What kind of animals do I live by?!?!?!?! ( rant ) add a few pics

Yesterday was a beautiful day temps were 75 and all my animals were loving it ! I dont know what made my roo do this but for some darn reason he jumped the fence and right into the neighbors backyard where he has pitt bulls thank god the two adult pitts were inside a dog kennel and the door was shut ( finally ) so I thought I had time to try and get Clyde in his own yard - there is no way for me to get in thier yard unless you walk through the house - I cant lean over the fence because they have thrown barb-wire over the top of thier fence but it also touches the fence I put up ( kinda like having a double fence along one side ). Clyde was running up and down the fence trying to remember how to jump back over making all kinds of GET ME OUT OF HERE sounds I tried to lift the bottom of the fence but - being a rooster he did not understand - while all this is going on the guy looks out his window and sees me and Clyde - I run back in the house and get some bread hopeing that if I throw out his fav treat it would urge him over the fence - it was working Clyde was just about to fly over when this *&%$#@! of a man opens the backdoor and lets out pittbull number 3 this one being a pup under a year old - he starts barking and " playing " with Clyde - Clyde is now running INTO the fence because he is paniced I am freaking out yelling at the dog to get - the guy is standing in his doorway NOT doing a thing - so I learn over the barb wire ( hurt like H**L ) and was trying to grab Clyde's tail if I had to pull him out that way - well Clyde all of sudden jumps up and lands on the ground OVER the fence back in his own yard and falls over - I pick him thinking he is dead but his little heart is beating 90miles an hour - he was fine after about an hour of being in the house and me holding him to calm him down.
So now I have to build a tractor or something that will have a top to keep him from ever doing that again. Clyde has jumped the fence LOTS of times but he always lands in the front yard of ours and walks around there for alittle while and than hops on the grill and goes back over into the chicken yard no harm done I dont know what made him jump into that yard.
Covering the run they are in now is not something I can do - it is a huge yard with a huge tree in it - Clyde is the only one that gets out so I am going to build him a trator with a small coop attached and put it in the chicken yard and make it big enough I can put a few of his fav hen in with him - but I cant do that till we get the money -

any idea's how to keep him from jumping the fence until than? he does have a wing trimmed I could trim it back a little more - but he is a banty roo and flying is so easy for him.

thanks for letting me rant - sorry post is long

Julie

What an idiot of a neighbor that you are blessed to have! So glad that Clyde is okay. I hope you have the talk with him to start crowing about 3AM toward your neighbors house. Just kidding. As far as keeping Clyde contained, do you have any type of dog kennel or anything that he could stay in until you get something else permanent built? You might want to try to trim that wing back a little more, other than that I don't know what to say. Hope it works out.

Glad your roo is OK! I can't believe someone would be such a jerk as to let their dog out and not do a thing to help you...it wouldn't be his fault if his dogs were loose in their own yard and your bird went over, but to let the dog out and then stand there and not do anything--I just don't understand people.

Glad it worked out OK. I would build a tractor, too, if I were you! Sounds like your Clyde is a little too adventuresome! Do you have a local salvage store? We have a Habitat for Humanity "Re-store" in the area, you can often get building supplies a lot cheaper than, say, Lowes or Home Depot. These kind of places get donated and extra stuff from construction sites or personal projects, it's kinda like a thrift store for home project stuff?

And, just a gentle reminder from someone who is owned by 3 rescue pit bulls...any dog is a potential threat to chickens. Pitties do have a high prey drive and a chicken flying over the fence would just be waaayyy too tempting for most. But it's not the dogs' fault, and the fact that your neighbors dogs are pit bulls has nothing to do with this...the fact that your neighbor is a jerk with 3 dogs, those are the relevant details. Sounds like he is pretty irresponsible and shouldn't have pitties (or maybe any dogs) in the first place. As someone who has had several rescue pit bulls/bully breed dogs, this is a huge pet peeve of mine--a lot of these dogs can be great family pets, but it's the irresponsible idiots of the world that give them such a bad name (I'm really not trying to hijack your thread or start a debate here, I just adore my pups and want people to know that it's stupid people that are responsible, not the breed).

