Comments on: A little room for natural selection

By: Compost junkies | Eat The Yard

Compost junkies | Eat The Yard — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:28:47 +0000

[...] is, but I find it hard to believe either party would exclude the other as a result of Kate being added to the flock a week after the others. She is also one week younger. But the disconnect is hard to disregard. At least [...]

By: Curbstone Valley Farm

Curbstone Valley Farm — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:27:26 +0000

Actually, Marek’s is more common than you might think in unvaccinated backyard flocks. It’s good that your chicks are vaccinated, as a little extra insurance. We’re also vaccinating our new birds that arrive March 29th.

As for predators, we had many of the same concerns as you. I recently wrote a post about the considerations we made when building our first coop:

http://curbstonevalley.com/blog/?p=1267

Those hens are now three years old, and despite seeing bobcats climb the outside of the run in broad daylight, and numerous coyotes walking through, nothing has made it into that coop. We’re in the woods here, so predators abound, but so far we’ve managed to keep our flock safe. Hawks haven’t bothered our birds, although they do fly and circle overhead sometimes while the girls are free-ranging.

As for raccoons…we use a lot of spring catches on our coop and slide bolts. If the latch is a two part mechanism (like hold back the spring and lift up the latch) raccoons have a much harder time figuring those out. I hope our post is a little helpful, at least in regards to what we’ve managed to keep out!

We’ve no issues with pecking/cannabalism, and unless you overstock your coop, you’re highly unlikely to have those issues. Good luck with your girls! They’re growing fast!

By: Kaveh

Kaveh — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:24:47 +0000

Aaaah! So cute. I want chickens! I shall enjoy living vicariously through you and getting updates on them.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:14:51 +0000

Cats aren’t really a problem here because the coyotes have kept most cats inside and eaten the one’s that have been let out, but I agree that a 6 – 8 pound chicken should be able to deter a house cat. Hawks, though …

Mike — crows, really? Damn. The whole coop is outfitted with chicken wire, but the double wire is only up to two feet from the bottom to keep out the grabbing raccoons. I guess if one of my chickens lets a noisy, big black crow close enough to bite her head off through the wire, that might be a little bit of the natural selection I was alluding to.

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:38:31 +0000

I hope they all make it. Once they get bigger they should be mostly good right? My grandma, who raised countless chickens back in the day, told me that chickens are big enough that cats won’t mess with them. If they’re too big for cats surely they’re too big for hawks?

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:34:25 +0000

Lookin good Justin! : )

By: Mike Crolene

Mike Crolene — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:38:26 +0000

My brother used to keep doves and once while perched next to the edge of the dove cage a crow came in and bit her head off from jst outside. I would recommend a chicken wire barrier anywhere a chicken’s head might come close to the inner wire.