One wounded :)

[BigMama]

My husband and I were very naive thinking that our girls and roo would be fine free ranging during the day. And they were for about 4 months and then three went missing.

The neighbor told my in-laws that their dogs were chewing on a dead chicken in their yard. I wasn't to upset with the dogs, we figured that the chickens had crossed the road to get to that beautiful bug filled bean field on the otherside, and the dogs figured they were fair game.

We decided that we would only free range the chickens when we would be there until they were ready to roost. Which makes me feel like we are putting them in prison Only we (my husband and I) neglected to explain this well to the children. My kids let the chickens out one morning before they hopped the bus to school, and there is no rounding them up once they are out!

When we came home there were 2 more missing including my handsome roo, Junior. We sat the kids down and explained why we were keeping them locked up, and they have been safe since. Yesterday my husband came home from work early and heard barking and panicked chickens. He went outside to find the neighbors dogs trying to dig their way into the run. He hollered at the dogs, who he swears looked at him, smiled, and went back to digging. This annoyed my husband more than anything else. He went and got his gun and fired a couple of shots into the air. The dogs didn't even take notice. His next shot he aimed at the ground near the dogs and he accidentally hit one. They high tailed it back home, and we havent' seen them or any fresh digging.

I don't want to start a feud with our neighbors. We've only lived here a year compared to their 20 something. I am proud of my husband for defending my girls, but I don't want hard feeling between us and the neighbors!

 

[okiechick57]

WOW......good for your hubby...........if you haven't heard anything , the dog is probably okay.... I would keep yours locked up for a while to make sure...... I have coyotes and every now and then they show back up........ but I just cannot keep my birds locked up... hope the shot to the one stops them from coming back..........

 

[SpottedCrow]

If your neighbours aren't keeping their dogs out of your yard, then you're well within your rights to take them out. I'd just not tell the neighbours that it was you that shot their dog.
Your next step is to make that pen more secure. Hardware cloth bent out 6 inches and buried down about a foot. Hot wire at nose level. Unless you wanna do SSS...
Sorry about your birds.

 

[robin416]

I understand you not wanting to start a feud but one thing to keep in the back of your mind: It is your property, you have a complete right to enjoy it without the invasion of your neighbor's dogs. Or your neighbors for that matter.

Find out if you have a leash law. I just learned something interesting the other day. Some friend of mine works hours when the rest of us are sleeping. She came in one night and hit the neighbor's dog in the dark and killed it. Because of the time of morning she did not wake the neighbors to tell them. Before she woke the next morning the cops where at her door.

She admitted hitting it and explained why she did not report it to the neighbors. Then the cops promptly went back to the neighbors, told them there was a leash law. That if there was any damage to my friend's car from the dog they would be liable for it since the dog was not confined. My friend never heard another word.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'm sorry for your losses. Even places without leash laws usually have laws that say people's dogs can't go cause damage on other people's property or kill their animals. It can be really hard to get some neighbor's to be responsible for their pet's. We went through that where we live, too. Making your run safer will help with strays and wild predators, too, so it's a good thing even if you can get your neighbor's to control their dogs.

Another option to prevent digging, is to lay wire fencing on top of the ground, around the run. A strip maybe 2' wide, attached to the base of the run. You can cover this with dirt or gravel. I've also seen it left plain, just laying on top of the grass. You might be able to get this done faster than digging wire in. If you want to dig wire in, you could also lay it on top temporarily, until you have the time to dig it in.

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

sounds like if they arent taking care to keep their dogsput up any better than that even after they seen it munching on a dead chicken then they are the ones starting the feud..
(at least thats how I would feel about it)

 

[ManOfTheJerseyGiant]

If they will not keep their dogs in their yards and one gets killed in your yard its their fault because they were in your yard. I know i would take out anythig that wasn`t mmine in my yard trying to get my chickens. My 2 dogs are between the house and the fence, we only have about 1 acre so we keep our 45 chickens in a pen. Now if our neighbors didn`t have all these dogs we might have let our chickens run loose.

 

[foxtrapper]

Tuck this away as future knowledge.

You'll have a lot less trouble if you make a clean kill of the dog on your properly compared to wounding it and having it go home.

Depending on the Attorney General, your Animal Control people, and the individual police, it's not at all uncommon to find yourself charged with things like animal cruelty, reckless endangerment and the like for wounding a dog, even one that's hunting your livestock. I've seen it happen many times.

As such, I very much would caution you not to say a word to your neighbor that you are the one who wounded their dog.

 

[BigMama]

Thanks for all the great advice! We now only let the girls out when we know that we are going to be home to keep an eye on things!

The dogs have been back and hubbie did talk to the neighbors about their dogs with no results, they told us not to let our girls out until after 5 when they are home to keep an eye on their dogs. This doesn't do our girls much good as it is now getting dark so early.

Hubbie is trying to persuade me to learn how to shoot his gun, but even if I did learn I don't think that I could hurt a living creature.

I don't necessarily blame the dogs as it is in their nature, if they would just stay away!!

 

[newchickowner]

could you have an electric fence around your property? That way at least you're making an attempt to fortify your property incase they try to charge you with anything. (I don't think you or your hubby are at fault for anything, but I suggest to CYA if you know what I mean.)