Episode 155 - Building a Predator-Proof Coop

0:00Are you tired of spending too much of your hard-earned money at the supermarket? Are you dreaming of farm-fresh eggs, homegrown veggies and homemade everything? Well, welcome to Ditch the Store, where we break free from supermarket dependence and take back control of our food and household essentials. I'm CJ and I'm here to show you that life is too short for store-bought eggs. So let's get started. Good day, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Ditch the Store. Episode 155 Building a Predator Proof Coop. This week, we are going to talk about all the things that you need to think about for a Predator Proof Coop. And we've discussed, you know, coop situations before, I've talked about it before. But I think having a Predator Proof Coop is probably one of the most important things that you can do. You really don't need fancy coops. I see, I always joke, and I post so image of you guys.

1:01If you follow me on social media, you would have seen there's an image of a coop that looks like the Taj Mahal of Coops. It's got like a tower and there's a, you know, separate rooms like it's like, there's a runway between one building and the next building and things like that. It's all caged in. We joke, I always send that to the handy helper and say, when you're building me this coop, now we have a mobile coop. So we're never going to build a coop like that. And if somebody did have a coop like that, I'd love to go and have a look at it. But it's not the reality of having a coop is you don't need something that fancy. I'm sure it's very Predator Proof that one. And I might even stick the picture up this week. And for those that haven't seen it, go along to Major Homestead. And you'll be able to have a look at it. But what we're going to talk about this week is what actually keeps you chicken safe. Not just what looks nice. What the most common Predator mistakes beginners make. What the most common mistakes that beginners make about Predators, that sound of wrong.

2:01And exactly what to check, build or reinforce to ensure that your flock is going to be safe. We'd like to, I don't, I don't want you to panic. I don't want, I don't want you to be paranoid about it. I just want you to be really aware that Predators are an issue. If you're going to have chickens, you're going to have Predators. And there's nothing you can do about that. You could live in the most urban area and still have Predators. In fact, we probably had more issues with Predators when we lived in gunning on the small farm, which was on the main street of the town, but on the outskirts of town. We have more issues with Predators there and more attacks than we've ever had here. So that just goes to show you. But if you're prepared, if you take the steps before it gets to the Predator issue, then you should be able to stave them off. Now, I want to say straight up.

3:01Most people when I say Predators, they're going to automatically go to foxes. If you're in the northern hemisphere, it might be bears, it might be raccoons, it might be. I don't know what else there's to this other. It's like a weasel or something. I forget what it's called. That come in and steal eggs and we'll kill chickens. Even things like rats and mice will kill day old chickens, day old in a breeder house, if they're not properly contained. Most people go to those. Predators, the primary predator that we had issues with, like I say, urban environment, was domestic dogs. Absolutely without a doubt. We have lost more chickens to domestic dogs than we have to foxes. And we lost a few to foxes in the last couple of months. We had some issues where fox was getting in. Lunar Merima has taken care of that issue. She's killed a fox the other day, which was great of her. She's also chased off about three more.

4:01So we are getting on top of that fox problem. And I think there's just been an influx in the number of foxes born because we've had a couple of good years. But the primary issue that we've had with predators have been domestic dogs. And it may be that you have an issue with domestic cats as well. In the areas that I live, there's not most of the cats that are kept are farm cats. And they're there to basically destroy the mice and rat population. And so long as they're well fed on mice and rats, they tend to leave the chickens alone. Now, for us, there wasn't a lot we could do about the domestic dog situation. These dogs were coming in through a gate that had a little gap in the bottom. And there were small dogs when we spoke to the owners about it. The owners really couldn't kill us. They didn't give a shit. We should have just bundled the dog up, taken it to the pound. And then let them have to pay the pound fee because we caught the dog in the act. And here in Australia, getting a dog out of the pants about a couple of hundred bucks.

