I have a reality that is still sinking in. Area here is classified as farm land yet no one makes their living by farming. All the farming is closer to a hobby even when they are working a couple hundred acres, sometimes more. I can account for a least 50 dogs within a 1 mile radius of my home. Regardless of breed, none seem to have a purpose beyond being a pet. Of those dogs, the ones most likely to cause trouble are those that are penned up most of the time since when they get out they go on a spree. No one seems to hunt despite everyone and their brother having a freaking arsenal in their cabinet.
We used to do probably 90% of our game breeding on walks that would not work without free-ranging dogs in the area. The remaining 10% of breeding was done in facilities provided by cockyard complete with a flypen setup that would cost between $50,000 and $75,000 to build from scratch. My current setup is scratched together with less than $10,000 and it requires a skill set that takes a good while to master. All of my birds are bred in a cockyard setting. Culling on the natural selection side an some even on the artificial side is largely uncoupled from physicality selected by the walk system. My chickens for the most part will allow themselves to be run down by almost any predator even when trees, powerlines, and a few buildings could provide refuge if the birds simply flew. My birds, and most likely yours as well, can fly 100 yards to alight easily on something 50 feet up, yet here they won’t.
It is legal to kill dogs going after your stock here. I have done it twice in the last 5 years so not all that soft. My dogs have killed another two dogs on my behalf and nearly did the same to a dog that is larger than my largest. Most wildlife we simply repel, with exception of opossums and snakes. Owls are a problem, or like currently not. Hawks are really cool but seldom a significant issue as I lost as many birds to a watering trough as to Coopers Hawks last fall. Now the hawks are just cool.
I have to relearn this game almost from scratch. I cannot afford a kennel of 10 to 20 hounds used for raccoon or fox. Day jobs make so no one is here during the middle of the day during the work week. My dogs, and to a lesser extent, the dogs of my immediate neighbors allow me to keep chickens in rickety and mobile pens with at least some free-range rearing of immature birds. It is not perfect, and by even my own measure somewhat perverse. Some of you are much more intensive. Based on photographs your setups have more pen coverage than grass. At this time, I am not good enough to go at it with so much control.
The death loss related to predators and disease here still needs adjusting. It will happen, but simply killing does not work when chicken killer abundance is so high and they are so mobile. Dogs coupled with fencing are my best repellents.
