Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

We have cats that room the chicken yard to get the squirrels, jays and mice 
that try to steal feed.

The hound walks in with the chickens and runs the deer off that try to get 
the feed too.

Our male Pitbull is scared of the chickens!  Our AmStaff would probably 
consider them dinner.

The point of all this seeming pointlessness is that the fox and coyote leave 
the chickens alone.  We did have a raccoon rip a hole in the wall once but 
now we have metal siding and that stopped that.  However, we are going to 
have to rig more criss crossing with twine because the hawks just got 
another one.  They don't seem to care if the cats or dogs are out there. 
They buzz right in between them and grab a chicken on the fly.

We also have rather peculiar chickens.  They lay all winter long with no 
encouragement or artificial light.  Not as many eggs as in the summer but we 
still have plenty for breakfast and baking.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>

I agree. I have no chickens now, but I'll be getting some soon. I have
an LGD who likes chickens (and who loves the goats) and then I have
Buddy. He's rising 3 years old, and still a handful, and is a heck of
a lot bigger than I expected. He's at least 150 lbs and probably more.
Sweet boy but rowdy and I'm not trusting him with the goats yet.