of the coop. It's worked pretty good for us.
People also need to realize how opossum's (possums) can kill A LOT of chickens in one night. Last year I had one possum kill off 4 ducks and 12 chickens in one night. I would have assumed a raccoon got in and did the deed but the possum was still in there when I went to let them out the next morning. I thought possums only ate insects, snakes and road kill....found out the hard way how wrong I was. Glad to see you added that to your list.
Thanks for sharing with us Pa Mac. Great demonstration on the way to keep the predators out of the chicken coup and chicken run . Stay safe around there and keep up the good videos. Fred.
6ft chicken wire fencing, lines run across the top with reflective tape, and motion activated cameras keep our flock mostly safe. Nothing is perfect. It certainly helps that I keep our predator population in check with a reliable pistol and rifle.
Owls are also early morning predators. My neighbor was losing a chicken every morning for almost two weeks. Finally caught the buggar in the act about 8am one morning. He would eat the brains and leave the rest.
We don't have a chicken net to ward off hawks, but what we have found to work is a large plastic owl filled with sand! Have seen our hawk friend since perched in the trees, but won't come in any closer!
A good friend of mine raised free range broilers and allowed them to forage in a small 1/4 acre pasture. She protected them from hawks and eagles by stringing mylar flash tape 8 feet overhead across the small pasture. The hawks eyes focus on the mylar tape, making it difficult for them to see the chickens on the ground below. She raised white broilers and had good success protecting her free range flock with this method
PaMac...you still da man. Lots of theories out there but tell me please how you deal with Raccoons in your sweet corn. First time it's happened to me but got hammered this year by those rascals. The wife and I o ly got a dozen or so ears this past spring because they knew when it was getting ready to be harvested. Take care and God Bless
Hey Mark, I haven't had a problem with 'em here yet, but the numbers of coons have been kept down in my area. That's the main problem, I suspect: not enough folks coon huntin' anymore. Everybody loves their sleep too much.
Great advice..possums will kill them as well. Have had it happen. If the head is only think eaten most likely it was a possum. If it happens it the quiet of the day ..meaning no russel from a hawk attack it was probably a fox. That actually just happened to me. It's almost like you can feel something watching then you go to put everybody up at night and you find a body that you never heard happen. This has been my experience anyways. Thank you for your work blessings
We've had a fox chase them around the premier electric fence till the chickens got so flustered two flew over and it was game over. Now I keep them in a six by six in closed pen.
So I have been working on my chicken yard .. it's quite large and encompasses a small valley where natural water can flow .. but I set it up that way so an overflow from a small pond goes into the valley .. this way the chickens always have water. I have three spaces for my chickens .. the round pen that is their night house .. the larger pen that surrounds their night house .. and the pen that surrounds their little valley. I have been putting Chicken house tin (2 ft x 16 ft) around the bottom of the inner yard .. it helps keep younger smaller chicks from squeezing through the 2 x 4 wire. I can also raise the chicken wire higher to make it more difficult for them to fly over .. which I observe happens in two stages .. they fly from the ground to the top of the wire .. then down to the ground on the other side. I have been testing a new idea .. running a line of baling twine around the top of the fence .. it flops and is not stable like the wire .. so they are not as likely to fly up to it.
That's a chicken truth about the two stages of flying over; it's why they used to make paling fences sharp to a point on top so the chickens wouldn't (or couldn't) land on it and then fly on over to the other side. Your chicken yard sounds like chicken heaven. Great hearing from you, MerwinARTist!
How do you keep rats from digging into the chicken house? Short of putting in a cment floor. I have tree roots all over the place so burying wire is out.
We just got our first chicken run (purchased, not built) just to get us started with egg production. We will have guard dogs we will try to train for protection but yes using all these things to help protect them during the day and night is best. What is a good source (here locally to AR) for buying fencing?
One more layer of security. Mountain Cur dogs, once you train them to what is supposed to be on your property, in their minds everything else needs to die. Ours will even bark at birds of prey and not allow them to come down to get chickens.
Aren't some breeds of chickens more predator resistant due to size, speed, or just ability to fight? Would having another type of bird species living with the chickens reduce the threat such as a guinea fowl, goose or turkey?
I mix Old English game breeds into my flock because of their broodiness, but also because they're so flighty and nervous that they get away from predators a little better than others. Guineas and geese are good at sounding off an alarm to the flock, but so are roosters. Thanks for watchin', planetmikusha5898!
I bought a pair of emu birds. After that, nothing came near my chickens. P.S. Buy emu chicks, not grown birds. It is easier as they get used growing with them.
