Arcticdude
Top Poster
We have hawks, owls and eagles around here. Along with coyotes, fox, bobcat, mountain lions, bears, wolves, badgers, and weasels. So far we only lost one hen to a fox. In winter we see coyote and fox tracks on the back deck and in the chicken run. I've seen bears around the coop looking in the windows. We never lock the chickens up at night, or any other time. I saw one hawk grab a chicken but he dropped it. The wife wants me to build a new chicken coop next year. On the new coop I'm going to add an automatic door so they can be locked in at night.I have so many hawks cruising over my place everyday any chickens/ducks would be gone in 1 day flat if I free-ranged them without a 'tractor' to protect them. I collect a dozen or more hawk feathers laying on the ground around my cabin in a week's time. If I had saved them all, I could have made a full-size Native American tribal headress by now, easily. Cayotes are seen regularly at my BOL, too. All reasons I may, in the end, decide to not raise meat animals at all, to be honest. Just not convinced it's a practical investment with so many predators around. My neighbor, after all, lost all 40 of his guinea hens, so raising in numbers are obviously not the answer. Fresh meat is always better than canned, but I find myself weighing not only the $$ cost to produce fresh meat, but the time/maintenance/building housing) vs. the cost of buying/opening a can of meat. But I also know the stockpiled canned meat and alternative portein sources will eventually run out in a couple years, so I may have no choice but to revisit such a project.
In the winter I do trap a few coyotes, fox and ermine so that may help keep the predator numbers in check too.