This morning I cried! :(

[Rick]

Living out in the sticks for the last 30 years I've seen a bunch of critters come and go. It still always sets you back to see life stopped. We had a flock of almost a dozen Barbados sheep get wiped out by a stray Rottweiler in Oklahoma. We spent years building that flock up, and the site of a dozen bloody/mutilated sheep wasn't thrilling either (some weren't dead and had to be put down).

This past fall I got to witness a pack of stray dogs kill our cat. We shot the pack leader dog when it came back on our property a week later.

We couldn't get rid of chickens at our present house in TN, and the neighbors raise fighting cocks that are loose in the woods. We have lots of foxes, raccoons, bobcats, stay dogs and cats, and owls. And the ferrel chicken population is just as stable as ever. We keep wishing our dogs would keep the neighbors chickens at bay, but they keep coming over in our yard and tearing up the gardens. Periodically I find sitting hens and smash the eggs (our dogs like them).

Chickens are mostly sitting ducks at night when sleeping. If you get them trained to go into a coup at night that you can close up and lock, they will be safe from the wild predators that hunt primarily at night. In the morning you can let them out in a much less protected yard.

This may be more practical than sympathetic, but sharing life with the rest of nature sometimes adds some ugly death to our lives.

 

[Marc]

I understand your view Rick and I apreciate your words.

My biggest mistake was the coup that was build to keep the chickens out and never thought of it being used to withstand intruders from the outside.

Lesson is learned and construction of the coup will start soon.

 

[Rick]

I understand your view Rick and I apreciate your words.

My biggest mistake was the coup that was build to keep the chickens out and never thought of it being used to withstand intruders from the outside.

Lesson is learned and construction of the coup will start soon.

That's the way Marc. Sadder still it would be if you let fox win and you give up on the life you are working with. The struggle to live is the prayer that keeps things going.