4 ms·

Which is why you have dogs to protect your livestock. I think people forget that man's best friend became that way by doing jobs for us. Want your cattle and

by tw04 6y ago

Which is why you have dogs to protect your livestock. I think people forget that man's best friend became that way by doing jobs for us. Want your cattle and chickens protected from wolves, fox, eagles, etc? Train some dogs to protect them.

whimsicalism 6y ago
Ah but you see that doesn't scale to industrial size non-industrial farming.
frankfrankfrank 6y ago
Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles? I am not sure that bald eagles really care about dogs. A bald eagle will swoop down and snatch a chicken or even two and fly away without even landing. That being said I think an even very loose "netting" that can consist of simply rope criss-crossing with certain gaps can sufficiently dissuade eagles and even other prey birds.
- tw04 6y ago
  >Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles? At any given time I've got 3-5 bald eagles in the woods around my house. There are 3 houses with chickens in the neighborhood. The eagles won't go anywhere near a yard with a dog - I'm quite confident they aren't dumb enough to tangle with a large dog unless they have no other option for food. I have no doubt if an eagle was starving to death it might tangle with the dog and might even win, but I don't think that would be their first, second, or fifth choice if there were other food options.
- Floegipoky 6y ago
  Livestock guardians as a general rule don't protect by fighting, but by convincing the predator that the risk is too high to bother. The guardian alerts and the flock reacts to the danger, seeking shelter, making noise, looking up, etc. Without an easy meal the predator moves on. Arial predators are especially risk-averse because it doesn't take much to cause a mortal injury. I've even heard of people using guardian geese instead of dogs. They're supposed to be very effective at preventing arial predation and orders of magnitude cheaper than dogs, though I've never heard anyone talk about them in the context of something the size of a bald eagle.
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pueblito 6y ago
I have guinea hens for pest mitigation and when the coyotes and/or hawks have picked off enough I just buy more. I pay about $2 each, it’s not worth getting a trained dog to watch over them, especially since coyotes and raptors do me a huge solid by keeping the cottontail population in check
- tw04 6y ago
  You can adopt a dog from your local humane society for very little. When I say "train" I mean "find a dog that isn't going to eat your chickens or run away if you can't keep them in a fenced area". Unless you've actually got cattle you need herded and protected from wolves, pretty much any mutt over 60lbs is going to be good enough to keep the predators away. They'll also be happy to help the rabbits if you let them.

by tw04 6y ago

whimsicalism 6y ago

Ah but you see that doesn't scale to industrial size non-industrial farming.

frankfrankfrank 6y ago

Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles? I am not sure that bald eagles really care about dogs. A bald eagle will swoop down and snatch a chicken or even two and fly away without even landing. That being said I think an even very loose "netting" that can consist of simply rope criss-crossing with certain gaps can sufficiently dissuade eagles and even other prey birds.

tw04 6y ago
>Are you actually aware of dogs protecting free-range chickens against bald eagles? At any given time I've got 3-5 bald eagles in the woods around my house. There are 3 houses with chickens in the neighborhood. The eagles won't go anywhere near a yard with a dog - I'm quite confident they aren't dumb enough to tangle with a large dog unless they have no other option for food. I have no doubt if an eagle was starving to death it might tangle with the dog and might even win, but I don't think that would be their first, second, or fifth choice if there were other food options.
Floegipoky 6y ago
Livestock guardians as a general rule don't protect by fighting, but by convincing the predator that the risk is too high to bother. The guardian alerts and the flock reacts to the danger, seeking shelter, making noise, looking up, etc. Without an easy meal the predator moves on. Arial predators are especially risk-averse because it doesn't take much to cause a mortal injury. I've even heard of people using guardian geese instead of dogs. They're supposed to be very effective at preventing arial predation and orders of magnitude cheaper than dogs, though I've never heard anyone talk about them in the context of something the size of a bald eagle.

deleted 6y ago

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pueblito 6y ago

I have guinea hens for pest mitigation and when the coyotes and/or hawks have picked off enough I just buy more. I pay about $2 each, it’s not worth getting a trained dog to watch over them, especially since coyotes and raptors do me a huge solid by keeping the cottontail population in check

tw04 6y ago
You can adopt a dog from your local humane society for very little. When I say "train" I mean "find a dog that isn't going to eat your chickens or run away if you can't keep them in a fenced area". Unless you've actually got cattle you need herded and protected from wolves, pretty much any mutt over 60lbs is going to be good enough to keep the predators away. They'll also be happy to help the rabbits if you let them.