Quote:
You'd be surprised at the lengths people will go to! We had one of our chicken coops broken into a number of years ago. It's a 10 x 12 building that sits up by the road (the house is down the hill from it.) One night I heard my Anatolian barking frantically, and went out but didn't see or hear anything (I thought he was dealing with coyotes.) The next morning we realized someone had broken into the coop and stolen some of our birds, including an expensive Marans cock bird (the only one I had, naturally.)
Now, this wasn't a matter of just walking in. We kept the door locked, and had bolted hardware cloth over the windows to allow us to keep the windows open, but not let the raccoons in (who would have just ripped the screens and gone in.) Nope, this was someone who knew about the hardware cloth (had seen it previously), had brought a pair of wire cutters with them, cut the hardware cloth open, peeled it back, popped the screen out, and climbed through the window.
I filed a report with the Sheriff's office, and let it go at that, didn't know what else I could do, didn't know who would have done it. Since then my husband has installed anti-theft bars in the inside of the coop, which should keep out the four legged and the two legged predators.
During that time we did do "farm tours" in a very limited fashion (making sure people wore all clean clothing, sprayed their boots, made them walk through a bleach bath etc.), as we like to be helpful and trusting. But since then we have not done farm tours, just don't do it any more, as it allows folks to "case" your farm and know exactly what you have and where. I wish it didn't have to be that way, but you just never know who you can trust with these things, the folks who stole our chickens could have been from one of such "farm tours" we'd done, no way to know.
And of late numerous neighbors have had equipment stolen from their barns and outbuildings, including a tractor! One had their house broken into, and cash and guns stolen when they were at work. We were even told recently that there are two guys in a grey truck who have been driving around in broad daylight, getting out in people's yards who they think are not home, and walking around checking things out. They did that to a neighbor whose daughter was home, and when they saw her watching them from an upstairs window, they jumped back in their truck and drove away!
I think the economy is making many people very desperate, and combined with drug trafficking, means theft is on the rise. One upside of working from home as I do, is that I am always here (there are weeks I only leave the house on Saturday mornings, as my kid always has my car!)
Plus we have the four dogs, the Anatolian outside who alerts us to things going on, and the three house dogs, one of whom is an extremely grumpy Great Dane female. People come to the door, and always take a step back when confronted with the barking howling pack! I had one guy ask me "Does she bite?" about the Dane. My reply was "Well, she hasn't bitten anyone, yet." It does seem to send the uninvited salesmen/pitchmen on their way quickly...
But theft aside, it is a good idea to have important bloodlines split up and housed in different places. When my friend Matt John had his flocks devastated by a huge flash flood several years ago, I was able to replace his Buckeyes for him, as we were working with the same lines. So keep some local, and even some with breeders in another state if you can! You just never know what might happen.