5:01So that probably would have been a better thing. But instead, what the handy helper did was he took the blood-covered dog back down to the house. They were not at the house we'd run. They weren't in the house at the time. They're like all country people. A back door was open. And the back door just happened to be their laundry door. And on the floor of their laundry was all there. Clown washed, due to be washed, sheets. Most of which were white. And the handy helper tossed the dog into the laundry and locked the door behind it so that the dog was stuck in the laundry. Covered in blood all over there, washing, that was lying on the floor of the laundry. So we figured that was probably pain penalty enough for them. It didn't help us. We'd still lost a couple of chickens. And one of them was one of our lavender arrogance. So irreplaceable. And there was nothing we could do. So the main thing is, it doesn't have to look like our coop was amazing back then. But the chickens were out for arranging and the dog came in under the gate.

6:02And then got through a jump defense into the area that the chickens were and went from there. So the main thing is to know what predators are in your area. Because if you know what predators are in your area, you can deal with it. Like I say, our biggest issue here now on the big farm is foxes. We do have eagles that come through. But the chickens are very clever. They an eagle or a hawk comes over and they bolt and go straight under their house. But the most common predators for us are foxes, dogs, cats, snakes and hawks. And yes, we have had snakes over in the chicken coop. Snakes aren't going to go, well, they probably would have a go at chicken if it was small enough. But with the snakes, they're usually going for eggs. And that's why it's important to collect your eggs every day. Hawks obviously will take their opportunistic, their predator birds. They'll take what they can. So with eagles, cats, like I say, we don't have a big problem here with it. In the northern hemisphere, I think you guys have bobcats, like the little mountain lions.

7:06And that could be a real issue. They are imagined that they would be very opportunistic and take a chicken given the chance. But dogs are probably going to be your biggest threat. And like I said, the snakes will target eggs. But the other things will target chicks. Hens, if they look a bit slow, they're not moving out of the way quick enough. They'll get them. How they do it. And this depends on your predator. I mean, if you're in northern America and you have brown bears that come in and would get into, I don't know whether they would. I've not found chickens in northern America, but I would imagine there'd be a lot more predators up there. As I was going to say, wolves as well. I don't know what the population of wolves are like in North America, but I imagine they would be very opportunistic like dogs as well. So the thing kind of ways that they attack that you need to think about is digging under the coop or under the fence line,

8:07which is primarily how dogs will do it. Climbing over. There'd be more cats kind of thing, but there are some dogs and I would imagine raccoons and things like that would climb over. Pushing through weak wire. Anything that's got a bit of weight behind it can push through weak wire and around the chicken coop. And opening simple latches. Some of the latches and our chickens free range. So they can come in and out of their coop all day. So they're not actually locked in. And that's why we have a lifestyle guardian dog that sits around their coop. But some of the latches are so simple. And if you've had horses or goats, you would know that some animals are really, really quick to learn how to unlatch a gate and push it open. But the main thing to think about is is, is if they can see smell or hear your chickens, then a predator will be aware that there is a food source there.

9:07And you can't get out of that. The smell, you could keep the cleanest coop in the world, but they're still going to be able to smell chickens. If they can see them, if they can hear them. Of course they can see in here. So non-negotiables for the five non-negotiables for a predator proof coop. And I'm just going to go through these and say what my belief is on them. And the first one is strong wire, not chicken wire. Chicken wire is pretty flimsy when it comes to it. Look, it's okay if you're maybe covering the top of the coop in it or the upper walls of the coop in it. But down the bottom, where animals are more likely to try and dig and burrow under, chicken wire keeps chickens in, but it's not going to keep predators out. They can push the root. So what I would say is go the stronger, the next gauge up kind of thing. I can never remember all the gauges. But if you can use like a welded mesh down the bottom,

10:08that's what I would be doing. And what you want to do is you want to have it buried probably about 30, 50 centimeters on an angle. I would say is the best way that's what we've done when we've had a fixed coop before, where it comes down and you bury it into the ground on an angle. So that if a predator comes and starts trying to dig, they're going to hit wire. And I'll give up because they can't get through it. The gaps in it should be probably two to half centimeters. So what's that half an inch square, I would say. And look, it's not cheap to get that wire, but it's the best. If you definitely have predators in your areas, it's the best way to do it. You go think about it from this way. If you can fit your fist through something, or if you can push your fist through something, so check them out if you could push your fist underneath them. Absolutely a predator can get through. So the wire skirt, I just spook it out, that's the second thing on my list.

