The thing about chickens, is that everything sees them as an easy meal. predators are a given, it's just a matter of what and when, even when you live in the city like I do. In one morning I lost 14 chickens, four ducks, and a goose to one coyote who cleared our chain link fence.

But it's a whole other thing when it's your own dogs killing them. It's not OK.

I have tried every method. I have gone down to a puppy to train her up.

And yesterday, our puppy got upset about being left home alone, went through a fence, and killed Starlight, a beautiful pullet, and injured three of our five turkeys.

So she has to go, and we will not be doing dogs.

We have lost, to our dogs:

1 turkey dead, three injured
1 mid-age silkie, blue
1 baby silkie
11 mid-age chicks
Two adult laying hens

All in all, we're looking at over $150 they've cost me, not even looking at the fact that I hatched most of these (not the turkeys) and the emotional toll of waking up each morning, wondering who will be dead this time.

Farewell to dogs. No more.

Good Bye to my beautiful Starlight.

The Chicks Are Out!

I moved the chicks out of the house today. It is nice and warm out and they need the space to move around. They are within the completely enclosed garden structure inside another whole structure, so they are as safe as I can possibly make them at this point. Their mini-coop is not in with them yet, as it was just too unwieldy for me to move on my own. The actual enclosure they are in is a doggy play pen that my mother in law had at her house. In the background you can see one of the raised beds waiting to be planted in my garden. NoWay picked a bunch of weeds for the chicks to eat.

So far the dogs are all too interested in the chicks. Here you can see Funny staring at the chickens. He has actually been around chickens previously, the only one of the dogs that we had the last time we had chickens. We actually had ducks at that point too. He has never hurt any of our animals, but sometimes I think chicks stretch his terrier sensibilities. 

Bandit was attacked by what we think was a coyote over Christmas break. You can still see his neck where he has healed.

I am more concerned about Bandit and Taco, they are notoriously hard to teach anything and Bandit, as a rat terrier, has been BRED to destroy small critters. We'll see if they will ever be compatible.

The chicks are delighted to be outside. Already they stretch out their wings to sunbathe and practice half-flying around. The pen is small enough that they feel secure, and large enough that they can move around like they have been wanting to for ages. They have access to the bunny cage that was their primary dwelling, but I will be reclaiming that soon as I have some eggs that are due to hatch the 31st. Those eggs are for silkies and I have 10 that are definitely developing. I have been VERY cautious with this hatching, monitoring Relative Humidity and temperature and turning by hand instead of counting on any leaning as being enough (whether or the whole incubator or egg cartons).