37 chickens dead

[Troyerbuilding]

Quote:
This is a tried and true often successful, sometimes not successful method. I hesitated to bring it up, but I’d do it in a heartbeat. My friend’s grandfather did it with a cattle dog they had when we were kids… the dog was a working dog, she was necessary on the farm, cows needed to be handled, so they weren’t going to kill her, the chickens were staying, they provided eggs and some meat for 4 families on the farm. The hen was tied up by neck to legs up tight around the dog’s neck, she wore it till it rotted off. Poor girl was so ashamed of herself the whole time, it was sort of a two pronged punishment, cause she hated wearing it and she was shunned by all the people she loved due to the reeking stink of the thing by the time it was all said and done.

I expect lots of people here will be horrified by this, but this is what old timers did for centuries if shooting the dog was not an option.

That sounds great. We are disgusted at animal acts, but cringe at disciplining them. If we cannot do what is necessary for our pets, how do people raise their children. OH wait... we see that every day.

 

[bird]

Hi Laurie,
so sorry for your lost. We had lost our favorite silkie hen because of neighbor's dog and for one bird I couldn't sleep several nights. My DH is very supportive for our birds (he does better care of them than me). When a bird is lost he immediately asks if there is way we to have another one and this is very comforting for me...Maybe your husband does the same so you can feel a little bit better....

 

[goldielocks]

How sad. I would not be talking to my husband either. How irresponsible of him. That just sounds like he didnt care or he was just to lazy to put the dogs on the run line. Most dogs will kill chickens. I dont think i could keep those dogs. I would get me a new batch of chicks and start over. Make a coop and run for them that is built like fort knox. << let me refrase that... have him make you a new coop and run .If you have to have a dog, get a little lap dog. They will alert you when someone is there and they wont eat you out of house and home.

Your husband needs to make things right.

I hope you get to feeling bettersoon.

 

[M To The Maxx]

I am so sorry.

You should never give up. Start raising those chickens again!!!!! Of course if you want to.

 

[PortageGirl]

Quote:
Yes, it was a mistake, a very careless, incredibly thoughtless one that would have been avoided with just a LITTLE reguard to what she'd told him, and just a little thought and effort on his part.

Is it unforgivable? Absolutely NOT! It's totally forgivable, but maybe not within 5 minutes and probably not without some serious discussion... not drawn out nastiness, but some honest talk and sincere work at making amends and fixing the lack of consideration and listening that lead to this. THis isn't about fixing a gate or run, it's about lack of consideration.

All that being said, it's TennTrue's decision, and her and her hubby's business honestly. Are we upset about the chooks? yeah, I doubt she's going to kick him to the curb, we can give her support and sympathy, but really, the rest is up to them!!

 

[ChickCluck]

Aww, that hurts.

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
This is a tried and true often successful, sometimes not successful method. I hesitated to bring it up, but I’d do it in a heartbeat. My friend’s grandfather did it with a cattle dog they had when we were kids… the dog was a working dog, she was necessary on the farm, cows needed to be handled, so they weren’t going to kill her, the chickens were staying, they provided eggs and some meat for 4 families on the farm. The hen was tied up by neck to legs up tight around the dog’s neck, she wore it till it rotted off. Poor girl was so ashamed of herself the whole time, it was sort of a two pronged punishment, cause she hated wearing it and she was shunned by all the people she loved due to the reeking stink of the thing by the time it was all said and done.

I expect lots of people here will be horrified by this, but this is what old timers did for centuries if shooting the dog was not an option.

That sounds great. We are disgusted at animal acts, but cringe at disciplining them. If we cannot do what is necessary for our pets, how do people raise their children. OH wait... we see that every day.

i agree although it wont bring back your chooks or work things out with your DH it will certainly teach the dogs a lesson.

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
WOW SO UNNECCISARRY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[anngili]

I'm so very sorry for your loss!!

I also think you should take time to grieve before making any big decisions. Better to have a clear head then than to accidentally cause more damage, including something that might damage you, too.

I, though I don't really like it, do know that guys can often take offense at being told they NEED to do something (even when they do). They seem to be most upset about it if it has something to do with their dogs, construction, and other "manly" things. I've run into problems recently due in part to guys behaving that way. Luckily it's cost me time and money instead of my chickens.

Once you're able to recover a bit, I hope you'll think about the different options expressed above. I also hope that at that point both you and your husband will be able to sit down and talk about what to do to deal with the situation. It sounds like both of you know what happened and that therefore talking about who's to blame won't really change any feelings or help, but, assuming he cares about you, he might be a lot more motivated to come up with a solution for the future.

It sounds like he might have felt (at least previously) that either the dogs wouldn't hurt the chickens (I know, dumb but it's not unusual), that "it was just chickens" (he'll know better by now!!!), or that it should be up to you to make sure the chickens weren't killed by the dog (a possibility because sometimes guys aren't the world's best at communicating and because they don't want to tell their wives some things).

In any case, if he's got a brain in his head and cares about you he'll hopefully be willing to sit down with you to plan a way to avoid it happening again. (Note: this would probably not be a very good time to talk about blame because he'll probably bolt at that point or blame it all on you!). If he didn't want to take on the job of building what you told him you needed before, maybe he would agree to helping you build a Fort Knox for chickens with you leading the way. He'll probably want to do the heavy-duty stuff so you will need to be out there, hammer in hand, but you wouldn't need to do it all yourself.

You might also bring up an option of buying a dog-proof chicken coop and building the dog-proof run together. You can offer to draw up the plans based on what experts recommend. (You've got lots of experts on this forum who can tell you just what's needed and how to do it.

) The premade runs are expensive, but if you have some samples (showing prices) already handy when you sit down for the discussion and the information from experts on what is needed, I think he's going to have a better appreciation of a couple of things.

One of which is that you're not being unreasonable about your chickens; lots of other people, including guys, are just as attached to their chickens. Remind him there are over 40,000 (double check me on that figure, though) members of this forum. The other is that you've not really asked much of him before, that you're trying to work with him now and give him options. The third is that most people willingly spend a lot more money and effort on their chicken coops/runs and predation prevention than you (as a couple combined) have.

Obviously, there's no guarantee that he'll "get" any of that, but he's much more likely to if the discussion is kept solely to about what to do for preventing it happening again and if emotions are kept out of the conversation as much as possible. Keeping the emotional level down is also definitely going to make it a lot easier and less traumatic for you, too, and that's obviously extremely important. You've already been through enough!

Whatever happens, I wish you the best of luck and hope you'll let us know how things are going.
Again, I'm so very sorry for your loss!

 

[Camelot Farms]

Laurie, I PM'd you with whats in my sale pen and what we can put in the bator and I think a couple of the other local BYCers have a few things that they are looking to rehome.

We'll get you restocked as soon as DH fixes the dog problem....

How is Grandson taking it?