How much?

[cmcjmathews]

A neighbor’s dog has killed at least 10 chickens and 1 duck. According to local law he has to pay me back for the costs of the birds and for loss of potential egg sales and meat. What would that be? 3 isa browns, 3 barred rocks, 1 Americuana, 1 olive Egger, 1 easter egger, 1 speckled Sussex and 1 Peking duck

 

[iwltfum]

I love the fact that law exists, but that could end up being a hefty bill. It depends on how old they are.

I would calculate the cost of the chicks (plus shipping if you had them mailed), plus the food they have eaten since they have been alive (or at least how much feed it would take to raise the same birds from chick to laying age). If you wanted to get technical, you could even include your labor for raising them (ie 15 minutes a day or whatever you spent caring for your chickens for how ever long you have been raising them at an hourly cost).

You could assume that all of those breeds will lay at least 250 eggs a year for at least 3 years, so subtract how old they were and add up the potential egg loss and subtract from that what you would have eaten yourself.

Like I said, it could end up being a hefty bill. Last year a not-so-close neighbor's bird dog got loose and killed a handful of my chickens before I caught it in the act and was able to grab the dog and keep it in my house until they could come pick him up. I thought about asking him to pay for the dead birds, but realized it wasn't worth getting into it with a neighbor so I never did anything about it. Better to keep the peace IMO.

 

[cmcjmathews]

I love the fact that law exists, but that could end up being a hefty bill. It depends on how old they are.

I would calculate the cost of the chicks (plus shipping if you had them mailed), plus the food they have eaten since they have been alive (or at least how much feed it would take to raise the same birds from chick to laying age). If you wanted to get technical, you could even include your labor for raising them (ie 15 minutes a day or whatever you spent caring for your chickens for how ever long you have been raising them at an hourly cost).

You could assume that all of those breeds will lay at least 250 eggs a year for at least 3 years, so subtract how old they were and add up the potential egg loss and subtract from that what you would have eaten yourself.

Like I said, it could end up being a hefty bill. Last year a not-so-close neighbor's bird dog got loose and killed a handful of my chickens before I caught it in the act and was able to grab the dog and keep it in my house until they could come pick him up. I thought about asking him to pay for the dead birds, but realized it wasn't worth getting into it with a neighbor so I never did anything about it. Better to keep the peace IMO.

Thanks. Animal control is dealing with it. They can’t pin point the dog because the owners are denying that the dog was out. Though they do have to pay fines for other things. All I need is one picture of the dog not on its property and the dog is gone and so are the owners.

 

[Severne]

I would say 25 $ per bird and eggs should be around 150-250 so do the math and...... that’s a lot of money considering that you sell the eggs for 4$ a dozen, do you need to rentract feed cost? If the dog kills more, make the neighbor lock up the dog, and if kills a lot more, I maybe would even consider taking it out. That’s an extrme though’ nobody wants to shoot a dog. I had freinds who’s dog killed 16 chickens so they shot it in the front yard in front of their neighbors with a 45. I thought they were crazy