Someday Homesteaders

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RunnFam

In the Brooder
Apr 17, 2020
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Hello there friends. We are a family of two adults, twin toddlers, two dogs, and two cats plus a small backyard flock of five hens based out of Virginia. Sadly, our hens have had a rough few weeks with an overnight owl attack causing us to lock them in nightly and greatly reduced free ranging due to a neighbors new dog making visits to our property regularly. We are kept busy with all our animals and the tiny humans but would love to someday buy a larger plot of land so we can have pigs, goats, and maybe a couple horses. We are looking forward to coming through the threads to find free ranging advice.
 
DobieLover said:
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
It's always best to lock up the flock to roost safely at night. Night time is when most predators are active.
Dogs can be deterred with electric fencing.
Click to expand...
I know we were slacking, they went an entire year with no problems so we started letting them coop up themselves but leaving the door open so they could let themselves out early in the morning before we are up and they are in an enclosed run with poultry netting covering the majority of the top which has deterred predators until now. We are thinking one of our not so smart hens was going in later than usual and an owl slipped between the poultry netting and the run fencing. Only got one though so now we’re down to five.
 
:welcome :frow:woot

Howdy, that is tough knowing you had a good run built and a owl still got in. Glad you made it here lots of ideas on how to secure it.

Welcome from Georgia, the Poultry capital of the world (2018).. Glad you have joined this chicken crazy board.

Here is a quick link to the articles area, lots of info on this forum, just look around. Also if you have a specific question the search engine (top right) is actually very good..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/learning-center.11/
 
RunnFam said:
I know we were slacking, they went an entire year with no problems so we started letting them coop up themselves but leaving the door open so they could let themselves out early in the morning before we are up and they are in an enclosed run with poultry netting covering the majority of the top which has deterred predators until now. We are thinking one of our not so smart hens was going in later than usual and an owl slipped between the poultry netting and the run fencing. Only got one though so now we’re down to five.
Click to expand...
I leave the pop door open 24/7 but my run has a solid roof on it and the walls are 1/2" HC with an 18-24" predator apron around it. It is nice to just let the birds come off the roost and go out when they get are ready. I'm not always up as early as they are.
 

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