ARRGHH ~ New 2-legged Predator!

[redhead83402]

Ok, so maybe menace is a better word. The sneaky sleeper chicken menace.

I just have to sound off here. My neighbor has 2 little kids, ages 2 & 4. They are quite cute, love to come over & see the chickens, & we babysit them from time to time. So they are pretty comfortable over here. HOWEVER, usually either myself or one of my kids is able to watch out for them, because their mother DOESN'T. It's starting to drive me crazy!! This is the 3rd or 4th time they have come over, totally alone, untended, just left their house ( about 3 houses down the road) & came over into our yard & "wooked at da chickies", by letting them out of their pen. Their mom doesn't even look after them, as they are running the neighborhood half the time in just diaper & underwear. Tonight was about the last straw! They came over & let the chickens out, and THANK GOODNESS I had a feeling to go check the chickens, because by the time I got out there, only 3 chickens ( of 13! total!) were left in the coop!

Now I have managed to round up all but 3 of them. I coudn't find them anywhere, as it was getting dusk, & I think they must be roosting somewhere. I am hoping they just come back ~ do chickens know to come back?

Argh!! Ok, so I am rambling, disjointed in my thoughts, and annoyed ~ sorry! But thank you for letting me rant ~ dang little stinkers~ I love them, but this is ridiculous~ any one have any thoughts? A little background ~ we are in the process of getting a new fence up, & until it gets up, we won't be able to lock the kids out. ~lol ~ maybe we should padlock the coop, I don't know... any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!
~Red

 

[crtrlovr]

lock your coop, take the children home, talk to their parents, and if those don't work, call social services or child welfare and report the parents for neglect. Those kids are NOT safe!

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Go talk to their mother.

Lock the coop.

-Kim

 

[ibpboo]

Hopefully the chickens have found a SAFE place to roost for the night and they will be back in the daylight!! How old are the chickens?

 

[PotterWatch]

I would agree that you need to talk to the parent(s) and if that fails to get them to keep an eye on their kids, to call social services or someone. It is downright dangerous for kids of that age to be wandering around alone, someone needs to look out for their welfare. Sorry you are having to deal with it and I hope all your chickens are back in the coop soon!

 

[Mahonri]

Get some locks or a latch that the little stinkers can't reach.
I'd talk to both parents before calling CPS.
I imagine that rural Idaho is pretty safe but even there, unsupervised it can get dangerous for little ones.

Good luck.

 

[Eggseronious]

Lock the coop!!

Now this what I would do! Go as everything is alright, keep check on these kids and let them come over and do their thing they are needing attention looks like! Then after a few days decide if you need to make that important call? By your post it looks like you will.

Its not the kids its the sorry azz parents!

 

[redhead83402]

Locks on the coop will have to happen, I guess ~ dang it ~

The chickens are now about 15 to 16 wks old ~ about 4 months old, I think. Is that old enough for them to come back, do you think?

As to the kids ~ we have tried to politely talk to the mom several times, but she thinks she is on top of it. In fact, it's rather ironic, but she loves to complain about other mothers whom she believes are far too lax in their mothering skills... strange but true, she doesn't see herself as one, & yet her kids are wandering all the time. The 2 neighbors in between have also developed a 6th sense on those kids ~ if we all didn't watch out for them they'd have had far worse consequences far sooner. ( there have been several mishaps where the little girl got her toenail ripped off somehow ~ no-one knows, because no-one was around ~ one where the boy got his toe broken and his hand smunched, again, no-one really knows how it happened, they jusy ran out of the yard of one of the neighbors, bawling, with a new "owie") Also, the mom goes to the same ward as I do, so I have to see her every week at church as well as almost every day in the neighborhood, so if I were to call child services, it would probably be a pretty big deal.
~Red

 

[FlockEweFarm]

What about approaching one of the Elders about the kids being allowed to wander around like that? With all the bad publicity that the church has endured lately, the last thing needed is parents not doing their most holy of duties, and providing proper guidance and supervison for their children. Bless you for trying to keep the kids safe, but when my sis was living in Pocatello, she had a neighbor that let her kids wander like that, and one of the little boys drowned in a neighbors swimming pool!

And, lock the coop!

 

[Solsken Farm]

They could drown, get hit by a car, wander and get lost, die of exposure! So many things could happen to kids that small, even in a safe part of the world. You can report this annonymously. This is really serious.