11:10Most predators will dig. Lay the wire flat on the ground, so it did 50 centimeters. But then I've in my little notes I've got covered with soil or grass. I would dig it down on a slide angle. I think that way you really bury it kind of thing and keep it in the ground. It keeps it very secure, less chance of anything breaking it. And that is primarily to stop your dogs and foxes coming through. They will dig and dig and dig. And if they can't get in one spot, they'll move around. And it's a really good indicator for you to come out in the morning and find little patches where something's trying to dig under. So then you know that you have got a problem. And then there's some other things you can do to... If what you know, excuse me, what you know, you have a problem. Things like sense of light, stuff like that would also be really good to put around the coop. You don't want to disturb the birds all night, but it will absolutely disturb any predators coming to try and dig under.

12:10Our secure latches. Predators are pretty clever. They basic hook latches are really easy. And they're easy to big bumped open as well. They're easy to not close properly. And slide bolts are things that I've certainly... I've seen footage of a raccoon in the States, unsliding a bolt to open it all. So, you know, spring clips, so good ones, ones that automatically spring back. And that way you can't accidentally leave it open. Carabiner's... Loving a carabiner through there. If you're checking them every night and putting them away every night, put a carabiner through there. Unless they have opposable thumbs, they're not going to get a carabiner undone. And even those... Even things like raccoons, I'm going to struggle to get it. But look, it would take them a while to work that out. And locking latches. Anything that locks in place that has like a two-fold action to undo it and open it and pull it apart.

13:14They're all good ones for your chicken coop. Some people use electric doors as well. The sensor light, like they're like solar powered, sensor light doors. We're at a certain time and night they will shut automatically. I've never used them. And I'm... They're anyhow proud I've talked about. I would be paranoid that a chicken would be halfway through the door and the door would start closing. And I don't know what happens with that. Whether it bounces back up, waits a minute, and then tries to close again. I don't know how that works. But you would be mortified to walk out and find it. A chicken with a sensor door, you know, squashed on top of it the next morning. So I have a tip for how to work out whether or not your chicken coop is predator proof. Fight if you've got a five-year-old or below. Give them to try and open it. If they can open it, that's so predator. Open it. It really does need to be child proof. Because child proof means that they've got to think about how they're opening it.

14:18And we hope we're going to outsmart these predators. Solid roof or a covered run. Now, this one, it does depend. Like I say, as are open air birds. But they also have a marijuana that runs around the outside of their coop. And they do have area that they can get underneath their coop because it's a mobile tractor. For a solid run, for a fixed run that's going to be in the same spot, putting chicken wire on mesh or even shade cloth over the top of the chicken coop is going to help you immensely. And there's a couple of reasons for that. It's not just predators, but hawks and climbing predators, eagles, cats, anything like that, having a roof on it is going to stop them. The thing that I really like about having a roof on a fixed coop is it also stops wild birds coming in to try and eat their food and drink out of their water troughs. And the reason I like that is because it helps with biosecurity. You've got less chance of disease, wild bird disease, getting into your flock.

15:20Because the birds, they're all birds. So diseases from one bird will transfer to another bird. And having that lid on your run means that you've got less chance of the wild birds coming in. So I really like the idea of having a roof on a fixed run. Now, your options for that are wire roofing. So the chicken mesh going over the top, your standard chicken mesh that's really cheap, that would be fine in that circumstance. You can put solar roofing on. If it makes up part of their coop, you might want to put solar roofing on so that they've got a good area of shade and weather protection that's still outside. And certainly if you are building a bigger coop, that's a really good idea. Especially if you've got different kinds of bedding that you use in the floor too. You might want to put a roof on so that the bedding doesn't get impacted by the weather. Netting. Now, if you've got wire across, you could have chicken wire across and you could have some shade cloth across, which is going to give more shade and protection to the chickens,

16:20not as much as a solar roof, but a little bit more than just net or nothing at all. But shade cloth is another good one to put across the top, because things can't get in there. Now, that being said, snakes can go in through the roof of chicken coop. And I've had the unfortunate experience of walking in and looking up and seeing a snake in a chicken coop before, and it can be a bit off-putting now. As long as they're not coming in any any year, you've got to look it out there and work out how to get rid of them. But having shade cloth or a solar roof does go a little way towards preventing them getting in. But any kind of wire that's big enough for a snake to go through around the side of the chicken coop, they're still a chance they're going to get in and get eggs. So, the last one of those five is to check on is no gaps bigger than a golf ball. I want to say golf ball. Maybe a feast might be depending on how big your hand is.

