My Girls are gone...

[cruisnmoma]

We are so devistated. My neighbors dog dug under the fence and killed 5 of our girls. Only one servived. I can not believe this happend. This is the 2nd time a dog got ahold of them. I DON'T EVEN OWN A DOG!!!

The vet said the one that made it is the same one that was hurt in Nov. she has suture scars. I really can not tell. we identifyed most of them from their tail feathers, and hers are all gone.

For now we are keeping Huey in the house with us. I can not bring my self to put her in the coop all alone. Between that and the fact that it snowed again, I dont want her outside.

We had allready planed a big run for them, and I mean huge. This was something We were going to start this summer. I need to do something along the neighbors fence line to be sure no dogs can get to them. It will need to be 10-15 feet for the 2 sides. the back is not an issue. My back neighbor does not have dogs, and he stores rocks along the fence. I will plant some kind of spiky bushes along the fence, but i want something under ground to make sure if they dig again, they will not get through. I know if they were on my side trying to get out, I would do the chicken wire facing into my yard under the fence line, but i want to keep them out , not trying to keep them in. The dogs are big, some kind of wolf, husky. The dogs are nice and friendy, but they are dogs.

My neighbors feel really bad, they paid the vet bill and when we are ready will replace our girls. I am not sure what they are going ot do with the dogs at this point. The wife wants to get rid of them so this does not happen again, the husband is talking about building them a run on the other side of the yard. Either way I do NOT want to go through this ever again.
It looks like a bomb when off with all the feathers. It is one thing to loos them due to illness, or age, but to have someone elses animal get into my yard and do such distruction, I am at a loss for words.

I am open to any ideas on how to keep things from getting into the yard

 

[jenifry]

We buried hardware cloth and rocks about a foot down on the entire length of the fence line... it isn't fool proof, but it will take a lot longer for them to dig through. Hopefully your neighbor would notice the digging before they got through.

 

[lyford]

if this has happened twice it might be time for the the 3 S approach

 

[cruisnmoma]

if this has happened twice it might be time for the the 3 S approach

What is that?

The first dog was my son's friends dog. He was in the house, and someone must have left a door open, and he got out into the yard. The 2nd one was my neighbors dog.

 

[ClovisMan]

Shoot
Shovel
Shutup

The 3 S's

 

[JackE]

I lost 16 birds in two daytime attacks, to foxes. Not to mention a day raid by a neighbor's dog(He won't get to make that mistake again) So I've been there, done that, and didn't like it. You say you want to build a run. Look into some electrified poultry net, from Premier. I have 600' of it protecting my birds going on two years now. You can surround a much bigger area for less than what it would cost to wood frame and hardware cloth an area less than half the size. The fox, along with all other kind of ground predators are still around, but the birds are safely inside their 7000V protected courtyard.

 

[crazyfeathers]

So sorry about your girls. I hope you find a solution. At least your neighbors are willing to pay for their mistake I know many neighbors who wouldn't. Good luck

 

[ten chicks]

My condolences on the loss of your other girls,always heartbreaking when our pets die,even more so when it happens like this devastating. No excuse for dogs being in your yard.

Keep your girl in the house,watch her for signs of depression as chickens can become depressed if one of their flock mates die,and in her case they all did. She may exhibit strange behavior(hiding,scared of everything,etc)this is normal given the circumstances. Make sure she is eating/drinking.

Keep your birds in a run,use 1/4" hardware cloth to protect them.

 

[BigECarter]

Electric fence might be an option.

Oops - I see someone already posted that. My phone didn't refresh I guess.

 

[escape]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss!

We've had neighbors dogs TRY to get ours. We can only let our girtls free range when we are out.

Burying the fence will probably help and electric fence will also help. I have a friend who actually built a foundation and buried the bottom of the fence in cement.

You can get solar chargers for electric fence. Well worth the extra $$.