Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[jajeanpierre]

I know...tough to watch. I don't know what I would do at that point seeing as how both animals were pretty damaged already. I'd be conflicted about it...do I stop the kill and then the bird goes to waste and I have to kill it to put it out of its misery...or do I let nature happen because it's already started? Tough, tough call. I've never been in that situation before so I don't know what I would do.

You know, Bee, I had my (expletive) mini Dachshunds get into my back yard and get some of my young birds. It looked like a battle field with dead and dying young chickens everywhere. I thought they were all dead. One I dispatched right away--my first slaughter which was really a mercy killing. Another I tried to keep alive and he died that night. Everyone else survived. They were shocky for quite a few days (DON'T feed after something like that--their gut shuts down and you will do more harm by putting food into them) but they survived. They had big wounds--I just couldn't imagine them surviving but they healed up with no infection. I was really surprised how well they did.

That rooster in the first video might not have been badly hurt at all. The chicken that the hawk had might also have been able to be saved. When many animals are captured, they go into shock and surprisingly don't struggle. Deer are really bad for it--capture myopathy. If you capture a deer, chances are it will die just from what happens to it physiologically. Maybe not immediately, but the damage to the internal organs--just from capture myopathy--is immense. I sure would have tried to save my chicken. Even if it died, I wouldn't want a resident hawk to get a reward and learn chickens were part of their diet. I sure wouldn't want to teach a hawk that it could hunt my chickens with me right there letting it. That's not the lesson I want my wildlife to learn!

No, there is something odd about someone who would video a hawk killing their chicken.

 

[Beekissed]

That is one of the main reasons I have a good dog working for me....so I won't have to make those kind of decisions. A hawk can't light in a tree even close to this meadow without that dog going crazy on it and same goes for any other preds...I just find them dead in the yard in the morning. I also have a great pack of crows that work even further out into the woods and I see them running off the local redtail pair all the time...it's kind of cool to watch that.

A good rooster and wary hens of breeds that forage and survive well on free range and are culled for that trait also contribute to the reason I don't have to watch such scenarios. To complete the picture, I back up the system with my gun and any roving dogs are returned to the owner with a final warning or shot on sight if it's clear that they are a habitual stray.

If a wild predator gets through all that and still gets a bird, I'll count him worthy of keeping his kill. If it's a stray dog, he'll get killed with the bird still in his mouth.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've had two attacked by a hawk.

One thing I forgot to mention about a hawk attack--their talons are really full of bacteria. I would be extra careful about the wounds of a hawk attack.

Cats also carry two bacteria in their saliva and on their claws. It is particularly dangerous to birds. Even a nick by a cat is serious. I know that is true with parrots, so I would think it also true with chickens. My eldest son, now all grown up, almost died of "cat scratch fever" when he was 5. I mean, REALLY almost died.

Chickens are incredibly resilient. The ones my dog got had really nasty wounds and punctures to their pelvis. I don't know if it went into the bones, but I thought so at the time. One, a favorite, had a puncture that I thought might have gone into the skull, but probably just grazed along the skull. They healed up with no problem once they got over their shocky period.

The mini Dachshund has learned to leave the chickens alone. The little Silkie pullets attack the dog now. It is kind of funny. The same Silkie pullets attack my great big Scarlet macaw when she goes down on the ground among the chickens. I know you hate Silkies, Bee, but you have to have at least a bit of respect for a little tiny pullet chasing off a big macaw. The macaw actually got a scare.

 

[jajeanpierre]

That is one of the main reasons I have a good dog working for me....so I won't have to make those kind of decisions. A hawk can't light in a tree even close to this meadow without that dog going crazy on it and same goes for any other preds...I just find them dead in the yard in the morning. I also have a great pack of crows that work even further out into the woods and I see them running off the local redtail pair all the time...it's kind of cool to watch that.

A good rooster and wary hens of breeds that forage and survive well on free range and are culled for that trait also contribute to the reason I don't have to watch such scenarios. To complete the picture, I back up the system with my gun and any roving dogs are returned to the owner with a final warning or shot on sight if it's clear that they are a habitual stray.

If a wild predator gets through all that and still gets a bird, I'll count him worthy of keeping his kill. If it's a stray dog, he'll get killed with the bird still in his mouth.

