Michigan

[Olive Hill]

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You have plenty of time. I've raised chicks outside in the middle of winter -- as in hatched in January and taken straight from incubator to the coop outside. The ambient temperature need not be 90+ degrees, there just needs to some place for them to warm up to that temperature, such as under a heat lamp.

 

[babigyrl22]

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I am so sorry to hear you lost your favorite hen...and to your own dog.

Don't kill the dog yet. Fix the fence and hopefully it will never happen again. I am just glad that it wasn't worse, like your whole flock taken out.

 

[1muttsfan]

Welcome egglvr to the michigan thread

Nova, I doubt you will be able to safely keep both puggle and chickens. Once a dog has killed a chicken, no chicken is safe around them again.

 

[NovaAman]

Thats what Carl, neighbor, says as well. However, I love that little murderous mutt, so, I am going to dig down, bury the fence, add landscape timber around the perimeter of the whole fence, stapling the fence to it there also so she will have a hard time digging her way out. Thats what she did. So the only way in and out of the fence will be thru the house. The hardest part is going to be the digging and burying the fence. I am thinking that I am going to buy chicken wire and bury that, and wire it to the existing fence, in an L. Get the 3ft tall roll so I can bury it a foot down... Any one want to come help?

 

[ChicwannaB]

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OH HONEY, I AM SO SO SORRY TO HEAR THIS...happened to me as well.
Ive NEVER liked the Jack Russell he rescued from AC. Yes she was an older dog and set in her ways. He has a thing that the older ones must be the ones WE get cuz nobody else will want/take an old dog.
Well LAST year, spring 2010 I got 6 chicks from TSC and raised them 4 weeks. That Jack got into the movable tractor I used to let them graze the lawn yet keep an eye on them. She literally forced her way thru chicken wire and killed 5 of the 6. I was so bloody mad I could have shot her on the spot and kicked my DH's arse all the way to China. Nope he would not get rid of her.
This spring I again got chicks, various ages. Keeping them housed INSIDE the chain link fence with kennel/coop for them and the 2 labs, and the terriers OUTSIDE the chain link fence. One day I went IN for something and she must have been right behind my heels, I didn't see her. Came out, latched the gate behind me, and went in the house. Moments later I came outside and guess who had waltzed into my Chante's Cathedral and was chomping down on my faviorite little Buff Chnate????? The Jack.
I was livid with rage and wrote my DH a not so sweet note telling him NEXT TIME I get the 12 guage and she will be gone. He won't rehome her, I will. Nuff said.

I hear your pain, and Identify with your anger. I hate some of the dogs I have around here. And I love dogs.
And some "wad" read my note of anger and posted to me to "oh calm down"

 

[M.sue]

Nova, I'm so sorry to hear about your frustrating and sad news. I know what it's like to be torn between things our parents do/want to do. Long story short and to the point...My DM can not bring her lovely 4yr. miniature schnauzer over when my chickens are out free ranging. If she does the dog has to be tied on the tie-out. My schnauzer is totally cool with chickens because she has been around them since day one and trained. Oh if she wasn't trained, I guarantee there'd be feathers everywhere for she brings us rabbits, mice and whatever she finds when out hunting. It must be extra hard because it was your own dog that did the damage. Hope things start to look brighter soon!

 

[NovaAman]

I am going to take the measures I just stated... If she figures out how to get out of the back yard after that, I will put HER down. But atleast you know, and so does everyone else, how I feel. I love my chickens. I love my dogs.

 

[ChicwannaB]

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Yeah, I know. Everybody does. Most of us have had it happen, if not something worse, something you can't control.
WHy does it always have to be your favorite one tho eh??? Thats what really bites.

 

[Olive Hill]

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Not necessarily true. I have a dog who, at 9 years old, finally became trustworthy around (our) small animals -- including the chickens right down to 1 day old chicks. Prior to that she would kill anything she could get her paws near. And she was darn good at it, too. At 65 lbs she could easily take down 40 lb boar coons without getting a scratch. Cats? You couldn't distinguish the second she grabbed them from the second they died. Rabbits? She'd stalk them akin to a big cat on the prowl. If she set her sights on it, it would not get away. And she's on an electric fence. She knew how long it would take her to get to the rabbit relative to how long it'd take the rabbit to get to her boundary and she was PATIENT. She'd wait and wait and not strike until she knew she could get it within her area. I've watched her come from fifteen feet away, take a dog almost twice her size, pick him up off the ground and slam him down upside down by the throat so fast I barely knew what was happening because the dog growled at my DH (a stray that had wandered down from it's owner's which is a mile north). The dog is a machine. We have always known she had to keep her separate from our poultry or she would kill them. It just is what it is. But she is a valuable dog for the same reasons that made her unsafe for the poultry so we dealt with it. It took the full 9 years of reinforcement but she finally figured out what's OURS and what's not and that while we love for her to kill what's NOT we do not love for her to kill what IS. It's a long road and I'm not saying all dogs can be rehabbed (or even that they should) but some can change their ways. And for a good dog it's worth it, imo. It took 9 years, but we now have an absolutely perfect dog for our uses. She is protective, she's effective at varmint control, she's loyal, she's obedient AND she distinguishes on her own which varmint are ours and which aren't. LOL!

I know it's hard to not be angry with her right now, Nova, but if the dog is good otherwise try not to hold it against her. She was only following her instincts.

 

[NovaAman]

OH, no, she wasn't my fav... Thou she certainly had lovely personality, She was one of my new Faverolles that I just got! Poor Mr. Fluffers has been guarding Buffy big time since the dogs attacked. Wouldn't leave her side. He went crowing all over the yard looking for Rosey when all the other chicks went to bed for the nite... Poor Mr. Fluffers... He finally went to bed and I closed up the coop... Hope he doesn't pine for to long.