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dilysmerry
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 7
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 Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 5:33 pm Post subject: beat the fox?/badger/mink |
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Hi I live in a wood and have kept chickens free-range in a paddock for a number of years. I usually go for ex-battery chickens so that if the predators get them at least I feel I have done them a favour first.
Whatever it is, a predator does occasionally come by during the day, mostly in mid-summer (I believe that's when the pups need a lot of feeding) and if undisturbed will take chickens where the grass meets taller undergrowth. You can tell by the position of the feathers! I can get round this by making sure the undergrowth is kept down and keeping sheep in the same area, seems to put the predator off daytime visits.
However inevitably in the winter I get back from work after dark and lost the lot a few weeks ago.
I am trying to get round the problem without having to keep the chickens in a run all winter. (It's amazing how quickly chickens who have lived in a cage all their lives will pace up and down the edge of a 2m x2m run as though it's a shoebox!)
Does anyone know where to get automatic light sensitive door-closers and how much they are?
Has anyone ever tried trying to make a predator-proof ladder affair into the run? I am mulling over some super-fine dowelling running up like the rungs of a ladder, to take the weight of chickens hopping from one to the other but small enough to break under the weight of anything larger.
Any suggestions welcome
Thanks Dilys Merry |
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Sparklepeeps
Joined: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 1960
Location: Cheshire
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dilysmerry
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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Hi sparklepeeps thanks for your message, bit shocked at the cost but am considering the door.
Is your electric fence a small mesh, I have some old sheep electric fence and the chooks squeeze through!
Dilys |
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vanessa
Joined: 24 Sep 2005
Posts: 1267
Location: Correze
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:18 pm Post subject: Re: beat the fox?/badger/mink |
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| dilysmerry wrote: | (It's amazing how quickly chickens who have lived in a cage all their lives will pace up and down the edge of a 2m x2m run as though it's a shoebox!)
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I've got a pair of guinea-fowl penned (they HAD to be penned, they started picking on my coq!!) into a 5m x 20m area ... and the ground around the perimeter is now a deep rut!!   |
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Sparklepeeps
Joined: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 1960
Location: Cheshire
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| dilysmerry wrote: |
Is your electric fence a small mesh, I have some old sheep electric fence and the chooks squeeze through!
Dilys |
Yes its the type sold for chickens, do yours not get zapped going through your sheep netting? |
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dilysmerry
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| some seem more confident than others, I suspect unless they have taken a direct hit to the comb then their feathers largely insulate them |
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mojo
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 10919
Location: GLENAY north deux sevre FRANCE
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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| a local breeder says he weedkills under bottom line then tamps down so water lays under the bottom line.............that way he gets super contacts and no problems |
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dilysmerry
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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thanks mojo, think electric is probably the way for me to go
Dilys |
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