to rooster or not to rooster

Raising free-range chickens is tough. There are a lot of things out there that want my chickens dead.

Coyotes.

Foxes.

Hawks.

Owls.

Dogs and cats out there roaming the streets.

Raccoons and their thieving little jazz hands.

Not possums but Opossums.

Cars…

We haven't had the misfortune of finding one of our ladies squashed in the middle of the road but those mother cluckers like to test their limits by getting this close to the road. They have tons of room to roam around on some non-pavement but for some reason, they like to live dangerously. None have actually ever quite made it out into the road. Hopefully, they wised up the first time a car went zooming by them and decided they wanted no part of that. Chickens are super smart right?

The biggest disaster that has befallen our chickens has actually come from above (figuratively and literally). This past winter, there seemed to be an all-out aerial attack on the flock. Every now and then, a chicken would just vanish, leaving behind only a little patch of feathers.

I haven’t witnessed any of the attacks (thank goodness!) but the disappearance of just one during the daylight hours every other day or so made the hawk our number one suspect.

We’re down to just 16 chickens now.

We knew that we would lose chickens here and there when we decided to free range the chickens, however, this winter was brutal. And it turns out the cold is the least of our problems.

Maybe it is because there was less cover since the trees and bushes lost all their leaves. Maybe it is because there is less prey out there so a bunch of chickens roaming around in the open was easy pickings. Maybe it is because there is less out there for the chickens to snack on so they decided to be brave and venture even further out looking for food.

Mistake.

I guess you can look at it as Darwinism at work. Who has the smarts to stay alive???

So far, it looks like the australorps are the winners here. All five are still going strong.

Not only are they first on the survivor list but they also still sit atop the "my favorite" list.

And the losers???

It’s the partridge rocks. None of them have survived.

In fact, they were out pretty early.

Figuring out a solution that works for everyone involved has not been easy. Yes, we have our dog, Althea, and she is awesome at spotting big birds flying above and barking quite incessantly at them until they are out of sight. However, Althea is not left outside when we are not home, and well, the attacks come when we are not at home.

We have begun to leave them in the coop while we are at work. Right now, this is the safest option but it sucks. They are inside for most of the day and only get a few hours outside. This is what I didn't want for the chickens…to have them cooped up. Since daylight savings has started, they do get a little more outside time.

What advice do most people give on protecting your free-ranging flock???

Roosters.

Mean, loud, take their protecting jobs way too seriously roosters.

I am not too keen on the idea of having a rooster. Sure, I hear they will fight to the death to protect their ladies (which is pretty cool) and will keep them from wandering into danger zones (which is not as cool but still cool), but they are also mean, mean, mean (definitely not cool). I doubt that a rooster will take too kindly to a dog that likes to sometimes play with a chicken or two and will mess that dog's ass up. Plus, I don’t really want to deal with the whole biological aspects of mixing boys and girls.

So, no to roosters right now.

"We don't need no stinkin' man."

Hopefully, spring time will be the biggest help in keeping everyone alive. There will be more growth, more cover, more little bugs. And we will take the lessons we learned into next winter...

Happy little biddies stick close to home.