I went outside last night to gather eggs and check in on my flock and noticed dog tracks as I approached my fenced in run area. I thought to myself it looks like a dog has been snooping around. When I shinned my flashlight across my run I could see feathers everywhere and dead hens laying all around. I lost it and cussed a little. This happened to me before I built my run when I used to free range about 18 mths ago and I just got my flock back up to size. I was getting 18 eggs a day on average. All of these hens I hatched and raiseded up myself and you all know the time and effort it takes to get them to the age when they begin to repay us with eggs. After investigating I determined the dog or dogs dug in under the gate. All the rain we have had made the ground that is normally hard as rock soft enough for them to dig in. These dogs must be a wild or stray pack that came through because my neighbors dogs are all kept in fences. About 4 or 5 of the hens where eaten and the other just killed or mauled and left to die. My Rooster and another BA hen survived but both have gapping wounds on their backs. I had a trio in a sperate breeding pen that survived and my two Pekings must have stayed in my small pond to escape the carnage. I thought I had built a safe place and keep traps set for unwanted predators. Stray and Wild Dogs have taken 4 times more birds from me than all other predators combined over the years. My war against them has just begun. Thanks for letting me vent!
