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Can you tell us a little about your light mount?
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Can you tell us a little about your light mount? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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A few years back I had problems with a couple of Grey Foxes getting my hens. I then had a bout with hawks and owls getting access through the open run then into the coop. IMHO poultry netting is a must over open areas. http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h309/oxfordethan/6DE876F6-74A4-4997-BAD8-53010756CF97-8622-000008C9979FE1C9.jpg ETA: Rifle is a $89 Walmart display .22 Savage. It do good. |
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View Quote Trap and haul away |
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OP, what you need is some guinea hens to guard the flock. Guineas are the assholes of the poultry world. If they could wear track suits and smoke cigarettes they'd be right at home. A rooster is nice to have, too. But a few Guinea Hens will just fight intruders for the fun of it. View Quote |
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Your chicken mystery is a mystery, but at least you have good taste in dogs. I love my Dane! And I only accidently ended up with a Harlequin (fell in love with her personality), I wanted a merle, like you have.
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I killed a bobcat after calling for 3 minutes last friday at the home of a man whom had chickens go missing all week
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http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/841/841371/predator-20071213020311145-000.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qNmLRDm7rZ4/TX5XVcv4u8I/AAAAAAAAArE/Q5kBhyHhgaM/s400/P1The_Predator_Decloaked.png Smear mud on the chickens and setup a deadfall trap. View Quote |
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Get 2 or 3 white Chinese geese. Mean as hell, and you'll know if anything is trying to sneak up on yer chickens- the geese will go nuts. Just don't turn your back on them, little bastards will run up behind you and bite you on the leg..or a few guineas, they're the klaxon sirens of the poultry world.
We had hawk problems, but could generally catch hawks flying over in a holding pattern doing 'recon' over the chicken yard. Hawks are badass, like a Mach 3 dive bomber, in and out in a flash! During the day, I'd bet you have a fox messing with your yardbirds. Those little fellers can be hard to catch..the old saying "sly as a fox" comes to mind. We set up traps and got a bunch of possums and coons, no foxes though. Only ever saw one fox around the chicken yard, and even then only for a split second. He saw me and then he was gone in a flash, quicker than Micheal Jackson chasing a Cub Scout. Edit to add: shot a guinea years ago that wouldn't shut up (I was working nights and got home at 6am, he was keeping me awake!!) so I popped him with a 7 mag from about 40 yards. Big explosion. Biggest part left was feathers..it looked like the poor fella swallowed dynamite! |
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OP, what you need is some guinea hens to guard the flock. Guineas are the assholes of the poultry world. If they could wear track suits and smoke cigarettes they'd be right at home. A rooster is nice to have, too. But a few Guinea Hens will just fight intruders for the fun of it. View Quote Crazy birds, guineas. Noisy as Fk, too. The survivor screams at the clear empty sky, the blueberry bushes, the grass.... and now he is in love with our Barred Rock hen! LINK. |
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Lost another one between 4pm and now. Strung old CD's up as someone else suggested. Ordered poultry netting this morning. Shit. It was my daughter's barred rock hen. Only three eggs today, they're definitely off their normal laying habits. Goddamnit. Edit: found fucking tracks of whatever it is. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/95225/IMG-2271-268025.JPG They're maybe an inch and a half wide, two inches front to back at most. Not my dags. View Quote |
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Anyone who's got experience, dog or coyote tracks? Haven't seen any dogs running round, but haven't heard any yotes yipping at night, either. View Quote All of that said, it looks like coyote to me. But I'm not a master tracker, I'm a student. Take it for what it's worth. |
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My own experience with chickens has been that you have a few choices. 1) Put chickens behind fence and keep them there. 2) Put them behind electric and keep them there. 3) Work diligently all year long to trap and shoot predators, no slacking off. Just shooting is absolutely not good enough. 4) Lose chickens.
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I lost 17 half grown chicks in a day.
Fucking minks #4 honady varmit master buckshot did the trick. |
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Nothing showing on the cam so far except the chickens. I'm going to move it over to the far end of the pen.
I had guineas a few years ago, the only thing they did to protect my chickens was have the decency to get killed before them. Wouldn't mind a few more. |
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Set up some bait, they seem to like chicken.
