Hi,
I'm so frustrated and mad about this. We have a donkey that always stays pretty much next to the chickens and dog run. He is very protective of his territory. My hens like to roam the front and back yard but also venture out to the pasture next to their cage where the donkey is.
He will usually let them alone, but we have to chase him away if he is rearing up at the chickens. One day he did get one while we were gone and stomped it to death. Before that we found a hen with a broken wing and something wrong with a toe. She's healed now. But the other day I caught him trying to stomp another hen. She finally got away as I was trying to save her and made it away from him. Her leg was hurt and she couldn't use it. We put her in a special cage with another hen, (the one that had the broken wing), after about 6 days she is doing so much better and able to walk without so much of a limp.
I love my chickens, they follow me like my kids when I come out. I have started to not let them free-range anymore. They love being out and catching bugs, snakes, and mice. They can still fly out of their area. We had it all covered with chicken wire but took it off because of the massive amounts of leaves that collected on it. I used to open the gate and just let them run. After we took the top off they could come and go as they pleased and we would just lock up the hens at night in the hen house. But I guess now we'll have to recover the top of their area with something.
I really don't want the donkey! My husband says the donkey is what keeps stray dogs from killing the chickens. Except the donkey is doing his best to kill them. Any ideas of how to control this situation? I guess the chickens don't know about donkeys because they keep going over the fence to him. What do you put on top of your pens? Thanks, Carol
. Carol
