A fucking dog tore into the peacock coop and killed all four of them; three white ones, and one patchy hen. Didn't even eat them, just killed them. Jungle Julia is beyond pissed.
Dammit, that sucks. What did they tear thru? Chicken wire? Chicken wire is great at keeping chickens in, pretty weak at keeping large predators out. Hardware cloth is much stronger.
I'm so sorry for your losses Dixie. That really sucks. But yeah..... Chicken wire for an enclosure is ok, but it protects against nothing. That was something I learned from browsing the backyardchickens site for a couple years before getting ducks. Mine live in a converted kid's playhouse with a hardware cloth apron and hardware cloth over all holes and openings. Their daytime area is just a garden fence within the wooden privacy fence of our backyard though. Good luck on your next round of peacocks. I know she's gonna try again, right?
That sucks man. But I gotta ask; was it one of your dogs or a neighbors? And what do you do with them now? Assuming you can't put them in the trash?
Yep. Chicken wire keeps chickens in, that's it. That really sucks about the peafowl. I know it's no consolation, but if you can prove whose dogs did it, you can try to get them to cough up some money to reimburse you.
That's what JJ wants to try, but these are trashy, ghetto people, and I'm pretty sure we won't get anywhere with them. We can't definitely prove it was a specific dog, so it wouldn't hold up in a court of law. We're going to figure out a way to trap it, then shoot it. Red dot me if you want. Sometimes bad dogs need to be put down. - We are 100% certain it wasn't our dogs because the peacocks are on the other property I bought; our dogs are at the house. Jungle Julia has seen the dog in question before really early one morning before it killed one of our chickens a few months ago. - It wasn't chicken wire; it was hardware cloth with squares about 1/2" wide. - What can we do with the birds? Jack shit, and that's one of the things that pisses me off most. They were already stiff when I found them (about 6PM yesterday), so it's not like we can eat them. That fucking dog is going to pay.
Damn. It's even worse than I thought. You're totally within your right to protect your property from an aggressive, roaming dog. I would probably do something similar. You also might think to invest in some trail or security cams around the animals.
The shitty thing is that there’s no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners. Sure you can’t shoot them instead?
It just sucks because if you understand dog nature and are a responsible owner, it's such an easy thing to curb. Unfortunately, a roaming dog thinks everywhere they roam is their territory and will act aggressively against those within that territory. My parents had a next door neighbor WITH A FENCED BACKYARD who let their dog out the front to roam. It was aggressive towards us. I was literally carrying a shovel to check the mailbox. We had our dogs there and hubs and Buddy tag teamed that dog and kicked it back to where it belonged. If only there was a simple way to have avoided violence....
Just be sure you keep yourself within the bounds of any applicable laws. My experience with people like that is that they won't hesitate to call in the police if they think it'll gain themselves an advantage over you and posture themselves as the victim.
You won’t get a red dot from me man, especially if the dog is a repeat offender. You have every right, hell, an obligation, to protect your pets/livestock. If I’m not mistaken, even here in NY it is legal to shoot a dog harassing or killing livestock’s and even if it isn’t, you follow the SSS rule: Shoot, shovel, shut up. I had that happen to me just once, and I couldn’t prove whose dogs it was. It fucking sucks, worse than a fox or something wild, because at least a wild animal has a justification. Gospel truth.
This "Winter That Wasn't" here in Upstate NY has made life around here a whole lot easier in many ways. I've been able to keep the goat barn and the chicken coop well-cleaned out for the most part instead of the usual "why the fuck do I have animals" mess to contend with after a long and snowy winter. Fact is, the chickens have been able to free range for most of the past month and a half, perhaps for the first time ever for this time of year. But I know how fickle nature is here, and I am really worried this will be another year of a late freeze that kills off any chance of having apples, peaches, and blueberries. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
I am still learning so much with every batch of soap I make. I insulated this one too long and had wet spots on top. I feared glycerin rivers throughout the bars but I think the separation should reabsorb. It has taken longer to firm up compared to other similar recipes. Next time I will insulate less, for shorter time, and do a lower water % These are lard bars with coffee grounds and brambleberry's scent called Greenhouse. It smells wonderful.
We're on Day 3 of keeping a goat whose trying to die on us from doing so. Honestly, I'm not sure what's wrong with him at this point. We've called the vet and she saidit sounded like he had a kidney stone and needed to a quick snip to allow it to pass, but she can't do it because she broke her wrist so she said to call another vet and she'd contact her as well. When I spoke to the vet she referred me to ( three hours later ) she said to bring him to her office. But both the wife and I felt that it wasn't a stone, and when I told her, she agreed it didn't sound like one. Yeaterday he looked worse, and I called the vet again. Instead of coming to take a look at him she listened to what I was saying and then said maybe it's a GI thing and gave me a list of things to do along with getting his temperature UP because now it was too low. Last night he was more alert and inquisitive although still visibly not well. He followed me to the door and wanted attention so I petted him for a while. I told my wife he's either improving or he was saying goodbye. I fully expected him to be dead this morning. Nope. He was awake so we tried to force more fluids and electrolytes into him. He fought me, so I decided what he got was gonna have to be good enough. He came outside for the first time in three days and was nibbling on some stuff. I just checked on him and he's laying down, his temp is still 100 ( too low, it should be at least 102 ) so I threw a blanket over him and we'll see if the hay he ate and the fluids gets his rumen going more. That in turn will generate more body heat. It's been a long three days and I still don't know if he's gonna make it. You can only do so much and then it's in Nature's hands.
I’ve gone to bed the past two nights expecting to find our boy dead in the morning yet he persists. Today I forced a lot of fluids into him with some electrolytes, then noticed he’s dribbling urine. So it turns out he may have a kidney stone after all, but the fact that urine is passing means I may have been able to get enough ammonium chloride in him to acidify the urine and dissolve it, or at least enough to pass it. Time will tell. He was acting stronger though, fighting back against his brothers at the feed trough, though it took the piss right out of him after. Fucking animals… They bring so much joy but so much heartbreak too.
Thanks! This morning I won't say we're out of the woods just yet, but for the first time I'm feeling more optimistic about his prognosis. His appetite was much better this morning and he's acting more normal. He's dribbling urine, though he also passed a couple steady streams while I was out there. He's also chewing cud and I can hear his rumen sounds, all of which are promising.
I got my first real sale! 3 bars of soap.and 3 lotion bars to be used for Easter baskets. I upgraded my packaging for lotion bars. I think they are super cute.