Sit in a blind and crack open a cold one. |
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View Quote Four legged varmints leave feathers, usually guts and blood and generally do their business at night. Owls are sometimes out at day time but are equipped to TCB at night. Hawks (and most other BoP) are visual hunters and will nail a critter with utmost efficiency during the day. They are all also protected. You may or may not be able to get an exemption for defending your flock. |
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Why, I say. Why I say, Boy, this is the picture I just copied to paste in this thread. Four legged varmints leave feathers, usually guts and blood and generally do their business at night. Owls are sometimes out at day time but are equipped to TCB at night. Hawks (and most other BoP) are visual hunters and will nail a critter with utmost efficiency during the day. They are all also protected. You may or may not be able to get an exemption for defending your flock. View Quote |
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Hey OP, here is a couple of observations. I fought this same battle a couple of years ago with grey foxes. Be advised that they come in hauling ass and leave hauling slightly less ass and more poultry. It happens very fast. The one I dealt with would jump the fence and kill 3 chickens but only take one. I would highly suggest some form of bait (they obviously like chicken) and a predator call. Theoretically you can bring them in with the call and the bait will distract them long enough for you to kill the bastards.
Also be advised that they will find even the smallest hole in your fencing and get through. I did notice that my neighbor who also had chickens was not losing any to the foxes. It turns out the foxes could not climb their shitty fence. I had a tightly stretched chain link fence and they climbed that bitch like a ladder. The neighbor had a very loose chicken wire fence and they couldn't get over it. I hope this helps. |
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Those 17 I lost were between breakfast and lunch. Not a feather left. View Quote Was just stating what I'd seen with my birds. I only lost a couple to possum or coon. My friend had an infestation of coons and couldn't shoot enough of 'em. They'd leave quite the mess, usually. Also, wound up having a HUGE number of rats, rat tunnels, under the coop. That put the end to his chicken keeping when his wife saw that. He regularly had 100 head. I've personally seen a hawk snatch one without losing a feather. I always had at least one BMR (big, mean, rooster). I don't know if that cut my losses or not. Once my hound figured out he liked to kill chickens, I didn't really have to worry about any wild critters because Huckleberry beat them to it. While my Rott mix was scared to go out into the yard if BMR was patrolling. It was a lot of fun and I'd like to get another flock going when time permits. Gonna redesign my coop, though. Mistakes were made. |
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Hey OP, here is a couple of observations. I fought this same battle a couple of years ago with grey foxes. Be advised that they come in hauling ass and leave hauling slightly less ass and more poultry. It happens very fast. The one I dealt with would jump the fence and kill 3 chickens but only take one. I would highly suggest some form of bait (they obviously like chicken) and a predator call. Theoretically you can bring them in with the call and the bait will distract them long enough for you to kill the bastards. Also be advised that they will find even the smallest hole in your fencing and get through. I did notice that my neighbor who also had chickens was not losing any to the foxes. It turns out the foxes could not climb their shitty fence. I had a tightly stretched chain link fence and they climbed that bitch like a ladder. The neighbor had a very loose chicken wire fence and they couldn't get over it. I hope this helps. View Quote Get a small Bluetooth speaker (I paid $5 for mine at "5 and below", you can find them under $20 all day long), then download a call app on your phone (plenty are free), then you can just set the speaker where you want it and use your phone to control it. I've been able to get the fox close 2x, but couldn't get a shot on him before he spooked. Tomorrow I'm finally pulling the trigger on a ATN X-Sight II, can't wait to have some night vision as well as be able to record my kills |
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Except the laws protecting raptors are federal. I think there's a livestock depredation permit you can get to kill some species, but no idea on the procedure. View Quote Attached File |
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We have been having fox attacks for the past 2 weeks whenever the chickens are out free ranging. As long as someone is in the yard, the foxes don't come in. But go into the house for a few minutes, and it is game on. Shrieking chickens and feathers flying. Eerie knowing the fox is watching me from the tree line and waiting to make his move. They are so fast, just an orange red streak. Sunday night I was setup on the deck, partially concealed with a .22 rifle ready to go. The little bastard was so fast, even with gun up ready to go, I did not have a shot. Week ago on Wednesday a new Havahart trap arrived. Caught a raccoon on Tuesday, but let him go as coons have not been an issue, so they get a pass until that changes. This morning I found this - http://www.fototime.com/93F4652D6B7E342/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/92351FCA881F3A9/standard.jpg She did not get a pass. She got a .22 cal pellet to the head. ( RWS Mod 34 Diana for the win ) http://www.fototime.com/7A40CA6EB1EC116/standard.jpg http://www.fototime.com/A42C6C3AF0033AB/standard.jpg And this is the raccoon and fox approved bait. http://www.fototime.com/96BE13A4079B0E3/standard.jpg There is still at least one more out there. Predator control continues. View Quote |
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My buddy used to raise game birds and always had problems with hawks and coons. Netting usually worked for the raptors but the coons would sometimes get through kill the birds anyway.
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My buddy used to raise game birds and always had problems with hawks and coons. Netting usually worked for the raptors but the coons would sometimes get through kill the birds anyway. View Quote ETA: Attached File Attached File |
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