I wish I had crows in my area. They are great at keeping hawks away. I have a friend in the North West, in the rain forest. She feeds her crows to keep them close--she'll call them and they'll come. She has two Great Pyrenees. She has yet to lose a chicken or a goat to a predator and she has bears, cougars as well as the usual stuff to deal with.

I have too many dogs, and am waiting for my Dachshunds to die off of old age. When some are gone, I want to get a livestock guard dog, but I'm worried about it dealing with the Texas heat. I'm thinking of an Anatolian Shepherd. I have pit bull mutt that I think deters anything from coming on the property. I'm not sure he thinks he should guard the chickens, but he does run things off the property. I'm sure all the foxes in the area know he's around.

 

[Beekissed]

That's a good choice! Another dog that might fit into that job but would require some training on the chickens would be a black mouth cur...I hear they are pretty popular in Texas and in the south.

 

[Tomtommom]

I had zero infection with the second bird. First one had a BAD wound, flushed it daily, but even after it closed it got pretty nasty for a bit.... But, glad to say she recovered perfectly.

I'm much better at taking out unwanted roosters than mercy killing.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I wish I had crows in my area. They are great at keeping hawks away. I have a friend in the North West, in the rain forest. She feeds her crows to keep them close--she'll call them and they'll come. She has two Great Pyrenees. She has yet to lose a chicken or a goat to a predator and she has bears, cougars as well as the usual stuff to deal with.

I have too many dogs, and am waiting for my Dachshunds to die off of old age. When some are gone, I want to get a livestock guard dog, but I'm worried about it dealing with the Texas heat. I'm thinking of an Anatolian Shepherd. I have pit bull mutt that I think deters anything from coming on the property. I'm not sure he thinks he should guard the chickens, but he does run things off the property. I'm sure all the foxes in the area know he's around.

We have crows where I live, and I have seen them go after hawks. I have a Great Pyrenees and an Australian Shepherd who guard my birds. The Great Pyrenees actually runs and barks looking skyward at hawks and crows, enforcing a no-fly zone....lol. We have foxes, bears, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, possums, and we haven't lost a bird to a predator either. My free-rangers also have a lot of places to duck and cover as well, which I think helps a lot too.

 

[Beekissed]

That's the way my dogs have done...they will actually jump up in the air at hawks and any low flying, large bird like buzzards. Now, my old GP mix dog used to chase crows off too but now that she is gone, Jake doesn't chase the crows unless they are after some of his food which is pretty rare. I did see him chase them off his sweet corn a few years back..that dog does love his sweet corn.

 

[jajeanpierre]

That's a good choice! Another dog that might fit into that job but would require some training on the chickens would be a black mouth cur...I hear they are pretty popular in Texas and in the south.

That looks like a good dog. I'll have to research them. They seem smaller than the Anatolian Shepherds and more friendly. I don't need an aloof dog that is a problem with strangers.

My pit bull is the perfect guard dog--friends to everyone who comes to visit as long as I'm there. When I mean friendly, I mean he greets strangers as though they were his long lost owner. What normal dog is happy to go to the vet to meet new people? I have to lock him up because he is too friendly, and with a bit of a mastiff-type temperament, not as inclined to heed me the way a herding dog would. He even has friends he greets when they walk past my property. If he's alone and a stranger comes to the gate, he quietly stares at them and just sits, blocking their entrance. The Fed Ex driver said he doesn't want to put a package over the gate--my dog just looks at him and he changes his mind. He tries to run the deer off the property--we have a lot of deer with neighbors feeding them--but I don't know if he would protect the chickens. I think his presence is a deterrent.

 

[Arielle]

My 2 cents--

Most dogs in general are deterents to most predators; by nature dogs are territorial. Rotties are were originally a drover dog to move livestock to market and carried the owners money on his collar-- so the story goes. Having had a few myself I can see this as possibly true. All dogs need to be socialized to be good around people, just that some breeds need more training in that regard than others.

Recenly I talked to the woman that helped me trained all my rotties, and as I was looking for a different breed that acted much like the rottie but didn't have the reputation, she suggested a curly coated retreiver. THey are rare and hard to find but have the guarding instinct. My maremma was with the sheep and bonded to them due to their early childhood training-- but he killed everything else that qualified as wildlife that crossed onto his area.

Just putting out the rotties and the ccr as they might tolerate the heat in TX.