I know the answer to my question, I'm mostly here to complain
Yesterday I was in the kitchen while my chickens were free ranging and I heard both my dog start barking, the neighbor's dog start barking, and my chickens start to kick up a fuss. So I ran to the door to see what was up, expecting a migratory hawk or a stray dog or something, and what do I see? Three 8-10 year old boys creeping through the trees on the edge of my property right by my compost pile and lilac bushes where my chickens like to spend most of their day. I didn't want to freak them out, because really, if they're just curious about chickens I don't want to scare them and I would be totally fine if they came and asked me if they wanted to see my chickens, but inherently (and I know this is bad) I just don't trust kids that age, particularly boys. I am shuddering to even hear myself say that, but it's true. I'm afraid of what they would do if I weren't here- I don't usually have my chickens out free ranging when I'm gone- I keep them safe in a run that would deter most predators... but wouldn't slow down kids that age. If I weren't home there would be nothing to stop them from getting into my run and messing with my chickens. Anyway, thankfully I have my chickens trained to come running into the yard when I get the scratch out so that it's easy for me to re-confine them, even during the day (I only ever give them treats or scratch inside the yard, never outside), so I locked them up so they were at least away from the compost pile, and I went back inside and watched- (but I left the dog outside to be my alarm). After a few more minutes the kids snuck back through the trees all the way to the lilac bushes before the dog scared them off.
As I said, I know the answer- talk to their parents. Unfortunately I have no idea who their parents are- there is an entire neighborhood behind our property- like 20 houses (even though we're rural) and no one is really terribly neighborly. I've never seen these kids before, so they could have even been guests of someone. Of course, if this is something that is repeated I will probably just follow them and see which house they go to. As I said, I'm just wanting to complain And I'm not going to be all "kids these days" because I believe that kids are kids, and whether you are talking about now or 50 years ago there are good kids and there are bad kids. And, even though I was a good kid, I know that I did similar obnoxious things at that age (usually following someone else- and we never did any damage or anything).
For now I'm keeping the chickens in the run for the remainder of the weekend. When school resumes on Monday the problem should stop, at least temporarily. The end of next week is fall break so I'll have to keep an eye out then, too.
Yesterday I was in the kitchen while my chickens were free ranging and I heard both my dog start barking, the neighbor's dog start barking, and my chickens start to kick up a fuss. So I ran to the door to see what was up, expecting a migratory hawk or a stray dog or something, and what do I see? Three 8-10 year old boys creeping through the trees on the edge of my property right by my compost pile and lilac bushes where my chickens like to spend most of their day. I didn't want to freak them out, because really, if they're just curious about chickens I don't want to scare them and I would be totally fine if they came and asked me if they wanted to see my chickens, but inherently (and I know this is bad) I just don't trust kids that age, particularly boys. I am shuddering to even hear myself say that, but it's true. I'm afraid of what they would do if I weren't here- I don't usually have my chickens out free ranging when I'm gone- I keep them safe in a run that would deter most predators... but wouldn't slow down kids that age. If I weren't home there would be nothing to stop them from getting into my run and messing with my chickens. Anyway, thankfully I have my chickens trained to come running into the yard when I get the scratch out so that it's easy for me to re-confine them, even during the day (I only ever give them treats or scratch inside the yard, never outside), so I locked them up so they were at least away from the compost pile, and I went back inside and watched- (but I left the dog outside to be my alarm). After a few more minutes the kids snuck back through the trees all the way to the lilac bushes before the dog scared them off.
As I said, I know the answer- talk to their parents. Unfortunately I have no idea who their parents are- there is an entire neighborhood behind our property- like 20 houses (even though we're rural) and no one is really terribly neighborly. I've never seen these kids before, so they could have even been guests of someone. Of course, if this is something that is repeated I will probably just follow them and see which house they go to. As I said, I'm just wanting to complain
And I'm not going to be all "kids these days" because I believe that kids are kids, and whether you are talking about now or 50 years ago there are good kids and there are bad kids. And, even though I was a good kid, I know that I did similar obnoxious things at that age (usually following someone else- and we never did any damage or anything). For now I'm keeping the chickens in the run for the remainder of the weekend. When school resumes on Monday the problem should stop, at least temporarily. The end of next week is fall break so I'll have to keep an eye out then, too.
