Protect Your Chickens From Predators | Plans For Chicken Coop
Protect Your Chickens From Predators
One of the worse things which can happen is having your chickens or other poultry attacked by a predator. It seems that nearly every wild creature, and many domestic ones, can appreciate a delicious chicken dinner. How do you protect your flock and not have to worry about losing them to raccoons, dogs, weasels, hawks, and more?
When you are new to raising chickens, you might not be aware of just what predators may be around. Or you may think that since you don’t live in the country or you are within city limits, you dont have to worry about predators. Domestic animals can be chicken killers, too.
Here are the most common chicken predators:
•neighborhood dogs
•chicken hawks
•weasels/ermine/minks
•foxes
•raccoons
•coyotes
•feral and domestic cats
•bobcats
•owls
•snakes (chicks)
•rats
•fisher cats
Predators, like snakes and rats, are only likely to eat baby chicks or half-grown pullets, not full-grown birds. Others predators such as skunks, will just eat chicken eggs, staying away from hens.
Here are some simple steps you can take to protect your hens from being preyed upon. First of all have a secure coop with a door that shuts securely at night. Some other tips:
•Dig a trench 12 inches deep around the entire coop and bury hardware cloth there. This will prevent digging predators.
•Elevate the coop off the ground to help prevent mice, rats and weasels from getting into the coop.
•Inspect the bottom of the coop and patch any holes where predators could gain entry.
•Put lights around the coop at night; motion-sensor lights work well.
•Keep your compost pile far away from the coop and dont allow food scraps to linger - clean up any food scraps that the chickens dont eat before nightfall.
•Keep the area around the coop mowed and clear - an open field without cover is a deterrent to predators.
•If you have serious problems with hawks and owls, consider covering the chicken run with hawk netting.
Another good option is Electric fencing for securing your flock. One way to go about this: one is to have a static coop and run with electric wire run around the bottom of the coop and run so that digging predators cant get in.
One other option is to use electric net fencing to protect your chickens. Moving your chickens to fresh pasture seems to be an additional effective deterrent.
There are other ways to protect poultry as well as some of your other farm animals. Dogs for instance are great protectors of the small farm, and will keep everything from sheep to cattle to baby chicks safe from predators - usually including other dogs.
But theres a catch. Some dogs just love to chase and tease chickens. They can often kill them without even realizing or intending to. If you get a guardian puppy, be sure to supervise its interactions with your chickens when it is young, and deliver a correction any time it gives chase to your feathered farm animals.
Guinea fowl are also great guardians of the flock. They will chase off everything from the mailman to coyotes - but beware, their protection comes with a noisy price. Guineas are not quiet animals, and you cant just train them to pipe down like you can with some dogs. They have an added benefit. Theyll eat every bug you can imagine that might plague the garden and barnyard, from ticks to flies.
A final layer of predator protection is having a gun. Without getting into the politics of gun ownership, there is a benefit of having a gun and knowing how to use it.
Get your chicken coop construction plans from here http://www.buildingchickencoopsnow.com/ and use the points in this article to protect your flock.
Protect Your Chickens From Predators
