It has been a terrible day here for me........this morning I get up to go feed and water my baby chickens and when I go out I realize that the winds from the hurricane blew the doors open to the shed that the chickens were in (the winds were expected to be so bad that they closed all TN schools for the day). I didn't think a lot of it until I went inside and found ZERO baby chickens.
When the storm blew the doors open, the chickens ran out in the rain (I'm assuming) and then must have ran under the shed.....into the mouths of David and Goliath. Ivan and the mama dog were under the shed (thats where they stay) due to the rain.
We couldn't find any traces of any chickens anywhere. After searching the barn, we found 3 of them huddled in a corner - still alive. The other 51 have not been found. I'm sure they were eaten by the dogs.
I have spent so much time in caring for these chickens.....hadn't lost on e in 2 weeks. All of them had survived. And then poof....in one night....51 of them are gone.
I wasn't like "attached" to them, so to speak, but it still just REALLY sucks. It was a hard blow to take. They were already growing their feathers and had almost tripled in size.
How 2 dogs can stomach 51 baby chickens is beyond me, but they must have because there is nothing to be seen of any of them.
I cried all freakin day because I was so mad. I don't even know who I am mad at.....myself or the dogs. I can't really blame the dogs.....they didn't know that those chickens were not to be eaten. I should have checked the shed doors or something. I don't know......but either way.....the day just sucked beyond all for me.
Im so sorry for you..and all of the people suffering from that naughty Katrina. I really liked the Chicken chronicles too..I would be majorly bummed out myself.
Thanks. You know.......I really shouldn't be complaining. Those people lost so much down there. Total disaster. I can replace my chickens....some of them can't replace what they've lost.
I know it must be horrible for them, my bf's aunt lived in Gulfport..she has to come here to Jersey and stay with some of their family for a while. Its such a tragedy when stuff like this happens..always leaves me teary eyed.
No way in hell those dogs ate that many birds. Keep looking. Check with your neighbors. Drive around and hunt for them. They are small and scared and ran every which way from the wind. If you get after it quick enough, you will get them before the predators do. Birds sleep at night. Take a flash light out and look up in all places for them. Likely they ran down the hill or what not, and are huddled in some brush. Find brush, think like a predator. Those critters went to ground somewhere. Check the dog waste for feathers and bones, to see how many you lost.
sorry to hear about all your babies. hopefully when everything calms down you will find some more. at least you guys didnt get what so many others did. i dont know what we can do from here...but we wrote the red cross and offered our home to any families that need a place to stay for as long as they need. so many have nothing to go back too .its so heartbreaking. glad to hear that all the furum members are safe though.
Just after Kittys Mom made hjer post I thought "what the heck" and went back out to look once more. I'll have you know that we did in fact find one more little chicken. He had hidden up inside of the unit of a freezer that sits in that shed. He was cold and shivering. I have a heat lamp on the 4 of them now.
If any of them did run out in the bushes to get away, I think they would have died from the weather. We recieved A LOT of rain. It is going to be sunny today though and hubby is going to take another look around.
If nothing else, at least we found one more.
I am now wondering about Ivan. Will this ever 'leave' him? Our neighbor raises game chickens......expensive. If Ivan was to ever get loose and visit that mans chicken houses......we'd be paying out SO much money. Just a month ago we had an incident where Ivan nearly swam himself to death trying to get some Canadian geese that was in our pond (I think JT posted about it).
I have a problem with a dog that will kill livestock (that was instilled in me from watching my father deal with it so much when I was a kid). I've got to figure out what kind of training Ivan needs or something.....if its even possible......to make sure he doesn't continue this behavior. He just spazzed last night when he heard that one chirping. Would obedience training help this? Is he too old for it? He is 9 months old. I thought obed training was to help them when you are around........he needs help for when we are not around.
2 things you can do. If Ivan were young enough, he could be put in a pen with an aggressive Bantam rooster That, or you can spend money on an electric collar, and do aversion training with it. Also let him know the birds are yours, and NOT A TOY. Chastise the crap outta him if he even looks at "your bone" like you are an aggressive alpha dog. If he associates those birds with a butt kicking, he is gonna think twice about helping himself to them I had no problem teaching dogs that chickens were NOT the birds that they hunted year round with the family, even though we hunted all game birds. But they I am very firm with dogs, and NEVER look at them like "oh my what do I do", more like "oh, my what will you do when I CATCH you"...
At any rate, a rooster not only keeps your hens from flying over the fence looking for, err, a rooster, in other words, he keeps the hens collected for you...but a rooster deters hawks and feral animals if he is hot enough. We used to have to take a stick when we went in the yard, when I had my Bantam cock. He would come flying at you 8ft. off the ground, spurs first. You needed to knock him back with the stick so he would go find something else to do. Dogs, not having the option of a 4ft. stick fare less well against one of these. Prolly would have been a good lesson for the dog if he had caught one of those geese. Wild geese are hard to kill, and real mean
Awwww...sorry about the baby chicks. But at least you found 4 of them. I have no idea about Ivan. When I was younger we had a Blue Heeler that would jump/dig out of the yard and go kill chickens. We coudln't stop it and she ended up getting shot. Good luck with him.
How sad. I too thought my car rolling down the road was such an aweful thing. But compared to what all those people have lost this is not bad at all. i hope you find more chickies.
Im so sorry for you..and all of the people suffering from that naughty Katrina. I really liked the Chicken chronicles too..I would be majorly bummed out myself.
"Thought is an invisible and subtle power that mocks all the efforts of tyranny." Alexis de Tocqueville
.. have you found anymore of the chicks yet?
