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Dachshunds will be useless (or food) for Coyotes. Raccoons would take them apart too. I suspect hawks and eagles would eat them as well. We had three eagles attack a Golden Retriever a few years ago in our area. It was odd because eagles are usually solo.
A big dog can be some help. One of our mastiffs, loved the chickens and would follow them around the yard and lay down near them while they foraged. Even the Coyotes avoided him. Some raccoons tried to tangle with him once, but several of them did not fare too well from that encounter. However you generally are not going to leave your dog out at night, and that is when the predators are mostly out.
Typically chickens are safe during the day except from hawks. Unless maybe you have them at a remote site in the middle of nowhere? I mean, do you live somewhere that foxes and coyotes, racoons feel brave enough to just waltz in and take a chicken in the middle of the day? That isn't really typical. And yes even a small dog can make enough racket to make predators shy about coming around because barking usually brings people. Haven't heard much about foxes taking dogs but yes coyotes will.
So... are you losing these at night? They need to be locked up at night.
You lock them up in a GOOD SECURE coop and you should be good. Weasels are pretty small and the hardest to keep out if you have them around. Least weasels (not very common) are tiny but could probably do some damage. Of course if a weasel gets in your coop you can usually tell as its more like a mass murder.
A cheaper and easier way to keep varmints from digging into the (wire covered) hen yard is to get hog panels from a feed store like Tractor Supply. They are galvanized and 3' x 16' long. You lay the close wired side flat against the fence and wire it to it. Just let these panels lie on top of the ground. Nothing digs under. You can bend them and fit them in pickup trucks to bring them home.
I keep mine penned all day but let them out at 4 or 5PM to eat greens and bugs. This way they do not roam too far where the coyotes can get them, or wander off and start a secret nest in the grass, go broody and sit on them and a varmint kill them at night. The henhouse is in the run and I shut the gate after they go to bed. I have several breeds and 1 horrible rooster. I don't like him but the hens like him. Normal roosters do not rape hens by the way. It looks like rape but the hens lay down for them. I have several breeds and can tell the name of each hen who laid the egg by the color. Also, a home that has chickens no kitchen scrap is wasted.
We used to have a black bantam named Princess. She was half cocked.
Couldn't keep her on our 1/3 acre, flew over the fence every day.
Came at feeding time and popped into the coop about 2x a week
Slept in the coop more often in bad weather
Otherwise she slept in the neighbors tree
I'd see our princess digging up the new neighbors flowers. They were from the City.
Put a free add on Craigslist giving her away
Two days later my new neighbor called me over using his finger
A long walk just to cross road, feeling dread....
Then he pointed at her
Said look at that retarded Crow on the telephone poll above us
there sitting with the other Crows.
He thinks hes a chicken!!
He's been scratching at our dirt, digging up our flowers for a week!!
Oh BTW, chicken poop makes absolutely amazing fertilizer.
We found this out by accident. Tossed our old vegetables into the manure pile and they sprang up volunteers. The eyes of some potatoes I never cooked, but cut, turned into tiny potatoes. For fun I cooked them taking two bites. THE MOST DELICIOUS potatoes I ever had!
That started me tossing the pile, adding some horse manure, straw, sand, cannot recall it all. Got more potatoes but they didn't grow as big as I wanted. Took an entire year. Then I tried it again in another location and it worked. Maybe needed more or less sun. They grew better. Endless free red, white and purple potatoes. We'd eat them but always cut the eyes out to toss back in so it would replicate itself. Some potatoes have more than one eye.
We used to have a black bantam named Princess. She was half cocked.
Couldn't keep her on our 1/3 acre, flew over the fence every day.
Came at feeding time and popped into the coop about 2x a week
Slept in the coop more often in bad weather
Otherwise she slept in the neighbors tree
I'd see our princess digging up the new neighbors flowers. They were from the City.
Put a free add on Craigslist giving her away
Two days later my new neighbor called me over using his finger
A long walk just to cross road, feeling dread....
Then he pointed at her
Said look at that retarded Crow on the telephone poll above us
there sitting with the other Crows.
He thinks hes a chicken!!
He's been scratching at our dirt, digging up our flowers for a week!!
SO difficult to keep a straight face
We had one run away and live in the woods. We thought she had been killed, but we would hear her out there every now and then. Never saw her. She lasted at least a year. Not sure how she survived. We live on an island. The Coyotes, foxes, raccoons are getting squeezed more and more each year and they get bolder and bolder. Hawks, eagles, and falcons take their toll as well if they get the chance. We were left with the choice of keeping them in the run always or accepting we woudl lose some or all of them once in a while. We used to have a huge dog who would follow them around and guard them while they foraged, but he is gone. Sometimes if you have a big rooster he can protect them, Good roosters are bad a$$es. We had one guy, very sweet to humans, beautiful, large and super tough. He drove off all kinds of large animals. One evening he lost a fight before we got there. When we arrived parts of him were strewn around but even more parts of a furry animal (probably a Coyote). Most of the hens survived.
Some roosters are awful.
We always bought a third to twice as many more chicks than we wanted. You usually lose a couple of chicks anyway, some turn out to be roosters and you need to get rid of them. You may have more chickens than you want for a few months or a year, but eventually they get thinned out. Lots of things kill them, sickness, animals, genetics, stupid mistakes by human owners. . . .
Interesting Story. That is a long time for a chicken to live in the "wild" so to speak. i think the bantams fair better
We had a cook-fighting rooster but he got so mean we couldn't go outside to even spend time with the chickens. He had large spurs. Great protector but protected us from enjoying our
pets at the same time. Then he started flying out and started "protecting" the neighbors front yard so he had to go. Eventually he would've attacked the neighbor
The Perdue trucks pass through here, so we occasionally have an escapee wandering the town. The last one was robust and was around for a few weeks before something happened to her. The one before that was on the side of the road looking for all the world like it planned to throw itself in traffic and end it all.
I once found a turkey that fell off a turkey truck. He was injured but worse were the injuries done to him on factory farm. They cut the ends of their toes, part of the upper beak and their snood (noodle) off with hot wires because they are so overcrowded they will fight. After "No Noodle" got well he was the nicest and most gentle of any poultry I have ever kept. Now at Thanksgiving I make a vegetable turkey out of a stuffed hollowed out spaghetti squash with two yellow squash for drumsticks pinned on with toothpicks.
There is a cool story about a head injury chicken on the Pets forum under Birds.
[ATTACH]lackberryMerlot;51185390]I once found a turkey that fell off a turkey truck. He was injured but worse were the injuries done to him on factory farm. They cut the ends of their toes, part of the upper beak and their snood (noodle) off with hot wires because they are so overcrowded they will fight. After "No Noodle" got well he was the nicest and most gentle of any poultry I have ever kept. Now at Thanksgiving I make a vegetable turkey out of a stuffed hollowed out spaghetti squash with two yellow squash for drumsticks pinned on with toothpicks.
There is a cool story about a head injury chicken on the Pets forum under Birds.[/quote]
Mike?195848[/ATTACH][QUOTE=B
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