Much as I'd like to, I can barely read the poultry forum anymore because it just seems to be a killing field.
Why?
We had chickens all our lives, and depending on where we lived at the time, they were allowed to roam during the day. I don't recall losing a single chicken to ANYTHING. Just to check my memory, I called Dad the other night to ask whether there was attrition that escaped my childhood attention span.
He said that no, he remembers only losing two, when a couple of dogs came in the yard once during the day. The score ended up Dogs 2, Dad 2.
We always had a wooden shed-type coop with a chicken-wire yard that went 6 or 8 feet high. Sometimes the coops were built on cement slabs. They usually had one window & one human door, plus the little cut-out where the chickens went in & out. Once they were in for the night, one of us loosed the rope that held the heavy chicken door up, and it came down with a bang.
We didn't even have a dog.
These were not beautiful structures but they certainly were sturdy. Even if something dug under the chicken wire, it certainly wasn't going to get into the coop. Is that the key?
Why the high casualty count?
Hi Summerkid!!! You know it is a bad thing,that we all have been through this! You are so right, about the past! Even Chickens raised in less than ideal situations not on concrete, seemed to survive to a ripe old age! Losses were at a minimum to say the least! But we have to remember too! People lived further apart and there were more uninhabited rural and wooded areas for predators to live! Which meant they didnt have to prey on livestock as often! We now have to admit that even if you are lucky enough to have several acres or more, the surrounding wild habitats are dissappearing. We are going to have to lock 'em down and secure the area everyday from now on out! Until we can reestablish more natural habitats, the "Killing Fields", are just going to get worse!
We are also restricted from even removing critters such as raccoons and trying to relocate them away from people. I know of some people who have looked into it and were told that you can only move them something like a mile or so from where you catch it.
That's probably true. I grew up in Montana and had never even laid eyes on a raccoon in 23 years -- until I moved to Ft. Lauderdale & was startled by 17 of them while walking home from the beach with my groceries! And we certainly never had deer come in the yard back home much less walk down the street at night.
In my last house, in Brookfield, in the Chicago suburbs, a mom & 5 babies once came in my open patio doors around 2 a.m. & ransacked the kitchen while the lights were blazing & I was upstairs!
Here on the river, where houses are packed together but surrounded by open farmland, the critters keep to themselves while in Brookfield my former neighbors now have every single plant under wire cages because of the voracious, fearless deer population.
Yep, Sad but true! those voracious deer are something else! I was brought up in Savannah Georgia! Now we are talking a long long time ago! I remember when there were dirt roads surrounding the brick Streets there! There were miles and miles of wooded area and farmlands surrouding that beautiful city! You drove through miles of beautiful Marshlands and back river areas to get to the coast on tybee Island. Now Its all but gone! More and more "Pop-Top" housing projects( gated communities) where people live on top of one another for a really high price! they Complain about the deer and the raccoons and the other Now "Landlocked" , Animals destroying their grass and flowers! No one ever told these animals that the new Human communities were off limits! They neve even got a chance to migrate before being cut off from their natural feeding grounds! Yep I guess they adjusted to where they were, and whatever they could get as far as food!
I guess it all boils down to more preplanning ! We have to stop and think long and hard about where this old world is going and how ! Im All For the "Save the Humans" but we wont be very good at that if we cant think out how to save the earth and the animals too!
I totally understand where you are coming from Summerkid. I was told that while I technically could have chickens here in the city if Just ONE of my neighbors complained I would have to get rid of them. I thought it out & they only way a neighbor of mine would complain is if one of THEIR dogs got out and got on MY property and damaged MY property. I work during the day and live alone so.........went online and spend way to much money - but hey I want to be more self sufficient then the average bear so.....did I mention I have no carpentary skills....
http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_services/products_services.php?view=Chickens&about=the%20eglu
bought it through My Pet Chicken. I came home one night to find under the eglu portion (not the run) had been excavated by some neighbors dog - Eglu 1 vs Dog 0. Point being with planning & research people vs wild thing will not occur.
I am WAY more bothered by the feral cat population then anything. I love to feed the wild birds in my area, we had a nice population of Quail for the longest time and now due to irresponsible people the feral cat population has decimated the quail population. I mentioned that to the neighbor that refuses to fix any of her cats (she just lost one due to it "delivering" her uterus during the birth) she said that her cats do not kill birds - yeh right! They do it for sport, they do not even eat it. Thats what REALLY bugs me. I love cats do not get me wrong but some people I really could shoot.
This message was edited May 23, 2007 12:10 PM
I agree. My chicken house will be a "brick .... chickenhouse." It also is going to be attached to a greenhouse a la Anna Edey's Solviva, may it R.I.P.
With 6 cats who "garden" with me during the day, the occasional bird turns up on the garage floor, but the cats are most certainly fixed & quite the homebodies. It's a difficult line with them & the birds --- I have many feeders out & many nesting spots so figure my support outweighs the lazy cats' occasional lucky lunges.
Here in Illinois we're really struggling with West Nile virus, and one contributing factor may be the suburban bird oases, which apparently create dense populations plus ideal mosquito habitats ergo massive wipeout of the birds.
Who knew it could be a bad thing to try to provide bird habitat?
I grew up with poultry and pigs. We did lose a piglet in his pen (well my dad had to shot it) to a dog (and the dog lost too) and one gosling to my baby brother (I believe a sword fight??). We didn't have close neighbors and did not have all the developments like they do now.
I personally believe its from all the delevopment in rural areas are forcing out its creatures, they need to find other foods and a lot of today breeds are easy pickins. We never saw a turkey, turkey vulture, coyote or raptors we have now (or again??).
We had bees and can remember a couple of nights being awoken by a gun shot. The skunks always lost. My Dads favorite rasberries were often eaten by raccoons but there was enough to go around. Woodchucks were shot when they were in the garden.
I have built what I hope is a sturdy, predator proof chicken house (10x10) and around that it is fenced in for cold weather use and more protection from predators at night. My poultry will be free range but in every night. I will do my best not to lose any.
Lora
Same here. And I have vowed not to put the cart before the horse for once & have strictly forbidden myself from buying chicks until a finished coop graces the premises.
I buy mine first to make it a little more pressing
summerkid ~
"...I moved to Ft. Lauderdale & was startled by 17 of them while walking home from the beach with my groceries!..."
I had to read this a few times and I'm still not entirely sure who was carrying your groceries, you or the raccoons :) Were you coming home from a beachy grocery run, or had you brought groceries to the beach that the raccoons then took? LOL!I assume it is the former, but I'm getting a huge kick out of the other possibility.
also, knock on wood, I've lost 2 ever to predators. ( out of about 35) So that's not so bad :)