Had our first predator scare yesterday morning.
I was taking a noon nap and my dog started growling at the foot of the bed. Everything seemed fine so I shushed him and laid back down. within a minute or two my chickens in the backyard started making noise.... more noise than the usual. I jump out of bed, look out the window and see a dog chasing my chickens across the yard. I'm out the door in a flash and start calling at the dog. It didn't want to come to me so I started yelling and told it to get. I grabbed my gun in case I needed it and started checking to ensure it was gone and to assess the damage. I found two small piles of feathers on the ground and after 30 minutes of looking could only account for 1 of my 15 girls. (she was 20 feet up in a tree) I walked up and down the road to see if I could find whose dog it was as it looked like a well groomed animal and had a collar. after talking to a neighbor, found out the dog belonged to a neighbor's son who was visiting. we talked to the owner of the dog who said it couldn't have been his dog, his dog would never do that...and his dog was inside the whole time. well one neighbor saw it and another dog tearing down the road coming from my direction and I cought the dog in the act, so those excuses didn't hold up. he helped me look for my chickens for a while at least. The girls started reappearing scattered around my 4 acres. 2-3 hours after the screeching began I had located all 15 of the girls and couldn't even tell which one lost the feathers. They were pretty timid and jittery but none were wounded that I could see. My DW and I were so relieved. We haven't been closing our driveway gate as there's only one dog within a half mile of us and it's an indoor dog. Our neighborhood is pretty rural so it's expected that if your dog is on someone elses property it's likely to be shot. I didn't even think about people visiting the street for the holidays and letting their dog loose... our driveway gate will now be shut anytime our birds are out free ranging. I'm lucky that this lesson didn't end more tragically.
I was taking a noon nap and my dog started growling at the foot of the bed. Everything seemed fine so I shushed him and laid back down. within a minute or two my chickens in the backyard started making noise.... more noise than the usual. I jump out of bed, look out the window and see a dog chasing my chickens across the yard. I'm out the door in a flash and start calling at the dog. It didn't want to come to me so I started yelling and told it to get. I grabbed my gun in case I needed it and started checking to ensure it was gone and to assess the damage. I found two small piles of feathers on the ground and after 30 minutes of looking could only account for 1 of my 15 girls. (she was 20 feet up in a tree) I walked up and down the road to see if I could find whose dog it was as it looked like a well groomed animal and had a collar. after talking to a neighbor, found out the dog belonged to a neighbor's son who was visiting. we talked to the owner of the dog who said it couldn't have been his dog, his dog would never do that...and his dog was inside the whole time. well one neighbor saw it and another dog tearing down the road coming from my direction and I cought the dog in the act, so those excuses didn't hold up. he helped me look for my chickens for a while at least. The girls started reappearing scattered around my 4 acres. 2-3 hours after the screeching began I had located all 15 of the girls and couldn't even tell which one lost the feathers. They were pretty timid and jittery but none were wounded that I could see. My DW and I were so relieved. We haven't been closing our driveway gate as there's only one dog within a half mile of us and it's an indoor dog. Our neighborhood is pretty rural so it's expected that if your dog is on someone elses property it's likely to be shot. I didn't even think about people visiting the street for the holidays and letting their dog loose... our driveway gate will now be shut anytime our birds are out free ranging. I'm lucky that this lesson didn't end more tragically.
