PROTECTING POULTRY FROM PREDACIOUS BIRDS 3 



be pinned together with nails. This type of yard can readily be 

 taken down and the wire rolled up and moved. On account of the 

 wear and tear it thus undergoes it is usually made, for economy, of 

 wire that is galvanized before being woven. 



Poultry production tends toward more artificial methods, the most 

 advanced phase being the development of battery brooding plants, 

 in which the birds have neither direct sunlight nor succulent green 

 feed. These plants are increasing in number, 2 and they may become 

 a factor of considerable importance in commercial poultry produc- 

 tion. The raising of chickens in confinement is also advantageous 

 because of the freedom attained from parasites and some diseases, 

 the more rapid growth obtained, and the land and labor saved. 



Total confinement of poultry being practicable, it is evident that 

 almost any degree of it can be adopted. From the point of view 

 of protection from predatory enemies it is certain that the results 

 will be in direct proportion to the degree of enclosure provided. 

 On account of cost many poultry raisers may not find it practicable 

 to go very far in providing enclosures, but even so it may be said 

 that if in endeavoring to protect poultry from predators they merely 

 furnish hatching coops, keep growing chicks in closed runs, and 

 train grown fowls to roost in houses, they will prevent most of the 

 destruction ordinarily caused by hawks and owls. 



Aggressive Measures 



When preventive methods cannot be practiced at all, and it is to be 

 hoped that this will be in a minority of cases, aggressive measures 

 will have to be employed. Even then it should be kept in mind that 

 the destruction of offending individuals, not eradication of the race, 

 is the object. 



Since hawks and owls prey almost exclusively upon living creatures 

 it is impracticable to poison them. So far as is known there is no 

 foundation for the frequent claim that these birds can be poisoned 

 by feeding chickens with mix vomica (strychnine) and thus impreg- 

 nating the flesh of the fowls with enough poison to kill a predator. 



Trapping is the most effective aggressive measure. Though, as a 

 rule, hawks and owls cannot be attracted by dead baits, they may 

 return to such of their own kills as they do not consume at the first 

 meal. Advantage of this habit may be taken by setting steel, or 

 jump, traps about the carcass, concealing them with feathers or other 

 light litter. In difficult cases living bait may be used, though bait 

 animals should not be kept long in strong sunlight, which will kill 

 them. The method is best used in shaded places or on cloudy days. 

 A trap especially designed for using living bait is illustrated in 

 figure 3. 



The most common device for trapping birds of prey is an ordinary 

 steel, or jump, trap set on the flat top of a post or hole and fastened 

 to it by a chain. Unless modified, however, these traps instantly kill 

 small birds that get into them and usually cause lingering death to 

 larger birds which, in their struggles, fall with the trap from the top 



2 For further information see Farmers' Bulletin 1538. Incubating and Brooding of 

 Chickens. 