17:20If you've got big man hands, go half a feast. If there's a gap that's big, a predator will leave the push through or can walk straight through it, depending on how big the gap is. But the kinds of places that you want to check is under doors. So, if the door doesn't sit flush with the ground, you might want to put an extra strip of timber along the bottom of it or an extra strip of wire. One of our old coops, when we were at gunning, we had a strip of wire that kind of curved around at the bottom of the door. So, when you would push the door shut, you could kind of stick out so that they couldn't dig under the door. Around the nesting boxes. If you've got nesting boxes that are open out the back of your coop so that you can collect eggs without going in, just be mindful that they, if they can, if the top of them can be flipped up by your hand, chances are they can be flipped up by a predator too and your lose eggs out of there. So, maybe if you can put a carabiner lock on it

18:21so that you can keep it locked until you go to collect eggs. But also, if you have nesting boxes fixed to that wall of the coop, just check that there's no gaps leading to the outside of the coop from those nesting boxes. Between the roof and the wall. Now, see how these are placed to put ventilation. So, one of the coops that we used to have used to have a strip of wire around the gap between the wall and the roof and that was the toilet of ventilation in. But just make sure that that wire is secure and that you can't just push through it, because if you can push your hand through it, you can say a predator can push through it. And around feeders. If you've got feeders that are attached to the outer walls, just make sure that they haven't bent the wire caused any kind of breakages in the wire and therefore allow the gap where something could get in. I think they're the big ones. So, one way to test it, test whether or not you have

19:22a massive amount of gaps or any kind of problems with gaps, is to go out there at night. If you've got a solid walled coop, go out at night, stand inside with a torch on and get somebody to walk around the outside. Anywhere where there's obvious beams of light coming out, a gap that you probably need to consider. Look at that and fixing so that you don't have... Nasty predator is coming in. Now, coop placement can also make a difference to all of this as well. And I did talk about sensor lights. If you are in a situation to have sensor lights around your coop and you have a predator issue, sensor lights can be a real deterrent. There's lots of things that they put out there as deterrents like in Australia here, because we have such a problem with snakes. You get snake deterrent or snake vibration deterrent things. They don't work. I've seen a photo of one of those turned on with a snake curled up next door to sleep. So it clearly has no impact on the snake.

20:22But sensor lights generally will spook things like foxes and dogs and cats if they're trying to sneak up on something because they're predators and they're seeking out prey, anything that startles them is likely going to push them away. So, way you don't want your coop right next to your house, having it close enough to the house to be able to run a sensor light to it is a great idea. It also means that when you're in the house, if you hear something and believe me, chickens will let you know if there is a predator coming in, you'll start hearing, squawking, squeaking. You know, they'll be clucking and carrying on. Quite often the rooster will, if you have a rooster, or the alpha hen will have a go at a predator trying to get in. So you'll hear a commotion. Usually when that kind of thing is happening and we're out, our chickens are way up the paddock, but we can hear them if they're really going off, we can hear the commotion. So near to the house, as you can have without, you don't want to ride in your house block.

21:23Chickens can be a bit on the nose occasionally. So you don't want it right there. Also, if you have a rooster, you don't want to rooster right next to your bedroom, we know because unless you like getting woken up at four o'clock in the morning, which case have had it? Have you chicken coop right next to your window? A few years back, the handy helper and I took my kids up to visit my brother. And he had a rooster called Kevin. And Kevin, we didn't realise the room that they'd put us into sleep. We're up there for a couple of days. We're there for two nights. And the room that being the handy helper was sleeping in just happened to back onto Kevin's house at four o'clock every morning. We got that early morning wake-up call, we're on holidays, and we really didn't want that four o'clock early morning wake-up call. But you might like that. That might be your alarm clock. Other things to consider as far as placement of coops is not having it too close to bushes and shrubs, only because it does sometimes give a predator a hiding space before they try and launch into your coop.

