I want chickens for thier eggs i live in the country but i'm worried about foxs ,cats etc

Question

anyone know any humane natural repelents!!!! pleeeeez

Answer 1

No i don't but we have chickens on my yard and they run about everywhere all day. But at 8pm we put them all into their runs and coops. We have 6 hens which who all give us an egg every day, so in a year we have at leats 2000 eggs! YUM!

But we have this coop and run.

http://www.woodenart.org.uk/product_info...

The run is totallt fox and weasel proof!

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 2

well..idk about natural repellents but u could get the chicken wire with the smaller holes in them. cause cats and foxes can squeeze through tiiinnnny holes. so yea..and um u could get some plastic bags and tie them to a post..and when the wind blows it'll scare them off

Answer 3

As long as they are secure in a pen then you should be fine a friend of mine lives in leeds he has chickens he has had no probs he has a good run and house and checks daily to see if any holes or digging around his pen. Just be secure thats what matters

Answer 4

iv had chickens about 5 times and foxes have got them all 5 times. they are pretty hard to keep away, there isnt much you can do really

Answer 5

uhhh you have to get a chicken coop. what you do is you buy/build a large chicken coop and let the chickens out first thing in the morning, and by dusk they will be back in the coop on there own. chickens are blind at night so they go where they feel protected (which is normaly a coop). If you dont have a coop to keep them in then you will have foxes come and eat them!!!

you go outside at dusk and close the coop door so the chickens can lay there eggs and sleep and no foxes can get to them. Trust me its most humain way to keep chickens b/c they get to run around and to there thing durring the day, and at night they get the protection they need!

Answer 6

Our chickens have a coop that they go in at night and we close the door so there is no way a fox could get into them. They have free run of the garden during the day when we are there to keep an eye on them but if we go out for any length of time then they go back in their run, we fenced off an area of the garden around the coop and buried the bottom of the wire into the ground a bit to make it harder for foxes to get in. As for cats, chickens are quite big so its unlikely a cat will try to get them, in-fact my cat is still a bit scared of the chickens, and the neighbours cat hasn't come near our garden since we got them.

Answer 7

the best repellant is a fence

I have 4 hens - they live in a shed we converted to a hen house, they have a large pen built around the shed - fenced very well with chicken wire... it is in our pasture, so I suppose also the llama protects against foxes..

we let them out of the pen every morning and put them back before 6 pm.  

here is a wonderful link on keeping chickens as pets

http://www.gomestic.com/Pets/Unusual-Pet...

we have cats who never bother the hens.  they might go after chicks, but we dotn have a rooster  

Answer 8

Hi Frances J,

We have chickens AND  visiting fox's and touch would they have never taken any of our chickens but that is because they are fenced in.

Wire meshing was buried two feet down into the ground and taken 6 foot into the air. Granted fencing large enclosures this way is not cheap but it is extremely effective.

The other two what you might call natural repellents are our two dogs, they were not bought up with chickens or ducks but they are quiet happy to have them around but they will not tolerate a fox.

good luck x

Answer 9

The best thing to do is build a pen for your chickens to put them up at night.  We live in the country as well.  Our chicken pen has sides, a roof, a door, and concrete is placed around the bottom edges so there's no way anything can get in.  We let them out into a "yard" in the morning.  Late in the afternoon, we open the door so they can run around and chase bugs.  We have lost a few chickens to hawks, dogs, etc. but for the most part, they have done pretty well.

Answer 10

You need a decent coop and good chicken wire.

Also, I live in the country and keep ducks. A local told me that foxes are frightened away by urine!! If a man urinates around the boundry of your land on a regular basis, it will repel foxes and cats!!!!

(If you are shy, or have neighbours, you could pee in a bottle and then pour it outside!!!!!) ;-)  

Answer 11

Foxes are deterred by human scent and since you won't be able to be around 24 hours a day, use human hair.  Your local hairsressers might let you take a bin bag or two, put them in old tights and tie them to the chicken wire.

As for cats.  Well, once chickens get to be a good size, they'll be bigger than the cats so I wouldn't worry too much about them!