Hi, i just wanted to share a little info. we have a chicken run that is about 200 ft. by 50 ft under some trees. on the out side of this is the fenced in area all around the pond. so the chicken run is up againest 2 sides of the pond run. any way last Feb. the biggest tree out there fell on to the fence and crushed it down to about 3 ft. high. This tree is about 9 ft around, it is big! So it is still where it fell. That was making a great bridge for all the animals to use to get our chicken, So my hubby put those bear traps on the trunk of the tree. In 2 weeks time he got 5 coons, 2 fox, 4 of those big things that look like a big rat ( cant think of the name ). Right about this time the ostriches i had hatched out grew their pen so i had to put them down in the pond run. they were about 5 ft tall and 100 pounds, now they are 7 months old and 7 ft tall and about 200 or more pounds. but from the day i put them down there we haven't caught a animal, haven't lost a chicken. do you think they smell the ostriches or see them and run the other way? we were going to sell them but if they can save our other animal i think they are worth the cost of their food. have a great day. vickie, S.In.

-- vickie (vduffys@cs.com), January 19, 2002

Answers

I think you need to build another chicken run and also a secure poultry house. Then you won't have to worry about any predator getting your chickens. Thus you won't feel the need to trap a lot of the critters that are protecting you from vermin like mice and rats that are truly dangerous. That is funny about the ostrich. I wouldn't mess with them either if I were a 'coon or a 'possum! LOL LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), January 19, 2002.

Sound like you have a natural animal protector in your ostriches, don't think many critter consider ostriches prey, outside of a cougar or bear. Do your ostriches get along well with your other animals?

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 19, 2002.

we do have a house they get locked up in at night, but the animals hunted while we were at work. and as soon as we can find some how to get the big thing off the fence we will fix it. don't have any other place to put another one. thanks for thinking about how you could help me. vickie

-- vickie (vduffys@cs.com), January 19, 2002.

BC, the ostriches live with,ducks geese,and peacocks they don't bother them. but every one moves when they come their way.

-- vickie (vduffys@cs.com), January 19, 2002.

I would love to see a bear trap catch a coon,, must be one hell of a coon

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 19, 2002.

I've never worked with ostriches, but I have worked with rhea and emu. While the rhea were somewhat timid, the larger emu were not. Nothing messed with those emu. We had three pens that were connected. We put audads (a type of mountain goat) in one end pen, emu in the other end pen and anything we wanted in the middle pen. We never had predator problems in the middle pen when it was set up that way. We built a new pen for the emu and put llamas in that end pen and had predator problems in the middle pen. So, for all you adventurous Countrysiders, here is a new and different guard animal. Oh, I would like to offer one piece of advise. It seems that your ostriches have been raised around other livestock since they were young. We had one young emu that was not raised around other livestock and she loved to do the poultry polka....if we put any poultry in with her (or any took it upon themselves to get into her pen) she would stomp them to death.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), January 19, 2002.