22:24It gives them some way to kind of discreetly wait until you're not around and they have an opportunistic moment to get in. And not under big trees. So climbing predators could drop in from above. That includes snakes. If they're, if a tree's overhanging the coop unless you have a completely sealed roof on it or you have mesh roofing on it that prevents the predator getting in. And the last one is well drained ground. You don't want soft ground around your coop for a multitude of reasons in a forest keeping your chickens really happy and healthy and safe with their feet and not having any foot issues. But also to soft ground is easier to dig for a predator. So if you have really, really soft ground around there something that you could do is either put some crushed granite metal, the blue, blue metal, the road base around the edge of it to make it and pack it down to make it a bit harder. You put some rocks around the edge of it. What you want to do is try and keep that soil

23:26so that a predator isn't easily going to dig underneath. Obviously, so avoid damp and shady corners if you are picking a place for your coop. If your coop's already in place you'll have to make some modifications. But if you're picking a spot to put in your coop, avoid damp, shady corners under trees behind bushes, things like that. It's not always going to work. You want it where you can see the coop easily from where you are. So where you spend most of your time if you've got a veggie garden then you want the coop to be visible from there so that you can keep an eye on it. And if you hear a commotion, you can straight away have a look and say, we, the fox problem that we've had lately, like Lurie killed the fox the other morning where she thought she'd got a rabbit and she killed the fox. It wouldn't say it was an adult fox but it was not far off an adult fox. And she just literally shook it and broke its neck. But we've had other foxes come down.

24:26We've obviously got an influx of numbers of foxes at the moment. They've come down along the fence line and literally stalked the fence line. Well, she's gone long, but we can see them. We can see that you can coop. We can see all of it from there. So we walked out to her barking. And what's she barking at? And we see her fox running up the hill. If she'd got through the fence, he would have been gone. But keep your coop also away from those fence lines. And I'll talk about, we found a little tip for our fence line that we're using, which is really cool. And I'll mention that in a sec. Building versus buying your coop. So with, I would say, if you can build your coop, not just because I'm a tight ass and I use recycled products and I would rather build from scrap and use it up rather than buy a new one because I hate spending money on new things

25:26if I don't need to. The other issue that I have with store book or package book coops is that they're often not predator proof because they are transportable on light because they have to be packaged up and sent to you so that you can construct them. If they're that light that they can be packaged up and sent to you, then chances are they're going to be too light and a predator will be able to get through them, get over them under them, whatever. They will need reinforcing. So you're going to have to spend the time to reinforce it anyway. So if you're going to do that, I would say DIY it and do it yourself because you'll be able to make it stronger. You'll be able to customise it by putting the different meshes in the different spots so really tight, hard mesh down the bottom and the more cheaper chicken mesh up the top. And you should be able to use some recycled products so you go to your local green shed and try and pick up some second hand bits of timber. You can pick up second hand bits of sheet metal

26:27to go through across the roof. You might even be able to get second hand wire. People pulled down wire rolled it up and said, I don't need it anymore and got rid of it. It doesn't have to be pretty. Our first coupe was attacked together from an old car port. And in hindsight, it probably was a really ugly coupe but it was a very functional coupe. And like I say, the only reason that we have problems with dogs was that the chickens were out in the yard free-ranging when the dog came into the yard. And that we then ended up building a bigger yard around our orchard area with higher fencing so that the chickens could go in there and we never had a dog attack after that. Now there are some habits that you can do to keep your chicken safe. And we don't do those habits, but we did used to do these habits but that's because we have a livestock guardian dog. If you have a livestock guardian dog, then you can disregard most of these because your livestock guardian dog will take care