I agree with you that any dog can kill. My pittie never attacked my chickens but my moms lab killed 2 so far. Anyway I hope you can keep clyde penned up. Poor little guy. I use dog crates for winter time. They work well

Julie, sorry that I can't post a pic to show you, but I bought bird netting usually used for fruit trees and cut it in half, making it about four feet wide by original length. Attached to the top of the chicken pen and used the wire hangers from dry cleaners straightened out to hook onto tree limbs and then hook into the top edge of the netting. At places, I used two or three hangers hooked together to get enough length to reach. Some of the netting goes fairly straight upward; other parts are slanted inwardly. But since I did this last summer, only one very small bantam hen has got out and I saw her fly up onto the top of the gate and stick her head out underneath the netting and look around before making a jump for the ground outside! I hung a few CDs from the netting and a lot of CDs in the tree limbs in an effort to repel the wild birds so they don't get tangled in the netting. Have also had to untangle a few sparrows, but overall have been very pleased with how it has worked. (My reason is also dogs in the neighbors yard. Three adult pits, one adult collie mix, one adult border collie mix, and now five pit pups and two apparent shepard mix pups.)
Good luck in your quest to keep Clyde safe!

I am sorry I did not mean to make it sound like I am antipitt bull or anything LOL I had a dog that was a pitt mix a few years back and loved him - I was just letting you all know that is the kind of dog that lives next door - normally his dogs are running the streets and they are always using my yard as a public bathroom so we are going to put up a fence in the front to stop that - the two adult pitts are pretty alright they dont bark or even sniff in the direction of the chickens even when they are running loose - but the pup is so full of energy that he loves to bark and chase at the chickens and I know it is a puppy thing because my boxer pup does the same thing when she is in the front with me. I have been having issues with this person since we moved in about keeping his dogs locked up - and they see nothing wrong with the dogs attacking the chickens - since they are only chickens - these same people also told me how mad they are that they can no longer fight thier roosters that they keep at a femily membors house - so yea this is going to be a LOOOONG summer next to them

I dont think I have a re-store place around here this is a pretty small town - I will see what I find I do have a dog kennel but right now we are using it for the boxer pup when we have to go somewhere.
Clyde has never went into that yard before I just wonder what made him think it was a good idea? I know if he were ever to get hurt or killed while on that side of the fence it would not be the neighbors fault because Clyde is the tresspasser so I am going to do what I can to keep the little bugger safe.

thanks for the ideas of what I might be able to do with him - tonight when DH gets home he will have to help me clip that wing back some more and see if that helps alittle.

Do you think I can put a leash on the roo and tie him in the yard like I do my male boxer ??? ONLY KIDDING
Where do you get the bird netting ?? I will take pics of the chicken run and the tree today and let you see what I have to deal with if I can put something like that up I might not have to build him a trator and he will still be able to hang with all his girls
Julie

ok here a few pics - they are not the best but it kinda shows how big this tree is - reason why I put the chickens here in the first place figured the shade would be nice when temps outside are near 100.

this is the view from my front porch as you are going to to the chicken yard - the white house right behind the tree is the *&^%$ guy's house



just another angle of the tree the ugly brown house is mine ( cant wait till I can repaint lol )



this is the view of the gate going into the chicken yard my back is up against the other side of the yard if I " step " measure it comes to 35 feet - give or take -



this is going the other way my back is against the fence that is right up against the fence his dogs are in it "step" measures 36 feet - give or take -



the kennel you see in the corner is where my ducks are it is there temp yard - I could reuse the kennel to make a run for clyde and add a small coop and be able to cover it with tarps or something - I am building the ducks a bigger pen in the next few weeks or so.

Julie

What I did when Obelisk and Jerry decided to help themselves to the neighbour's nice fresh grass seed was to string replacement volley ball net across the top of my fence AND clip their wings.

Oh gosh Julie, don't be sorry I didn't mean it like that...I think I just got on my "stupid people shouldn't have dogs/animals" soapbox for a minute...I'm aggrivated for you. People like your neighbor just really get under my skin!! "Only chickens." Aarrrgghh!! I'm sorry you have to live next to this jerk. I hope you find a good solution to keep your chickies safe!!

If I knew when we moved in here that he would have the dogs I would have put my chickens on the other side of my house only problem is there is very little shade there - my dogs can tolerate it on that side only because we built them a huge dog house and when the weather gets really hot we bring them in to lay under the A/C.
The two adult dogs belong to his son - who got kicked of his house and moved in with mom-n-dad ( the son only lived across the street so the two adults have been running the streets since we have been here ) - the younger pup was born after we got here.
I wish I knew they were going to be this close to the chickens. I like the idea of the volleyball net - I might be able to get one of those at wal*mart pretty cheap - I will look tonight might need to get two of them if not there are other sports stores I will call around and see.

I got to looking at the pen my ducks are in I think I will be able to make a nice run for Clyde - but I really want him to be able to stay in the big yard with his girls.


thank you all for the help and the ideas

Julie