English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

[centrarchid]

Tonight Coyotes doing a lot of howling. Adult dogs (3 +1 neighbors) howling back. Pups in barn doing same. Currently dogs just howl when Coyotes in woods. When pups released soon I suspect the adults will be a lot more assertive as they will have a numbers advantage in addition to size. Adult dogs moving to would now but doing so slowly barking as they go. Coyotes may be trying for persimmons that are in core of dogs defended territory.

 

[centrarchid]

There is a good part to the Coyotes being nearby, no foxes. Coyotes are much less of an issue with the chickens because the dogs really go after the Coyotes fast. The sounds and smells of Coyotes in area makes the Red Fox evaporate for a while. Based on prior experience I will not need to be be so particular penning free-range birds in the evening. This assumes the owl does not start acting up. The dogs are busy and clearly enjoying their job. Even neighbors dog is having fun as she is still good with chickens after some work with her about 5 years ago. The dogs are also eating a lot of the persimmons giving the chickens competition. At least one dog (Lucy) will stand on her hind legs to get the fruit if none on the ground.

 

[centrarchid]

Full moon with clear skies. I can hear chicks twittering from 100 feet away at 0315 as they want to eat. Twittering too much could get them eaten. Dogs have one, possibly to critters treed behind house in different locations. Lucy has what I think is an Opossum in a Persimmon tree. Honey and Ben barking are periodically on tree closer to pond, but they are not sticking with it and sometimes the barking sounds very muffled like they are barking into ground. The smell of Persimmons in incredible. I am charging flashlight so I can see better. Kids left flashlight on chasing muskrats yesterday which is a problem normal people do not have.

 

[centrarchid]

I got down into Persimmon grove behind house with flashlight but could not locate target. Lucy and Honey insisted Opossum was up there but I could not find it. Lucy was whining and Honey kept pushing on my back. Leaves are too thick. Even if no leaves, the fruit would be an obstruction. Very little fruit on ground because of dogs and chickens cleaning them up. They are eating a lot more Persimmons than my kids and I collect to feed penned birds.

All juvenile chickens in pens are milling about looking for food. There is enough light for them to see and feed. Older juveniles and hens in trees are sleeping sound. Chickens in trees well away from Persimmon groves.

The dogs are very active milling about in dark.

 

[centrarchid]

Dogs are working their tails off except for Lucy. Coyotes currently only concern dogs tell me about. A lot of staccato three barks last night. Dogs will sleep most of day while I am out. I put up most birds so they will not be able to free-range until latter third of day. We doing another farmers market.

 

[centrarchid]

Kids and I took walk to neighbors with Honey along. As we walked past neighbors fence line to north a dog started barking then lunging through fence at both my daughter and Honey. Honey then raced at dog and started barking growling and snapping back across the fence. We had to take Honey home. Other dog had a friend too.

 

[centrarchid]

My wife came home from extended stay in hospital. During most of day the three adult dogs not only spent most of the time in the house, they also stayed within ten feet of her as she slept. I got them to go out only after getting home. They have a Great-horned Owl issue to attend to. Pups keeping owl out of barn.

 

[centrarchid]

Dogs staying very close to wife now. I have to invest a lot of effort to get them away from her. They did provide comfort when she went outside and walked to lawn chair for first time since coming home. Chickens, dogs and kids doing very well, but I am not doing well where it is needed. Dogs and kids trying to fill gaps while chickens are oblivious to all, but their own concerns.

 

[aart]

but I am not doing well where it is needed

Do the best you can

 

[centrarchid]

Another not a good day. A fox came in and briefly had game hen called Maple down in the garden. Dogs, Honey at least, intervened and appeared to almost catch fox. Maple is one of those later molting hens so most, but not all the tail feathers lost would be coming out anyway. My daughter was able to see some of the feathers lost were new ones growing in. Fox taking real risk coming in like that, especially for catching no more than a mouth full of feathers. I can't picture an adult fox being so ballsy. Game hen with chicks was likely witness to altercation. She was very much interested in moving her roosting site to tree. Before that she foraged a lot more down by orchard compared to usual. My guess is fox comes in from north through fences. People up that way did have chickens until the last couple days.


Later daughter was out running juvenile games down and catching them like a darn cat. She is a quick little critter. Then she would run about carry them like a football. The weird part is when I got on to her about it and she put a pullet down and ran away. My daughter ran away. The pullet stayed put and immediately starting scratching for eats as if nothing happened. Pullet perfectly healthy and does not let me pick it up.

Just about dark we had to take wife to emergency room again. She was home for a week. Kids especially our son is having to take a lot of responsibility helping me with his mother. We are pretty close to having to carry her now. Kids cannot be with their mother in the emergency room or when she is in the hospital owing to COVID-19. She may be in for a couple days, hopefully not 2 weeks like last time. I will be in single parent mode again. I do not know any fathers that operate as single parent caregivers, but do know a good number of mothers, although they likely get more support from family than we get. Our extended family cannot just come and go owing to distance and risk presented to wife. Not normal times.

If things get real bad my kids will have to be sent to Montana where my sister has resources needed to take them on. That would be real hard to have sent kids sent away.