27:27of the issue for you. Our Luna is irreplaceable. And I don't know which is, I don't know how much longer she's got. She's seven now, but she's still going strong and I'm so glad because we will eventually have to get another livestock guardian dog to replace her that can be trained up by her before she retires or starts retiring. But at the moment she's still taking all on fine at seven. So it's not just in your build, it's daily habits that you need to do as well. So if you have, if your chickens are being locked away overnight and you don't have a livestock guardian dog, these are my hot chips. Lock the coop every night and make sure that it's locked. So if kids are going out to do the chores for you, make sure that they're old enough to understand how important it is to lock that coop and make sure that you've shown them how to do it properly. Count your chickens every afternoon. It sounds silly. If you've only got a small flock of three of something like that, then it's not an issue. But if you've got 10 and 15 chickens, count them every day.

28:28You would be surprised on daylight attacks. The dog attacks that we had at gunning, all daylight attacks, none of them were overnight time. Clean up scraps. Scraps encourage rodents. They encourage wild birds to come down and do it. So if your chickens haven't demolished the scraps in the day after that you've given them, I would say, break them into a pile and get rid of them, put them in the compost. And then a weekly feds check. And I would say, go so far as to say, a weekly coop check. So check that the latch is still working. Check that there's no gap under the door. Check that the fencing, that the lid of the coop is still intact and not got any holes in it. If you do that on a regular basis, the chances are a predator getting in and he's going to be much, much lower. And I think the really important thing is to not make it easy for these predators because they are opportunistic and they will take every advantage that they can get. So our predator-proof checklist

29:28is reinforced wire, latches that can't be opened, adds skirt wire. So a wire that goes down, oh, sorry, and a wire I'm going off then. Our skirt wire that goes out underneath to stop things digging in under, a roof cover check, and a gap check. That's the kind of things you need to do before you put chickens into the coop. And I say that because it would be really disappointing to get there, get all the way through the process, you pick your chickens, you've got them home, you've got them into your coop at the next morning, you wake up and a predator has been in, you'd be devastated. So check all those things before, you get the chickens in, then weekly, the kinds of things that you should be looking at are walking the fence line. Now, this is, I had, we came out with a really hot tip for fence issues. So we've had some issues with foxes lately, and the foxes, there is our outer fence, and then an inner fence,

30:28now mobile chicken coop. The inner fence is easily pushed through by a dog. It's just, it's old electric thunderbird fencing, and it's not even turned on as electric. It's just to keep the chickens in. But the outer fence is catafencing, and it's strand fencing, so what we do is we go, sorry, I can't get you nose, we, we got bells from spotlight, little clip-on bells, and put them along the fence line at the low level where a fox would come under the fence. Now, the reason we did that is because Luna has, probably, it's probably about four acres that she's managing, whether chickens are, and sometimes she'll be asleep, because she's seven, and she's working hard, and sometimes she'll be laying down with her eyes closed, but her hearing is second to none. So we put these bells on the fence, and since we've done that, oh my god, as soon as anything moves that fence,

31:28she's up and along the fence line. So it's worked out really well. So if you have an area that is away from your house that you want to protect, and you want some kind of alert system, alarm system going, go to spotlight, or some habitation restore, get little bells, and it's just little metal bells, and they clip onto things, and you clip them on, onto the fence, as soon as anything touches that fence, tingling, tingling, tingling, little bell goes off, it just gives our livestock and dog a chance to respond. But also, weekly check for digging, that way you'll know if you've got a predator that's trying to get in, it might have been successful and stopping them, but knowing that they're there, you might then take the next step and get a sensor light put on, corner of the coop, or something like that. I look for any loose fencing, loose panels on the coop itself, and again, do that test of standing and there were the torch, if you need to, to see if there's a gap anywhere.

32:28Seasonally, obviously, you want to go through and repair any damage to the coop as it happens, doors sometimes drop the hinges and drop down a little bit, or you'll try and tighten them up, you might end up with a gap up the top, instead of down the bottom. Trim many overhanging branches, if anything's getting too close to the roof of the coop, check for to make sure that the mesh is still embedded in the ground underneath. What was the other thing? I was thinking, oh, make sure your latch is still working, because obviously, then we get eventually, as well, and you want to try and keep them as tight as possible. So, if you've already got a coop, why don't you go out and check it tonight. Wait till sunset, go out, stand near where the coop is, have a good look, walk around it, I think, if I was a predator, where would I dig? What would look like the soft spot for digging? If I was climbing in, where would I climb? If I was trying to squeeze through a gap, where is there a gap that I would squeeze through?

