I had to move my goats to my chicken run which is a small fort built to protect my chickens from hawks, raccoons, opossums, dogs, coyotes, foxes. It's basically a large cage buried two feet into the ground, fencing overhead and has two strands of electricity wrapping it.
This is why:
Several weeks ago, I woke up at 5 a.m. to the sound of a dog barking inside my goat pen. I jumped out of bed and yelled, "That's not the puppy!" (I have a puppy great pyr who sleeps with the goats but she's so little right now that I keep her in a dog crate at night when she is with them.) I raised my window and could hear wild barking and my goats bleating. Hollering at my wife to help me, I grabbed my flashlight and sprinted to the pen. When I shined my light into the goat shed, I could see my does were all standing on the highest hay bales. I pointed my flashlight to the back of the shed and there lay a big black and tan German Shepherd hiding from me behind hay bales. I thought, "He's not going to let me in there." Not three feet from the dog was my little wethered goat (my favorite of the goats) laying in a pool of blood still crying for help. Immediately, I jumped the gate and put myself between my goat and the dog. As soon as I got near the goat the dog freaked out and like a ghost blew past me and through a hole in the fence he had chewed through, pulled up from the ground and dug under. I've never seen an animal tear up a fence like this. As my wife ran up to the pen she said she could hear a second dog running in the woods.
Later that morning, Animal Control came out and set a trap then started looking for the dogs. They couldn't locate the dogs and the trap stayed for two and half weeks before they returned to get it. The morning following the removal of their trap, I was getting in my car to go to work and heard a loud yelp. I looked down toward the chicken run and there were two German Shepherds circling the chicken run/goat pen and every time they tried to get at the fence they would get popped by the electric wire. I ran inside to tell my wife to take pictures of the dogs. I called animal control and started getting my rifle. When I stepped outside both dogs were running off through the woods. My wife said one of the German Shepherds tried four times to bite the fence, would get shocked, yelp jumping back and then circle to the other side to try again. We were amazed at their persistence.
Animal Control located the dogs' home. I drove to the home of the owner, showed him pictures my wife had taken of his dogs in my yard around my chicken run. This pretty much convinced him that his two dogs had torn through the fence and killed my goat. (He told me they would do this to his fence to get out.) He was very apologetic about the goat getting killed. Offered to get another one for me and said he would double his efforts to keep his dogs from getting out. I told him that if they came back to my property again, because they've already killed one animal, I would shoot them. His response, "I grew up on a farm. I know the rules. If my dogs return to your property you have my permission to kill them."
All that to say, I'm glad I found this site almost a year ago. I read about building chicken runs and how to protect chickens. After I lost one pullet to a hawk last spring, I came to this site to learn what to do to protect them. Clearly, my chicken run is secure. Thank you!
This is why:
Several weeks ago, I woke up at 5 a.m. to the sound of a dog barking inside my goat pen. I jumped out of bed and yelled, "That's not the puppy!" (I have a puppy great pyr who sleeps with the goats but she's so little right now that I keep her in a dog crate at night when she is with them.) I raised my window and could hear wild barking and my goats bleating. Hollering at my wife to help me, I grabbed my flashlight and sprinted to the pen. When I shined my light into the goat shed, I could see my does were all standing on the highest hay bales. I pointed my flashlight to the back of the shed and there lay a big black and tan German Shepherd hiding from me behind hay bales. I thought, "He's not going to let me in there." Not three feet from the dog was my little wethered goat (my favorite of the goats) laying in a pool of blood still crying for help. Immediately, I jumped the gate and put myself between my goat and the dog. As soon as I got near the goat the dog freaked out and like a ghost blew past me and through a hole in the fence he had chewed through, pulled up from the ground and dug under. I've never seen an animal tear up a fence like this. As my wife ran up to the pen she said she could hear a second dog running in the woods.
Later that morning, Animal Control came out and set a trap then started looking for the dogs. They couldn't locate the dogs and the trap stayed for two and half weeks before they returned to get it. The morning following the removal of their trap, I was getting in my car to go to work and heard a loud yelp. I looked down toward the chicken run and there were two German Shepherds circling the chicken run/goat pen and every time they tried to get at the fence they would get popped by the electric wire. I ran inside to tell my wife to take pictures of the dogs. I called animal control and started getting my rifle. When I stepped outside both dogs were running off through the woods. My wife said one of the German Shepherds tried four times to bite the fence, would get shocked, yelp jumping back and then circle to the other side to try again. We were amazed at their persistence.
Animal Control located the dogs' home. I drove to the home of the owner, showed him pictures my wife had taken of his dogs in my yard around my chicken run. This pretty much convinced him that his two dogs had torn through the fence and killed my goat. (He told me they would do this to his fence to get out.) He was very apologetic about the goat getting killed. Offered to get another one for me and said he would double his efforts to keep his dogs from getting out. I told him that if they came back to my property again, because they've already killed one animal, I would shoot them. His response, "I grew up on a farm. I know the rules. If my dogs return to your property you have my permission to kill them."
All that to say, I'm glad I found this site almost a year ago. I read about building chicken runs and how to protect chickens. After I lost one pullet to a hawk last spring, I came to this site to learn what to do to protect them. Clearly, my chicken run is secure. Thank you!
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