Bruce's Journal

[NH homesteader]

You are a good chicken parent. I don't know that I would spend that much time looking for mine if they ran off. Maybe, I don't know, mine have never not come back to the coop at night. Except the one time my roo spent the night on our stone wall and he woke me up at 5am crowing outside my bedroom window. I wished for something to eat him that day!

 

[Bruce]

Always the optimist @CntryBoy777

Keep it up because I seem to have fallen into the "glass half empty" mindset the last few years. Given what you've posted about your trials and tribulations, you surely have more of a "right" to be that way than I do!

@NH homesteader My girls have ALWAYS gone back to the coop at night so if any are missing when they are free ranging we go look for them. A few are very good foragers and apparently don't notice the "herd" has headed home for the night as the sun gets low. Once the barn gets locked up they would be out for the night which can spell death. Now that the alpacas have their "always open" door at the north end of the barn, a wayward hen COULD get back in the barn though until they figure out Merlin isn't trying to eat them, I can't imagine they would dare come in.

And that assumes that they are foraging inside the "keep the animals in" fence. In the spring, summer and fall, they have access to that and all around the house as well. No way to return to the "safety area". I need to make a chicken door in the fencing between the barns on the house side. NEED to keep Merlin in, the alpacas can't get that far but the girls get quite testy if they can't get out by the house. In the past they would stand at the front gate running their cups against the bars and saying "LET US OUT". When they were allowed to be out I would just leave the gate open so they could go down to the barn to lay but that can't happen with Merlin here. No fencing past that front gate to keep him "home". It has been cold and snowy since Merlin arrived so they've not left the barn other than the 2 panicked girls yesterday.

They are still afraid of the alpacas as well. The few times some of them dared go behind the barn post alpacas and pre Merlin, Teddy ran at at least one of them. Don't know why. Well, except for Yuki who was bound and determined to lay in the weeds by the pond. I have no idea if they will trust that they can be in the fenced in area come spring. I sure hope so, I don't want them trapped in the coop by their fear nor do I want them out around the house if we aren't home.

 

[CntryBoy777]

If ya see the 'Glass' as half of its size....then, a glass half full or half empty turns into a Full glass with an Extended rim and with your chickens....I'd figure a way to block off a portion of the alley, so the chickens would feel safe and could see Merlin and get used to him by Spring....even putting up some temporary fencing, possibly use what I know as a Gap gate....tho, I have never been around a LGD so unsure just how it would work...but, I'd find something that did...and I would explain it to Merlin...but, there again I am an animal talker...whether they understand it or not I tell them what is going on...seems to work more times than not...

 

[Bruce]

I can't find a description of a gap gate, perhaps you could elaborate.

I've told him not to chase the chickens when they run. It either went in one ear and out the other or it never got in the first ear at all

I used a 24" piece of 3/4" copper pipe and 2 bell hangers (because I had old used stuff in the workshop) to reduce the horizontal opening in the auto door. Now there are 2 openings big enough for a chicken and none big enough for Merlin. I am hoping they will venture out at least when Merlin isn't in the barn. Doesn't do a hen good to sit on a roost day and night. Especially since they have NEVER spent much of their day time on the roost in the coop until Merlin arrived. Now they spend almost all their time up there even when I have the little door (earlier made Merlin proof but not auto) open.

This is the coop, they can see him from the roosts and though the door. The open door is the PulletShut auto door. They don't freak anymore when he wanders by or even looks in through the doors so at least that is an improvement, they know they are safe inside the coop.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Basically a 'Gap Fence' is one that spans a 'Gap'...and isn't permanently attached except for one end....and the other end is held by loops of wire at the bottom and top....depending on the distance of the 'Span' may have 1,2,or3 sticks attached to fencing between the ends to support the integrity of the fence....used very commonly here between pastures, so a truck can get into it...and to move cattle and horses from one pasture or another....poultry wire will work for the chickens, but doubt it will stand against Merlin....will be posting some pics in a few days of exactly this....going to separate the bird yard so both can be out all day....tho, on one end of the building I am thinking of driving a T post in cause I don't want to handle that much Fence everyday....3-5' is ideal....if ya prefer to spend a little...just get a couple of galvaized Gates and chain link fencing, and hang the hinges on one side and latch on the other...depending on how wide the alley is....when they get used to each other, just leave them open....but, ya will have a Secure area available to use when the Need arises....

 

[Southern by choice]

To integrate a LGD with poultry it is usually the dog that needs to be worked with, in your case it is the birds.
Either spend time in the coop and keep Merlin in there or don't do anything and don't coddle the birds.
Chickens learn quick, they will get it and realize he isn't trying to eat them. But you can speed this up.
Take Merlin in with you everytime, the birds will come to realize he is friend not foe. If you are trying to make a path or a way the chickens can avoid him you send the message he isn't safe and they will take much longer to figure this out. Having the small door where Merlin can't go in other than his face is scarier to the chickens because it triggers "something trying to get at them" as opposed to "he is suppose to be in here".
I have raised over 1000 chickens had a flock of 250 breeder birds and raised 20+ dogs with poultry.
Truly, don't over think it.

BTW we had to stop the nightly "bed check" with our chickens once we got to over 100 birds.
We really didn't need to with all the LGD's nothing was gonna get the birds. We currently have 75-100 birds living outside the LGD fence (feral chickens) they sleep in the trees... no dogs with these guys and nothing gets them. The presence of the LGD's pretty much covers everything.

 

[Bruce]

I'll work on it. I had thought about taking him in the coop on his leash. Wasn't sure that wouldn't traumatize them in their "safe space" though. They seem to have figured out he can't get in the modified doors. After I split the auto door opening today he stuck his nose in and they didn't react at all. Originally they freaked if they saw him in the run through the closed wire covered people door with both chicken doors closed.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't do a bed check with anything near 100 birds. The most I have had at a time is 16 and the only way I could count them at night to be sure all got into the barn was when they were eating their nightly scratch in the run. I didn't worry about them getting into the coop, I just closed the barn door when I knew they were all inside. With very few exceptions they always got up on the roosts before it got too dark.

 

[Bruce]

As @purplequeenvt said, Merlin seems to have learned his "table manners" from his mother. This evening I put his food in his pink bucket (after collecting it from the barnyard) and took it into his "dining room". I dumped about half of it in the metal bowl. He ate some of that (after much scrubbing of ears and neck). I went out to put the latch pin on the pipe gate. Soon after Merlin and his pink bucket appeared and went through the gap between the pipe gate and the "fixed panel" (old falling apart gate which used to be the "active" section). He then took his bucket about 40' in the direction of the solar panels, put it down, intentionally knocked it over and ate the food out of the snow.

 

[NH homesteader]

I was thinking about chickens just now and realized mine aren't really afraid of anything. Except hawks, they scatter when they see them. They should be more afraid of the pigs than they are... They ignore the dogs and everything else. Must just be what they're used to. I'm sure if you get new ones in the spring theyll think your old ladies are scaredy chickens! Lol

I wonder if the food dumping is because they prefer to eat without stuffing their head in something that obscures their view... A protection thing? Or is it just a funny quirk? I don't know...

 

[Southern by choice]

It is getting the chickens to understand their safe space is Merlin's safe space too.
That is why you got him, the chickens and alpacas.
It is not going to traumatize the chickens. It will make them uncomfortable and they will adjust but it will not traumatize them.
Remember as you focus on the chickens and whether they are anxious you are sending messages to Merlin, whether you realize it or not. These are not positive messages.