33:28So, go through and do that if you already have a coop. And then, try and fix at least one thing, I would say, fix all of them, but if you can't get to all of them, fix the gap first, then fix the digging issue and then the climbing issue, because that's probably the order that you need to think about. The main thing is, just try and look after your chicks, because, like I say, once a predator comes in, it can really knock your confidence. It's certainly the first time we had the dog attack. The kids, I think the kids were home. They were and the handy helper, we heard a commotion and we both went running out into the backyard and caught this dog with chicken in its mouth, but it had already killed two other chickens. And it was just killing the randomly. It wasn't going to eat them. It was just killing them for the sake of killing. And it really put the wind up us, because we'd not had a predator attack before. And so, we kind of had knocked our confidence a little bit, that we hadn't kept our chickens

34:28secure and safe. And I think, for a beginner, it was really hard to go through that process. So, if you can avoid it, I would absolutely avoid it. It's not something I would wish on anybody. It prevention is better than the cure in this case. But if it does happen, it's really, really important that you don't beat yourself up about it, especially if, you've had a predator come in and attack or kill a bird, or two birds, and you still have other flock left. It's really important that you just have to decide and go, this was an arrow that's happened, a mistake made. Now, I'm going to fix it so that none of my other flock get attacked by this same predator, because the predator will absolutely come back for more. If it thinks that it can get an easy kill, or an easy target, it will absolutely come back for more. So, that's when you really need to step it up an notch. Keep them locked in for a couple of days, if you can, where you go through the process of doing everything you can to prevent the predator coming in.

35:29I've heard horror stories that people are losing their entire flock. If that happens, that can be a real blow. So, if that happens again, don't beat yourself up. I know you will. If you, you know, anybody that manages livestock cares about their livestock, you will beat yourself up. But what it's important to do is reassess what happened and how you can prevent it happening next time. And that's what you have to focus on is how to stop it from occurring again, rather than, oh my god, it's occurred, not just lost 10 chickens. It does happen to everybody at some point in time. We, like I say, we had a fox attack probably six months ago now, and we lost, I think, four in one hit, which is the most we've ever lost in one hit. We've lost one or two. We've had, with the dog attack, added killed two, and one was still alive that we caught up with. So, we hadn't lost, we'd only had random, you know, one bird lost at a time, prior to that. So, losing four kind of,

36:29put the wind up me, because I was like, up these foxes, like, how do they come in and take out chickens? But, but we did everything we could. We've, we've helped, the livestock onion dog, who, you know, some people say, well, she wasn't doing her job. She was actually, it was a daytime attack, and she was down in the house block at the time, not up in the chicken area. And I think we actually, we, for some reason, we had the gate closed to the chicken area, so she was stuck in the house block. She couldn't have got through, even if she wanted to, to try and protect them. Of course, we don't do that now. That's one of the things that we reassessed and changed, so that we don't have that issue again. And that's the really important bit, when it does happen, and it will happen eventually, when it does happen, just reassess what you're doing, fix it, so that it won't happen again. All right. That's it for me this week. Next week, we are talking, egg overload, because it will happen, if you have chickens, you will get to a point, unless you are

37:29an amazing cook and a preserver of all things, and you've got to work it out, you will get to a point where you have too many eggs or more eggs than you can ever handle, and you won't know what to do with them. So we're going to discuss that one, next week. All right. That's it for me for now. Bye for now. See you next week. Well, that's it for today's episode of Ditch the Store. If you're loving the journey to self-sufficiency, be sure to subscribe. You can also leave a review for us, or share this episode with a friend, who's ready to break up with their supermarket. If you've got questions or success stories, we'd love to hear about them on the socials. You can also find me at www.mojohomestead.net. Until next time, keep raising, growing, and making. And remember, life's too short for store-bought eggs.