what happened??? :(

[Northie]

Northie...I'm glad to here you didn't loose him to...and I also doubt it was Your dog that attacked the birds. But if you have a really nice big run for them...I would keep them in it....especially if there are neighbors dogs free ranging in your area....they will be back...and it would be a lot easier for your dog to protect them from the strange dogs if she only had to keep them out of the yard...you and the kids can add variety to your birds lives by simply collecting yummy weeds for them and putting them in a potato type sack and suspending it from the roof of the Run....move the perches around....add "Furniture" New things...move, rearrange familiar things...use your imagination!! They love it...and you can keep them as safe as possible.

Up until this past weekend that's pretty much how we had been doing things... A relative of mine has been pushing the "Free range is best poor locked up Chickies" campain for quite some time now and I feel absolutely wrotten that I finally caved and gave in. Yes the first 2 days were pretty cool but now... Wow I didn't sleep much last night and when I did I had wicked nightmares... I won't get into the detail of those though.

Update on the red roo one side of his face/head is still swollen and he seems to be yawning more than normal, but he looks better in general tonight and is settled in his favorite sleeping spot with the remaining hen.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I also vote for a dog. Unless it has a heavy duty personality, dogs can be an indifferent chicken guardian when the flock is attacked by another dog.

 

[CandaceSturges]

Wow so we were almost totally wiped out today by either a local predator or a dog... Maybe even our trusty chicken guardian dog???
We just started free ranging our little flock this weekend and to our shock we lost almost all of our birds including the kids most favorite pair of huge cochins today. What ever killed them attacked their heads/necks leaving lots of swelling and bruising but no puncture wounds that I could find. It looks like they were killed fast and were all fairly close together with only one of the birds killed away from the flock... Maybe 30'. Ones head is missing and there are a couple that are just gone without an trace .
We had to run to town today and the chickens had seemed to do well in the yard...
So, they were left out with a dog who has (had?) been very good with them and seemed protective of them but, of course she's still a dog. She is all white so I would have expected there would have been some blood on her but there doesn't seem to be much blood anywhere... Just lots of feathers. Now that being said she's acting really upset/stressed tonight and has charged the bush with her hackles up a couple of times... Is it possible that something else did this? Did she get caught sleeping on the job? She's in the house now and sleeping but when we got home she was really stressed... And she was usually my egg collecting chore buddy.
Ugh, the kids and I are devastated... I feel so bad that I had finally given in and tried free ranging. We had built an awesome coop/run for them but got sucked in to the idea that they'd be so much happier free in the yard they lasted 3 days.

I do remember my time living in Florida, and having free range hens. We had coyotes that would come i. The yard, and generally they would take one just like a fox. We got a Blue Tick to protect our flock. So theta coyote problem was gone. HOWEVER we had some pitbulls from the neighborhood tjst would attsck several, and would shake them. Whoever it was that said they loose ibterest once they stop moving, IS 100% right. These pit bulls woukd PLAY with the chickens, and end up by killing them...around the head. So it might have been another dog that your guard dog was familiar with, possibly of the opposite sex. Went throught the same exact thing.