Massacre Investigation Report
Since feyfern and the kids stayed at my parents house Tuesday through today, no one was home all day. I feed and watered the chickens in the morning, and opened the hen house door to let them free range. There had been no problems with this for a long while. Yesterday, that turned out to be a big mistake. I had a feeling when I fed them I ought not let them roam, but I did anyway. I hate to have them cooped-up all day. They don't eat bugs or fresh greens and they start picking on each other.
Normally, with Meredith and the kids home, someone is almost always outside. Roaming dogs will be noticed quickly and deterred from causing trouble. But yesterday no one was home while the chickens ranged free. The neighbors' dog was also loose. She was a stray they'd had for months. She'd come down and killed a chicken once before, but that was months ago and they'd been keeping her locked up and were going to put in an invisible fence. When I arrived home yesterday, she was in the drive by the barn near a freshly killed chicken. It wasn't the first she'd gotten. There were feathers everywhere and I feared she'd gotten all of them. Normally there's an almost constant sound of chicken clucking. Yesterday, it was completely silent. That dog was very lucky it didn't get shot right then. It ran off into the bean field.
Slowly survivors emerged from their various hiding places. The rooster survived, along with nine of the ten laying hens, though one of them was so badly wounded I sent her on to the refrigerator. We had sixteen broiler chicks. Four were KIA, six survived the attack, but one was wounded so badly it too was sent on to the refrigerator. The other six are still MIA. Hopefully a couple more of them have survived and will have reported in by this evening, and the other wounded will recover.
I called the neighbors. They came down and cleaned up the bodies and feathers, and more than made good for the lost chickens. They're getting rid of that dog today. They're really good people and I'm glad they're my neighbors.
Update: The tenth hen and three more broiler chicks had reported in by the time I got home yesterday. That leaves three broiler chicks MIA. I expect there may be more losses among the survivors from their wounds though.
Normally, with Meredith and the kids home, someone is almost always outside. Roaming dogs will be noticed quickly and deterred from causing trouble. But yesterday no one was home while the chickens ranged free. The neighbors' dog was also loose. She was a stray they'd had for months. She'd come down and killed a chicken once before, but that was months ago and they'd been keeping her locked up and were going to put in an invisible fence. When I arrived home yesterday, she was in the drive by the barn near a freshly killed chicken. It wasn't the first she'd gotten. There were feathers everywhere and I feared she'd gotten all of them. Normally there's an almost constant sound of chicken clucking. Yesterday, it was completely silent. That dog was very lucky it didn't get shot right then. It ran off into the bean field.
Slowly survivors emerged from their various hiding places. The rooster survived, along with nine of the ten laying hens, though one of them was so badly wounded I sent her on to the refrigerator. We had sixteen broiler chicks. Four were KIA, six survived the attack, but one was wounded so badly it too was sent on to the refrigerator. The other six are still MIA. Hopefully a couple more of them have survived and will have reported in by this evening, and the other wounded will recover.
I called the neighbors. They came down and cleaned up the bodies and feathers, and more than made good for the lost chickens. They're getting rid of that dog today. They're really good people and I'm glad they're my neighbors.
Update: The tenth hen and three more broiler chicks had reported in by the time I got home yesterday. That leaves three broiler chicks MIA. I expect there may be more losses among the survivors from their wounds though.