What Chickens Do You Raise - How and Why?

[Submariner]

I saw our first eagle today.

Now they will be 'out' all summer, looking for when we start free ranging our poultry.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

Yup, the raptors are finally starting to make a showing up here, too. The owls and ravens hang out all year round, but it's nice to see the hawks and falcons back from vacation. I know most people wouldn't consider a raven to be a danger to chickens, but our ravens are HUGE (avg 24" tall, 46-56" wingspan, up to 4 lbs) and are responsible for large percentage of aerial small/young livestock injuries and deaths around here. They are wicked smart and will figure out how to get into everything if motivated. I also spotted another Great Horned Owl nest with fluffy owlets in it on the "back 40" so we'll have to keep an eye on them since they are big enough to take a full grown chicken or duck. We also have several of the more common Boreal Owls, which aren't much threat to adolescent & older birds and rabbits, but will snatch up a hatchling if they can.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

My great grandmother used to say you could tell a chicken's purpose by it's body shape... fat-bottomed squatters made good layers, and large-breasted uprights made good broilers. Dunno if that's true, but it's stuck with me

I do know that body style and posture usually works for picking ducks though. Horizontal ducks ( = ) are good for meat, uprights ( || ) are good layers, and slanted ( \\ ) are dual purpose.

[foxywench]

theres places in africa working with guinnea fowl that dye their white birds BRIGHT purple and it keeps the birds of prey off them...aparently works wonderfs for the free range guinneafowl...wonder if it would help keep the hawks and owls off chickens too...i mean obviosuly they look a little funny (its done with bird safe dyes) but if it works?! worth a shot right?!

[EricBoyd]

I don't have any evidence, but I'm pretty sure a hawk grabbed my Silky Roo (Mister) and my last Silky hen (Pepper), about a week ago. I failed to properly secure the door on their coop the night before and the rest of the hens in that coop will out that next morning. No "Mister", No "Pepper". :sadface:

[mistyriver]

We have our bald eagles here year round.

[MissingAll4Seasons]

When I lived in Anchorage, the bald eagles hung out all year; but here in the Interior most birds of prey except the ravens and owls seem to go on vacation in the winter. The grouse males are out calling for mates already, and it looks like we might have a bumper year for them by the sounds of it

Mottled/banded poultry seem to do better up here against predators in the summer, solids of any color are usually targeted more often by prey birds because they don't camo well. But in the winter, the buff and white birds are the safest if they're out in the snow on warm days. Most small animal species that don't change coat/feather color in winter don't normally hang around outside much and stay snugged up in their winter hideaways. I just bet a bright red buckeye would stand out like a beacon against snow.

[thedwightguy]

I ran Rhode Island Reds; I had seven originally, and after six years still had six laying almost year round. (Ft. Langley, B.C.)

The R.E.Reds "freeze" like rabbits when threatened. We used that habit to train them to be picked up as well. They also followed the cattle around like Rhino tick birds, eating the flushed insects popping up out of the grass. I highly recommend them, but never ate them. They are dinosaurs, you know!

I had a banty rooster given to me, and he'd position himself up in a small tree and do lookout all day.

I did have laying mash in front of them and would alternate an open door on the coop every odd day. My big red coyote out back never seemed to figure out what the pattern was!
The eggs got so big after a few years that we couldn't close the egg containers.