Have lost 3 hens and a guinea

[kayjan]

My friend and I went away for a couple of days, leaving the husbands in charge of chickens. Well.....got a call yesterday morning, seems 2 neighborhood kids came riding their bikes up the road and had 2 dogs following them. The lady that sits with my mom said she heard a racket in the back and saw a dog laying on the ground with a guinea in its mouth. She hollered at it and it took off, with the guinea. We got home today and there are feathers all over the place, up on the carport, behind the coops, everywhere. And 2 hens missing. We followed a trail of feathers, found dog prints and eventually found one of the hens missing a head. We think she might have been hurt and was hiding and maybe a coon got her. We have more hunting to do tomorrow. The thing is we live on 60 acres, 2 houses on the road. My friend lives in one and we live in her parents old house. The road is dead end so no one has any business being up here. I want to go out and round up every dog that's running loose. I have no idea what I would do with them

Our chickens are locked up at night but free range during the day. It makes me so mad that these dogs came up onto our carport to terrorize our chickens. Thankfully 4 hens were safe, one weighs too much to have been carried off, for once being overweight paid off.

Sorry I had to rant but I was wondering what you all do with neighborhood dogs gone wild. I would like to find out where the dogs belong and see if we can get reimbursed for our birds. We got these from a local breeder that took 10 years to develop them. I feel so bad cause I used to keep them in all the time and just started letting them out to exercise more.
Ok hopefully we will find out more tomorrow and we will be taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Oh my goodness! People around my town let their dogs go and think they won't hurt any animal! But when they join together it's like a pack. Sometimes dogs runs back and forth along our fence trying to get in. They even try digging under the gate, but there's a concrete slab under the gate. I'd say keep a nice strong fence.

 

[Me & Jack]

I'm sorry you lost your birds. Unfortunately, predators come in all forms -- even dogs who seem like they'd rather play chicken than eat one. Unfortunately, that prey drive is pretty strong in most dogs. They're just doing what nature has instructed. Having said that, you right that it's up to you to keep your birds safe again. Can you build a new fence to give them some room to "free range"? Or, get some electrified poultry wire and create new pens for them to range around in on a daily basis. I, too, have lost birds to the neighbors' dogs. Unfortunately, I no longer let my birds free range as a result. Now I bring the bugs and worms to them!!

 

[rarely bored]

... seems 2 neighborhood kids came riding their bikes up the road and had 2 dogs following them...

Way back when I was a kid I could bike ride for miles... Hopefully they were kids from a distance and will not bring their dogs back again.