I Lost 4 of My Girls Today

[bayouchica]

Oh geesh, I'm so sorry.

Miriam

 

[jenichick]

I'm so sorry for your loss, I really do understand the feeling.

I've been debating whether to post about the dog thing cuz I feel so bad about my own. I ordered 25 chicks from MM 7 weeks ago. They sent 29 and I lost one the next day due to shipment stress. So I had 28, then the first week the babies were out in the coop (they were 4 weeks old), we let our 2 dogs (very nice and well trained lab and boxer) out and didn't have the run completely secure yet (we were putting the door on when the kids let them out of the back yard) and in less than 1 minute they each had a white rock in their mouth. It happened so fast we couldn't even stop them. They dropped them as soon as we said no, but they died instantly. Now we have 26.

We were working so hard to protect them and in a brief moment our own two pets each got one. We learned our lesson that day. Now we do not let our dogs out to run the property unless the chicken run door is locked and one of us is near the pen area.

Jen

 

[ChicksinBoise]

Yikes, that's horrible! I feel your pain, we lost 3 hens to a raccoon 2 night ago. I will be working hard this weekend to make sure our coop is finished and secure.

Luckily, 4 of them were on the second floor of the coop and the raccoon didn't get them...

 

[Lunachick]

Gracefulspice - I'm so sorry to hear of your loss of four hens to that dog. I remember how excited you were when you were getting them. My condolences to you and I hope you feel better soon. Thank goodness you still have your other two. Just wanted to let you know I feel for you.

 

[Chirpy]

I so sorry to hear about this tragedy. I've lost two chickens and it's horrible how awful you feel losing our precious birds. I had no idea how attached I would become to my chickens ... and how quickly!

I just wanted to support what Hotwings said about the dog owner.

First - most dogs have a hunting/chasing instinct... that's normal and you can't blame the dog. (My own beloved dog killed one of my baby chicks when it stuck it's head through the wire to get some grass. I don't blame my dog (I was mad as anything with him for a few hours), it was my fault for not having better fencing ... I didn't know any better as I was brand new to chicks.)

Second: Sometimes dogs (or other animals - as I watch the neighbors cattle roam down the road today) just get out. If this was a one time thing with this dog then I wouldn't be so hard on the owner.

Third: It truly sounds like the owner was very upset by what happened. She paid you for the chickens (you could have asked for money to fix the fence also) and that was the right thing to do on her part. At that point there was really nothing else she could do. I'm guessing she looses sleep over this event also.

I personally feel that there is a big difference in people who let their dogs run at large, not caring; and, people who really do try to keep their dogs home but the dog occasionally breaks out.