A dog tore through the chicken wire last night when my husband and I were late coming home from the grocery store, (usually at dusk we coax the girls into the coop and lock up for the night.) It was sad to walk around the yard and pick up the girls. The ones that survived were mostly dark colored, and obviously didn't show up in the night to the dog's eye. Strangely, I only found eight dead bodies, and six chickens remain missing. I wonder where they went? I've looked everywhere around the house, thinking I'd find a scared chicken here or there. The remaining chickens seem a little depressed. They went into the coop all by themselves tonight, for the first time ever, and aren't very interested in their food. Has anyone ever heard of sympathetic chickens? Well, I just had to tell someone my story. Darn dogs.
I'm so sorry!!! That must have been awful to come home to. I hope you know who's dog(s) it was that killed your chickens because they are responsible for paying for or replacing your chickens, even though it will never make up for your loss. I feel so bad for you.
It was my next door neighbors dog, and we will let them know what happened, but the man of the house over there saved-- literally-- saved my 4 year old son's life one month ago, so I won't exactly ask for reparations. I do plan on finding something stronger than chicken wire, though, because what happened in the night could easily happen in the day I figure, and I'm considering the paintball idea as well. I'm just a little sad about the whole thing, as my very favorites were the ones killed. I honestly just never thought a dog would bust through the wire like that! Just now I read the whole thread where the woman has irresponsible dog owners in the area and people talked about SSS. What do people use that is stronger than chicken wire? Is a hot wire a good idea with young children around?
Electric wire is probably not a very good idea with a four year old around, IMO. Try hardware cloth or welded wire field fencing. I'm SOOO sorry for your loss.
Aww how horrible for you and your girls. You sound calmer than me i would be a little angry!! Hope you get it secure as the dog will remember the fun he had!! {{BIG HUG}} going to you
I am soooo sorry for your loss. I have to say that in your shoes, I would not be as nice to the neighbor, even after what he did for your son. You should at the very LEAST show him what his dog did. You dont need to ask him to buy you replacment chickens, or pay for damages, but he should know what his dog did. If his dog ran amock killing your flock, he could be a danger to ANY pet in the neighborhood now, and your neighbor needs to know this before it kills someone's cat (or worse, Heaven forbid) and he ends up loosing his dog, simply because he was too uniformed and erogant to keep the dog on a chain, in a fence, or in the house. And thats my 2 cents. (Sorry, but people that let their dogs roam like this are one of my biggest pet peaves....It really gets under my skin. ) Again, I am soooo sorry for your losses. Hopefully, they went quickly and felt very little pain or terror.
Bokbok..... wow, I am sooo sorry to hear of your loss. How HORRIBLE!! I hope your nabor will keep better controll of his dog. Once a chicken killer, ALWAYS a chicken killer. You might want to try to get some of the welded wire fencing. Maybe put a hot wire just around the bottom, and teach the kids to stay away. Kids learn pretty fast! Again, I am sooo sorry!!
Oh, what a nightmare for you. I would electrify around your entire area. All the kids in my neighborhood grew up with electric fences, and we survived. Not to sound callous, but a zap trains a kid as well as it trains an animal - it won't take more than once or twice and they will know what the fence is!
Don't know if I'd use a paintball gun on the dog buy a cheap BB gun it'll stun it. A fencer would work good to also will help keep coons and other critters away. chickbea said your 4yr old will learn pretty qwick not to touch the fence. I told my kids it was hot and not to touch it,, that worked pretty well that and the saw me get hit by it a few times. Just don't go over board get a small fencer. I have a 150 mile fencer but it's around a 5 acre pasture with stubborn horses, it keeps them off the fence
Personally, I would give the remaining flock a little vitamin solution in their water for the next couple days to help with the shock. We re-farmed one of our cockerels recently and the whole flock moped around for about a day. I think for fencing you can use chicken wire but ONLY as a second layer (on the inside or outside) of stronger fencing. One of my friends uses a large chain link dog kennel with 1/2" chicken wire over it. But we've used 1/4" hardware cloth and 1" ag fencing with wood and metal fence posts. If you have neighbor kids in your yard playing, I wouldn't use electric fencing, but that's just me. I think too many people are sue happy these days. You may never find the "missing" birds because the dog probably ate them. Good luck!