Description:
In many organic chicken outdoor runs the amount of shelter by means of trees and bushes is increasing. It seemed that this not only leads to more chickens using the outdoor run, but also to higher mortality caused by birds of prey.
Research objectives:
Find measures of keeping out birds of prey from chicken outdoor runs and decrease mortality caused by predation.
On one organic farm several methods will be tested to get an impression of the effectiveness of the measures. In case of good perspectives the results might be a reason for further research in the future. The measures to be tested are:
- Make dead chickens very not tasty in order to let the birds of prey associate eating chicken with becoming sick and deciding not to eat chicken anymore.
- Make resting sites of birds of prey unattractive with electric fencing.
- Spreading of wires above the outdoor run in order to prevent the birds of prey from flying there.
Results and products:
- report
- internetarticle (www.biokennis.nl) |
