I really am so mad at my dog!

[old mill poultry]

I was at work the other day while my marans were hatching. We had 6/8 eggs pipping and I already had two beautiful chicks out. I called my daughter for updates who was home and all was well with 4 chicks by 7pm. I unfortunatley could not make it home til 11pm and when I called at 8pm she told me the dog(who just had pups two weeks ago) snuck in the spare room where "I keep my incubators on table.She killed and ate all the chicks while she went out to give the horses some hay. I was so mad at my dog, the daughter just every one! Man I really wanted those salmon maran chicks! Well I got home around 11pm and the incubator lid was ajar and saw one lonely egg she did not get to it the corner of the incubator was pipped. The temp was 70 degrees and the humidity at only 18%. I was going to toss it, but just put it back upright knowing I would dispose of it in the morning. I woke to some peeping around 5am and there was the chick hatched and dry and fluffy pecking at the incubator to get out. She(i think) is my little survivor. I contacted the breeder who is sending me out some new eggs this week for just the shipping. I'm sending him some of my blue marans as a gift.

 

[cozycritters]

DOGS!

Sorry, it's been a bad year for family dogs here this year. Seriously!

I'm glad you have a little survivor and a chance to try again-- so heartbreaking to have something like that happen.

 

[chickie_mama]

Old Mill Poultry,
I feel your pain. Every time I let my hens hatch for themselves, something always happens. My husband is a rabbit hunter and has beagles (in a pen, of course). My little chickies always seem to wander into the pen... Free lunch for the beagles. It is just heartbreaking.

DH has finally agreed to build a REAL coop / run for my chickies. I took him on a good guilt trip the last time it happened.

Congratulations though, at least you had a survivor!!!!!!!

 

[Sachasmom]

Oh No! Bad Dog!

Mine will steal the "eggies" if I don't watch her outside, my fault, I started tossing her the frozen eggs this winter! Duh.

Nice save on the lone chick!

I've trained both of my dogs that all small fuzzies are MINE. Since it is a regular occurance for buns or chicks to be in the house! Even the cat leaves the stuff in the house alone, wish I knew how I trained the cat to do that!

 

[FrizzleFreak]

That's terrible!
We have to teach our dog that chickens are family, not food.

She wouldn't understand about eggs, since we give her cracked ones, but she would NEVER eat chicks

She might run them to death...
Hoping that your survivor is a pullet...

 

[Spires6]

So Sorry! I used to have a german shepherd that was great with our chickens. He would "herd" them up if they wandered too far from the coop. His only vice was 3 week old chicks. He would wait until I had gone somewhere and then he would break in and kill as many as he could. He only killed chicks that were approximately 3 weeks old, not older, not younger. I always knew what he had done the second I got home because he would slink around with his tail drooping between his legs and his head down. He always looked guilty. I still miss that old dog though.

 

[melody123]

I understand completely.

I am a newbie at incubating and started with some bobwhite quail eggs off the internet. I was amazed when I got 45 hatched eggs out of 50 (+) shipped eggs. The chicks were heathy and I decided to leave them in the incubator with food for an extra night so that I could make a nice and safe pen for them in the morning.

At midnight, I woke to chicks chirping so loud I though that they were screaming. So I dragged myself out of bed and found that my mothers cat (my parents live next door) had let himself in the dog door and had knocked the top off the incubator. He was thrilled, all those little bite sized chicken mcnuggets.

He ate 10, and injured 10 more that died the next day. (broken legs) My beatiful 88% hatch rate had been destroyed and 1/2 my little filbert sized chicks were dead.

I now keep my incubator in a different room where he can't open the door.

 

[pdsavage]

Mine are in a locked spare room,only me and my son(he is 13) go in there...The rest of the family could care less....Its also where I have all the new chicks in the brooder thats why my son goes in there...

 

[hollymh]

I'm so sorry!!! I have a very naughty pup I'm trying to train right now, but I put a gate at the spare room door so he can't get in. My other dog is an angel, loves the chicks! Anyhow, congrats on your lone baby and good luck with your next hatch!!!