my dog killed my chickens

It took everything in me to remember he is a critter dog. Killing critters is what he does...but still it was hard.
All 4 layers gone.

We left for 2.5 hours to watch a movie.
We didn't process the chickens. Maybe we should have. They had been dead for hours in the heat and flies on them. What would you have done?

What would I have done? About what? Leaving a critter killing dog alone with chickens, or processing and eating fly ridden chicken that had been out in the heat? No offense but I think you know the answer to both.

But to answer your last supposition, I would have fed the chicken to my dogs. Seriously

Sorry for your losses...how was your dog able to get to them? Did you leave your flock out?

girlyhurley said:

It took everything in me to remember he is a critter dog. Killing critters is what he does...but still it was hard.
All 4 layers gone.

We left for 2.5 hours to watch a movie.
We didn't process the chickens. Maybe we should have. They had been dead for hours in the heat and flies on them. What would you have done?

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With regards to....?
I would not have processed the chicken for human consumption - that ship sailed when the meat was out in the heat for hours and had insects on it (not to mention the likely overall damage to all the meat due to dog bites).
I would have disposed of the carcasses and then assessed how the dog and chickens ended up together and spent some times addressing that appropriately - either by shoring up anything that failed to keep them separate or revisiting my management plan if it was not a failure of structures that lead to the event.

I read your other post about your dog breaking his chain and killing all of your birds I'm so sorry for your loss!! I too have a dog that has a taste for chicken and it has taken time and effort for us to live in peace. Let this be a learning curve to up your housing and run for your birds. You should go check out some forums on training your dog and properly introducing them and how. Don't let others harsh comments detour you from the forum. You can learn a lot from this site, and we are all here for the same reason... TO LEARN good luck to you!!

Well said Ole Grey Mare!!

Well I would not feed the chicken to the dog(s) that killed the birds. I would Barry the birds and check out my coop and fencing. You done missed your chance to correct your dog. You have to catch them doing it, then you have 5sec to correct him/her. Sorry for your lose and take the advise from the two people above.

Yeah, I think we figured out our coop didn't work. It was our first coop and the chicken wire was pulled apart and pawed through. They were NOT roaming. The dog got off his chain and got the chickens. He buried two, left one in the path for us and was eating the meat from my beautiful Welsummer. I was hoping one got away, but apparently he had buried her for later munching and we found her almost gone this morning.

This was definitely a learning experience and our first chickens and coop.
We are NOT going to give up though and I am SO glad I didn't try processing them. I was worried maybe I missed a chance for good chicken meat. I am glad I was safe.

girlyhurley said:

Yeah, I think we figured out our coop didn't work. It was our first coop and the chicken wire was pulled apart and pawed through. They were NOT roaming. The dog got off his chain and got the chickens. He buried two, left one in the path for us and was eating the meat from my beautiful Welsummer. I was hoping one got away, but apparently he had buried her for later munching and we found her almost gone this morning.

This was definitely a learning experience and our first chickens and coop.
We are NOT going to give up though and I am SO glad I didn't try processing them. I was worried maybe I missed a chance for good chicken meat. I am glad I was safe.

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If by "chicken wire" you are meaning the standard hex wire also commonly sold as "poultry netting" I would suggest you re-wire your entire pen with something much hardier. Poultry netting does a great job of keeping birds IN, but is useless at keeping much of anything OUT. Now that you know you have a dog issue you are doing yourselves, your dog and your birds a disservice if you don't beef of the wire used to create a more effective barrier between canine and chicken.

Ol Grey Mare said:

If by "chicken wire" you are meaning the standard hex wire also commonly sold as "poultry netting" I would suggest you re-wire your entire pen with something much hardier.  Poultry netting does a great job of keeping birds IN, but is useless at keeping much of anything OUT.  Now that you know you have a dog issue you are doing yourselves, your dog and your birds a disservice if you don't beef of the wire used to create a more effective barrier between canine and chicken.

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From my own experience a strong jawed dog can rip up a dog kennel/run in 5minutes. My buff silky got his throat riped out by a black lab and the silky was in my dog run/kennel.