With all the chicken predators already here, I hate to think how they will all react when there are actually chickens here.
Each year I have to put out poison to get rid of the mice and rats that live in the garage. Eventually I wipe them out but after a while they come back again. Lots of rats live in the rock jetties along the shoreline and some always wander and find their way here.
Foxes live in the forest two blocks down. I have seen them in the yard at night many times. But its just 'pot luck' to happen to spot a fox, the raccoons are another matter. Each night I hear them fighting among themselves here in the back yard. They love to come swim in the plastic ponds and try to catch fish. They also get in the garbage. If all else fails then they just dig in my heavily mulched gardenbeds for grubs and earthworms. This place is full of earthworms and slugs (but I doubt they eat the slugs).
This is raccoon grand central station. Each late spring the mommies bring the young ones and show them all the goodies. I can put on the back porch light and see mom and 4-5 youngsters checking out the back patio area and after awhile they leave and another batch comes thru. All those young ones must grow up and stick around because there just seem to be more and more of them each year.
At least I only see one opossum at a time. But they come around nightly too.
We have strong leash laws and I rarely see a stray dog. The few times that happens it always is dragging a leash or rope. So dogs got away not intentionally let loose.
I am sure everyone would love chicken dinner and not from Kentucky Fried Chicken either.
I just read so many times people say they don't have many racoons around . At least they say they have never seen them . Sure isn't like that around here.
Lots of Chicken Predators already in the garden.
Be careful with mouse poison. Chickens catch and eat mice, at least mine do. If the mice have been poisoned, they're even easier to catch. The chickens will then ingest the poison. Try traps instead. And make sure your chickens are locked up securely at night. Good luck!
Well, don't actually have any chickens yet. Trying to hatch my own from shipped eggs I bought at auctions.
As to the poisons, I use them now because I can. Later I will have to switch to traps.
Yup.. Gotta make some kind of routine that you never forget to lock em up at night. It only takes one night for a disaster.
I use poison, none of my current flock are mousers. I wish I had some though! They'd be hog fat! :)
I have a dog crate that is wrapped with hardware cloth.. it's foolproof safe, as long as it's closed up. The big coops have roosts so high nothing can get them... Then I have a playhouse coop that is also real safe.. It's hard to prepare for the predators.. and super hard to deal with the losses.
I've lost more to a neighbor's dog than to anything.
The neighbors dog here is a cute little fluffy thing.
Rita, would a motion sensor sprinkler help? Or maybe a BB gun, it's only a sting but they might learn it's not fun to come into your yard?
Who might learn? If you mean the racoons they come in droves and it is fun for them to come into the yard. Lots to do here. I don't know if a motion sensor would bother them or not. I will never be able to keep them away, I will just have to make sure they can not get into my future chickens. I need chicken Fort Knox (and then some). Maybe electric fenceing?
Electric fence sounds like the way to go.
Today is the BIG Day, isn't it??? How long does it take for a chick to hatch, average time, after it pips? I'm going to be watching the forum tonight for updates. Good luck and have fun!
Going to start a new thread about the hatching as I have so many threads going and don't know were to put updates anymore. ha-ha!
Right outside my home office (where I have my computer) window is my back patio off the kitchen door. Off to the sides of the patio are lots of heavily mulched gardenbeds. These gardens are favorites of many critters that live there including slugs, earthworms and shrews. Its not unusual for me to hear the little shrews very high pitched squiels upon occasion I guess when they meet up with each other and have fights. My cats used to catch shrews all the time. (they are really small and look like a short tailed very pointy nosed mouse). Anyway I wonder if the racoons at night go shrew hunting also. It is not unusual for me to hear the racoons rusteling around in the leaves out there. Both last night and tonight I am listening to them fighting just under my window, directly by the side of my house. When I said I was overrun with racoons around here, I really meant it.
I did forget to mention the feral cats. Those things are often heard fighting in the middle of the night around the garden here also. At least I don't think a cat would go after a fully grown ckicken but you never know.
Rita
I have all the predators you mentioned and more! Are you going to keep your girls (and boys) in a run? I've found the best defence is the fencing for the run. I've used chicken wire and what they called no-climb fencing 1" x 2", doubled up and the way around with the no-climb fencing over the top. Also put the chicken wire flat on the ground all around the perimeter to keep the diggers out. I've come home to find the wires bent but no one has made it through both sets of fencing. We also have an electric fence around our yard, which really works to keep the larger preditors out! I think the chicken wire on the ground is a really useful tool, though, probably the best one. We also have double wires over the windows and vents in the coop.
I do know I would need to makle it so secure as Fort Knox here for my babies. Otherwise things will turn into a disaster. I also know about the digging and that those racoons and such would dig to get to the chickens. I have been looking and trying to think of the best for coop and run ideas but still haven't decided anything. Whatever I have seen premade isn't secure enough for around here .