You'll have your ass in a crack for killing them here……. I can legally shoot my neighbors dog for killing chickens I can legally kill any varmit for killing livestock but if I shoot a ole worthless chicken hawk they will throw me under jail
I have a pair of Great Pyrenees for the big stuff and terrier/heeler/??? mixes for the smaller varmints. Flying varmints are my only problem. My chickens run free all the time, I don't even shut the coop door at night unless it's cold. Cuts down on the feed bill too, they pretty much feed themselves. I normally keep anywhere from 12-25 birds at a time.
I am just curious, who do you sell the eggs to? Who's job is it to collect the eggs?
DCA what did you do to thin the fox population? I have free range hens and foxes are driving me crazy!
This is the reason we didn't shoot the wild flocks around the kraals - far too valuable as pest control, we would only harvest from the flocks further afield.
I have done this on the organic farm in the UK six mobile units of 500 layers each moved every 4 days. With no serious hawk problems, and the resident foxes rarely taking birds, this worked out well enough. With high predator numbers I would opt for a chicken tractor possibly based on a mobile hoop structure, which would require daily moves due to the birds being more restricted than the free range ones.
Fun,dumb,interesting it just depends on the moment with them. They're tough once feathered out, if raised with chickens they kind of stay with them as they get older. They will drag their chicks through the dew soaked grass and loose them being a bird from the dry plains of Africa. Funny to watch them on snow and ice trying to go here and there and not get their feet cold.
Got a trapping license and traps. I had a dange good Great Pyrenees and a German Shepard as well they killed quite a few of them I burned every brush pile that looked like a pitential fox den as well we now have a good bit of cotton tail rabbits on the place as well now
Anybody who wants them I've got quite a few customers who buy 5-7 dozen a week. A lot of family members who love fresh eggs but don't wanna raise the chickens
Somebody else asked how people sell that many eggs, but no answer yet. Going through the thread you seem to have the most birds, so you must have the information. Do you sell to some kind of commercial outfit that does everything involved in retailing? Or do you have some way to sell retail?
This depends where you are in relation to nearby towns, the organic farm is near Basingstoke in Hampshire England, so we had an on farm shop selling all the produce retail to local people and passing trade, I did the same on a farm between a city (Salisbury) and a town (Amesbury) so also started a shop selling eggs, and free range pork and beef. It takes time and some work in promoting the produce, then grow into the market. We also have weekly farmers markets in the UK, so can organise to attend two or more per week selling all the produce retail, and always sold out, delivering locally was a possibility in the past, but probably too expensive now due to increased fuel prices. Setting up a shop on farm for passing and local trade is the easiest, depending on local regulations, with banners on the roadside and using part of an existing building - if meat is not being traded, it should be easy to set up a shop.
We sell our eggs for $2 a dozen $3 a 18 count.. we market mostly to family friends and coworkers. Also
There are a number of regenerative ag folks touting this and I think it is a good idea, but as others have said the effort is substantial. The chicken tractors take time to move and are labor intensive to do so. Biggest obstacle for me has been time. Building enough tractors to house the number of chickens I would like would be time consuming and costly. The time to move multiple 10x10 tractors by hand or UTV would be substantial, and I'm not altogether sure how my livestock guardian dogs would handle it (would they dig under the coops?) They are there for my sheep's protection, and although putting in chickens with the sheep in the pasture is appealing, the sheep are the priority. They, too, are rotationally grazed, so I spend enough time rotating them on different days through the week. Good luck.
