Hardware cloth will keep snakes out..if one got into your pen, maybe something else could too. I keep the grass outside the pen short, this way I hope the chickens can see what's coming and sound the alarm, and maybe the brave ones will attack it. Snakes don't like to go outside cover but they will if hunting becomes poor where they live. Some people use moth balls, I haven't yet. Dogs...if you have neighbors so close that is a tough one...out here we usually shoot first and ask later...if your neighbor doesn't shoot your dog you owe a great big favor believe me. A pack of dogs can run farm animals to death in a few hours, destroy all your chickens in a few minutes, not to mention out hunting all the wild game instead of me...dogs loose are up to no good. IMO. If your not a very good shot the 410 is okay, just consider what is behind and to the side of your line of fire...if you are that close to other houses I would consider other options...a 22 bullet can travel a mile. It gets tricky doesn't it.
heh, yeah. We were more than patient with the neighbors with the first dog. She's an alaskan husky, a beautiful, white, fluffy, friendly dog. She is the sweetest dog ever, I swear. I love her. Lady (the dog) had come sniffing around the chickens several months ago. I sent her home. A few months later I woke up to one of my tractors with a couple small holes ripped in the chicken wire, the roost pulled out of it, the plastic around it torn to bits, but the chickens inside were okay. I didn't know what had done it, because Lady hadn't been to our house in months. Well, a few weeks before school started one of the boys in the neighborhood started walking his dogs in the morning (not on leash. We don't have leash laws here, so as long as they don't damage anything, fine. Whatever. I don't care.) Well the boy's house is in the middle of 2 other neighbors' houses who let their dogs roam. Their dogs started following his dogs when he would walk them. Around that time some neighbors who lived behind them had cock fighting roosters. (I knew nothing of it. It's been handled.) The roosters started escaping out of their pens (or being let out, nobody really knows.) and getting into the yards with all the roaming dogs. The dogs decided that "chick toys" were so fun to play with and chase and chew on. While walking with the boy one morning, they discovered we had yummy chicken toys as well. Lady came into the yard one morning and right in front of me started harassing some of the chickens in the tractor in the front yard. My little sister chased her away (I was behind a fence, so I couldn't get to her.) We went that day and talked to the owners. They were all apologetic and promised to keep her put away. At this point we had no idea about the cock fighting rooster eating going on, or that the other dogs had any interest in our chickens. I knew they wouldn't keep her penned up, so I set a couple bb guns around various places so I would have something to shoot her with. (I'm a very bad shot, and at this point I really didn't want to shoot such a friendly dog if I didn't have to.) Well, a week later I had forgotten to lock up the coop. I woke up that morning in a panic because I had just had a dream that my own dog, Maggie had killed my entire flock. She has been trained to leave them alone, though, and I trust her completely with them, so this was odd. Anyways, I flew outside, terrified something horrible and happened, and, to my complete dread, something horrible
had happened. Fortunately, not near as many were dead as I had first thought. Quite a few were hiding, but some had sustained such bad injuries that we had to kill them. Some of the others we had to doctor and nurse back to health. One of my wards (my very favorite Amauracana hen) died a few days later because her injuries were too bad.
you get the point. We billed the neighbors, told them that if there dogs ever put a toe on out property that we would be killing them. We had Lady's owners come down to the house to see what their dog had done. They promised over and over again to rehome her. They said they would keep her in the house until they had found her another home.
4 of the next 6 days! she was out in front of our house! grr! One morning she was in my next door neighbors yard, pawing at the fence, trying to get into my yard, and I collared and leashed her and took her back to her house! Now, if that is not patient, I have no idea what on God's green earth is. Then they told us, "uh, nevermind. We aren't rehoming her."
ARG! "Okay, fine, but if she ever, EVER, comes back, I'm shooting her. With a 22. Not a bb gun. And she will die." So be it. She hasn't been back in about a week and a half, maybe 2 weeks.
