We thought our coop and run were secure..but apparently not for a bored german shepherd (no tags, so assuming stray) and his 2 evil stray friends. Our run is chain link buried down ~6 inches with hardware cloth on the inside (tie wired to the chain link). The coop and run are inside of a wood fenced yard. At 2:30 am, these dogs broke through the neighbors fence, through our back wood fence (one section has chain link that they BENT up...not dug under!) and then into the run. They clearly tried digging with no success, so they bent the chain link and hardware cloth on the run!
He and his evil companions killed 6 of our 11 babies (8-9 weeks old that our hens laid, hatched and raised) and 7 of our 23 adult hens. Three (an EE and two BRs) of the 7 were from our original 6 hens that we got 3 years ago when we first got chickens. They were all dear to us, but those 6 have a special place in our heart. Two of them were suffering (not dead yet) and DH had to finish it. It is so heartbreaking, but we had to. We couldn't let them suffer. The other four hens were our only 2 faverolles (which my husband and I LOVED...they were SO friendly and had cute, quirky personalities) and our only 2 delaware hens. Another 2 (JGs) are injured badly...one, I think, will be fine, but the other is really bad. She can't walk, but DH says that since she is perky and eating he wants to give her a chance and see if she heals up ok. She obviously walked herself under the coop, but she can't walk now, so we are hoping it is temporary (though I am doubting it). Since she is talking to us and alert, we'll give her a couple days and reassess her injuries.
The stupid dogs just came in and broke their necks and left them. It was just for fun!
They would have killed more if we didn't get to them.
We thought that run was secure!! We thought we did the right things.
DH fixed the fence to secure it more and added cinder block to the outside the entire way and small block on the inside. He also added 2 locks to the coop door, so hopefully they can't break into the coop again.
He and his evil companions killed 6 of our 11 babies (8-9 weeks old that our hens laid, hatched and raised) and 7 of our 23 adult hens. Three (an EE and two BRs) of the 7 were from our original 6 hens that we got 3 years ago when we first got chickens. They were all dear to us, but those 6 have a special place in our heart. Two of them were suffering (not dead yet) and DH had to finish it. It is so heartbreaking, but we had to. We couldn't let them suffer. The other four hens were our only 2 faverolles (which my husband and I LOVED...they were SO friendly and had cute, quirky personalities) and our only 2 delaware hens. Another 2 (JGs) are injured badly...one, I think, will be fine, but the other is really bad. She can't walk, but DH says that since she is perky and eating he wants to give her a chance and see if she heals up ok. She obviously walked herself under the coop, but she can't walk now, so we are hoping it is temporary (though I am doubting it). Since she is talking to us and alert, we'll give her a couple days and reassess her injuries.
The stupid dogs just came in and broke their necks and left them. It was just for fun!
We thought that run was secure!! We thought we did the right things.
