Neighborhood dogs keep killing chickens

[ChickenCanoe]

That's the truth. And there are so many of them.
I'm blessed to have very good neighbors.
I think before someone buys a house, they should meet all the neighbors in at least a mile radius. If someone is a douche, you can find that out in a heartbeat.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Blucoondawg my cats stay outside they guard our chickens and the chicks so there are other reasons to have cats outside. They keep the feral cats away from then hens and the field mice down.

They aren't content just killing field mice.
They are called housecats - IMO that's where they belong.

 

[blucoondawg]

I agree

 

[MeepBeep]

When I first moved here I had feral dogs coming onto my property.  They killed many of my guinea fowl.. which I used to let roost in the trees.

When I penned them up with the chickens the dogs ripped into the coop through the thick wire.

After patching it up with metal sheeting and strong wood.. they still got in.

They were silent and came as a pack in the dead of night.  If I went out to scare them off they were really aggressive... not scared of people.. and would not back down easily.. growing and charging at me. 

I walled and fenced in my land.. something which I wanted to do anyway to stop people coming and stealing our fruit and stop our own 2 small dogs getting out.  Street dogs still got in by digging under fencing or climbing over 6 foot high walls.

I lost many chickens and all my guinea fowl over several months... and I wasted a lot of money and time trying to make my existing coop secure.

That's why, about one year ago, I decided to really make a good quality run and coop.. concrete base and sheet metal.. with thick chain link mesh.

The dogs still came back... for a few weeks.. until they gave up trying to get into the coop. Once they realise they have no chance of getting to the animals they go some place else.  

Where I live its probably very different to you.... there seem to be hundreds of feral and street dogs in my village... the culture here is to let they all roam around free, like people do with cats in the West.  Many of the dogs are looked after by monks at the temple near me.  If I shot them.. or poisoned them... I would have been in real trouble and isolated myself form the community... so killing them was not an option... (and I don't like killing anything s you guessed).

It appears there is a cultural divide, I refuse to wall/barricade myself and my animals in on my own property for fear of what is outside the walls... I also believe in a nation of laws that protect individual property rights and my right to self defense of myself and my property... Those rights and laws do not dictate or prescribe I hide behind walls and barricades while on my own property letting others trample on my rights, steal from me or destroy/kill my property, something that appears to be 180° where you live...

I can state unequivocally that if I ever encountered a pack of dogs on my own property growling and charging me, I would do nothing short of killing them all on the spot with no absolutely zero prejudice even if their owner was watching, as they pose not only a threat to me, my family and my animals, but to other people and animals as well... Building a wall around you, did not remove the threat of those dogs it just hid it, their threat still exist in your area to others outside your walls or when you exit the walls...

I'm a firm believer if you are not part of the solution you are contributing to the problem...

Also from the sound of it, you have invested a huge amount of time and had many failures in your approaches, so I really have to question it's effectiveness over my approach as I have never had those types of repeat loses due to predators...

 

[sumi]

I think we are done here now.