Neighbor's dog

[speckledhen]

Well, the chickens won't eat the dogs, HARDLY the same thing.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with the fact that the chickens need to be contained in this case, as you don't have a leg to stand on. The dogs are doing what dogs do and the chickens are doing what chickens do...since the chickens are getting the worst of it, they really need a safe place to just be chickens. Not the dog's fault, really, as there are no boundaries established in this scenario. I still think a simple chicken tractor would give you a secure way to free range your chickens, keep your eggs, and keep on good terms with the neighbors. Priceless!

 

[morelcabin]

posted twice sorry:>)

 

[morelcabin]

Well I also have a great neighbor with a dog (part wolf) that is always after my chickens. Last summer they tried thier best to keep thier dog tied, but the kids were always letting it out anyway and the nieghbor was starting to feel really guilty about my birds being eaten by his dog. Anyway, I came to the conclusion that it was up to ME to keep my birds safe, period. There is no sense getting angry with a great neighbor when there are measure I can take to keep my birds safe, and I have. They are behind electric fencing in a run now and I will be building a tractor for them to be able to eat grass later this spring.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
My chickens tried to eat my Lhaso Apso when I was younger. LOL

They must have thought her a treat, they went for the eyes and nose. She was scared to death of them always.

I was just suggesting a compromise one way or the other. The neighbors with the dogs were obviously using her chickens free-ranging as an excuse to allow their dogs to free-range. You really do not want to start a land war here, it wouldn't end well for anyone.

I would go ahead and build the run or tractor. If the dogs continually bother you after this, then you have perfectly good reason to tell your neighbors to keep their animals contained as well. If they do not contain them after talking with them, then call animal control. Because now you have the "power" in this case, you keep your animals contained and you would like them to do the same.

Just trying to make thing fair, even though life ain't.

You never know, those dogs running loose may help keep other chicken-loving predators away. If you build a run, then you always have the option to keep them safe. An invaluable option, then when you wanted to or while you were home, you could let them out of coop and run to free range. That's what I do. I have a coop and an attached run, but I still fling that door open in the morning so they can have free-range of the rest of the property. I do not think you will regret building a run or tractor, the safety involved is invaluable.

-Kim

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Not to hijack this post but Beekissed could you please email me the plans you used for your chicken tractor. It will fit in my expense plan better than any other ones I was checking out. Thanks [email protected]

I am sorry about your problem with the dogs, but as these people are related I think fencing is your only option. But I would charge them tripple for their eggs as you have to make up that expense somehow.

 

[talos321]

How about gathering up eggs except one and painting it with nail bite? It is the horrible tasting nail type polish that weans kids off of biting their nails. Leave it in the nest and maybe even better adding something nasty tasting into the egg such as a really hot pepper juice.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

That is the same thing with my stupid neighbors. They have 1 dog that they just let run around the neighborhood even though their last dog was hit by a car and killed. The dog is thin, so they dont feed it right. Then about 4 weeks ago they get ANOTHER dog that is twice the size. Last week their new dog was running loose. I hate having idiots for neighbors. If they harass your animals I would tell them if it happens again that you will call the dog catcher.

 

[Chickfever]

I haven't tried nail bite. I tried to get my son to stop sucking his thumb with it.....didn't work. It's worth a shot.

If all else fails, I'll keep them in until around 1 and then gather eggs as I let them out. Then when I get my others hatched and ready to go, I'll put them in tractors to keep them purebred (I'd planned on doing something like that anyway). That will give us enough projects to keep us busy for a lifetime

.

 

[Swamp Roo]

Figure out how many eggs they are eating, and how many chickens are disapearing. Then write up a nice bill and send it to the ownwer(s). Explain that you will be happy to let the bill drop if they control their animals from now on. You can do all of this politely, maybe even let them know that you can't aford the damages their dogs are causing to your property and you will send them a bill before you actually do. They owners may not even realise the monentary losses involved. Don't forget to add in feed costs etc. Do you have kids? I'd be worried about big dogs that are starting to form a pack for my own safety, let alone kids. The paintball concept is good, but be carefull with that, from what I understand paintballs can cause some damage. A bit of a bruise is one thing, a cracked rib is another, but I might try that myself some time as needed. Better to shoot the dog outright than to cause suffering though. Now to contradict the lack of suffering statement above, bear spray would probably keep them away from your property forever. But that will hurt like hell and last a few hours. Still might be better than puting them down hard though. If you already have a perimiter fence add a strand of electric on the outside. I don't know how much land you have, but it really shouldn't cost that much. The wire is cheap, and so are the insulators. The energizer really doesn't have to be a high end model. The one I have on my run costs about 20 bucks, but it won't power thrugh weeds and such. I will be replacing it with a high powered low impedance model that will also go around the cow pasture as soon as $$ will allow. For dogs, they just need to get popped by low lower voltage unit once or twice. If you don't already have a fence to attach a live wire to it will get much more expensive. I live in a small tight knit neiborhood out in the country as well, so I understand. My neighbors have all told me that if their dogs "come visit" to plant my boot in their backside (the dogs backside that is

), second time I should just put them down. I'm not going to shoot them, but you get the idea. Your neighbors may have been there first, but that does not deny you the right to be happy. A sticky situation to be sure, I hope you work it out. Your neighbors should be open to working this out, if they aren't willing, then they aren't good neighbors anyway and then I say do what you have to do. Let us know how it turns out.