This morning I awoke to a horror that most chicken owners are familiar with. The ground covered in blood and feathers, and a mangled chicken carcass frozen in the cold. The three chickens we have been keeping in the chicken tractor while one recuperated from a wound had been besieged in the night by a neighborhood dog. The dog ripped out all the staples that were holding the chicken wire to the tractor, on both sides.
Miraculously, one chicken, Darth Vader, survived and made her way back to the chicken run proper before daylight. I suppose she used her Jedi powers to escape the beast. Hester, the injured Rhode Island White we had been nursing back to health, was found dead at the scene. Runt, a Buff Orpington, has disappeared, leaving very little trace behind. One cluster of bloody beige feathers indicates that she was carried off.
We'll miss these two, who were both from our original flock. It makes me wonder if one of our neighbors found their pet with our pet dead in its mouth. And I wonder if said neighbor feels any remorse, and might be less inclined to let his/her dog roam the neighborhood in the future. Sadly, since that's the norm in New Mexico, we'll just have to up the security here at the homestead. The remaining girls are locked tight in the coop tonight, and chicken run reinforcements will begin shortly.
RIP, Hester and Runt.
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3 comments:
The dog will be back. For them, it becomes as much the thrill of the kill as it is the taste of fresh meat. Would it be cost effective for you to purchase an electric fence charger and string the wire? We finally had to do that. It stopped the dogs, raccoons and foxes, but didn't do much for the egg snatching snakes.
Hello,
found you by browsing the next blog thingo - very sorry to hear about your chooks. It's my worst nightmare although dogs would have to be Spiderman to get into our backyard.
I'd buy an air soft gun. It won't hurt the dog but will give him enough of a sting to make him run away. Whenever the dog is in or near your yard, shoot him in the rump. After enough times he'll learn not to go around there any more.
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