I am still not successful in providing a safe place to live for my flock. They are in an area with a lot of cover but I am still seeing losses, mainly around the edges. There are at least 3 owls and a hawk in the area. I am loosing at a much lower rate, I don’t know if the birds are getting smarter, & faster or the cover I’m proving is the solution or just the dumb slow ones have been culled.
I have put up some overhead netting in the open area and am in the processing of moving the fence in as close as I can to the brushy cover. Creating a semi-permanent run area is not part of my plan for keeping chickens but it looks like I don’t have much of a choice. I’ve probably lost close to 50 birds in the last 6 months, selling eggs isn’t going to show a profit this year.
I suspect I’m going to have to create several permanent runs with something overhead to protect the flock. Then I could rotate them through these runs. Not as good as the movable electro-net fencing I had such success with last year. Oh well, live and learn.