Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of course, keep your birds in one area, which they will deplete of grass and turn into a
dust bowl in no time. Portable fences and mobile pens, on the other hand, let you move
your birds daily onto fresh patches of grass, giving your lawn a nitrogen fix and your
birds a fresh area to explore without staying long enough to ruin it.
If you don't have time to move birds and want them to be foxproof, then a stationary
pen is best. If you have a few minutes to move them across the yard, try the mobile unit!
Talk Is Cheap - and Effective
IHAVELOSTQUITEAFEWFOWLTOAREDFOX
at my farm. In retaliation
I tried everything, including padlocking the coop, a long stakeout with my .22 at 5
AM, and even a Havahart trap with a turkey breast lure. Well, the fox ignored the
lock, avoided my rifle, and tunneled under the trap to eat the turkey breast through
the bottom of the cage. I was dealing with a professional. Who would have guessed
that talk radio would save the day?
The idea is to use your radio as an audio scarecrow—or in this case, a scare fox.
Tune your dial to a stream of human voices, and hang it from a tree or fence post. So
far it's been working for me—plus I've finally discovered a suitable purpose for Sean
Hannity. Even at the height of what would normally be prime fox feeding time, I've
found it's safe to leave the birds alone while the radio's on, feeling confident enough
to take a good long walk away from the scene of the potential crime.
GOOD FENCES MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS - AND SAFE(R)
CHICKENS
A strong fence for your stationary pen can be a definite deterrent to predators and offers
considerable protection. Even chicken wire several feet high will keep a lot of terrestrial
predators away. But your fence may be useless against a burrowing fox unless you take
special measures.
To make your girls' quarters more secure against diggers, bury the protective fence or
chicken wire about 12 inches deep and toe the fence outward about 6 inches. Even the
larger predators generally won't dig that deep under the fence to reach your flock, and
the wire toed outward means any excavation attempts will merely result in running into
wire. Of course, fences won't stop avian predators like hawks and owls, so. . . .
