Went out this am as usual to feed & release the chickens. There were two large hounds that had apparently spent the night under and elevated part of my shop floor. One of them looked like a blood hound and told him to scram in no uncertain terms. Walking out to the tractor shed I noticed the lid to the metal feed barrel I use was on the ground and so was the scoop. Alongside of the chicken yard fence was one dead hen.
My flock of White Rocks is just about six and one-half months old and is just beginning to lay so I hate losing even one after all the misery it takes to get them htis far! The hen hadn't been eaten, just killed as was evidenced by the scattered feathers around her. Walking back towards the shop is when I discovered the second hound, amazingly the first one had sensed that I meant business. The secon was not so smart but after I retrieved my BB gun, wisdom soon entered his head - but from the opposite end.
I hope that they are truly gone for I hate to shoot a dog but will not hesitate once I see the real bottom line. In our years living above the river surrounded by woods I have had to kill wild dogs (wolf-dog.Coy-dog), Possums, skunks, Owls, Blacksnakes, Rattlesnakes and stray dogs going feral. I'll bend over backwards to be kind but if they insist....then so long.
It was too much coincidence for it not to have been either one or both of them that did the mischief, especially since nothing has ever taken the top off of the feed barrel. Many times during deer season, some knuckle draggers will round up a bunch of mangy dogs in a half hearted effort to get these wretched creatures to hunt. They just leave them for the natives to deal with. Very unthoughtful, eh wot!?
DRAT!
My flock of White Rocks is just about six and one-half months old and is just beginning to lay so I hate losing even one after all the misery it takes to get them htis far! The hen hadn't been eaten, just killed as was evidenced by the scattered feathers around her. Walking back towards the shop is when I discovered the second hound, amazingly the first one had sensed that I meant business. The secon was not so smart but after I retrieved my BB gun, wisdom soon entered his head - but from the opposite end.
I hope that they are truly gone for I hate to shoot a dog but will not hesitate once I see the real bottom line. In our years living above the river surrounded by woods I have had to kill wild dogs (wolf-dog.Coy-dog), Possums, skunks, Owls, Blacksnakes, Rattlesnakes and stray dogs going feral. I'll bend over backwards to be kind but if they insist....then so long.
It was too much coincidence for it not to have been either one or both of them that did the mischief, especially since nothing has ever taken the top off of the feed barrel. Many times during deer season, some knuckle draggers will round up a bunch of mangy dogs in a half hearted effort to get these wretched creatures to hunt. They just leave them for the natives to deal with. Very unthoughtful, eh wot!?
DRAT!
