It is with a very heavy heart that I tell you we had a tragedy on the farm.  I won’t go into a lot of detail. I wasn’t even home when it happened so only know second hand what took place.  

Essentially, Cactus had let the chickens out of their run to a little yard area so they could scratch and peck around.  This area is right next to the coop and completely fenced except for the gate that one enters or exits through to get to the coop and run.  

When we are going in and out, we use a big rock to hold the gate shut rather than fasten and unfasten the lock (mistake #1: lazy humans). Cactus was doing some weed wacking in the little area and at one point he stopped to take a business call and walked through the gate without properly locking it behind him (mistake #2: having to walk and talk).

While on the phone, he said he heard a scuffle and ran to the little yard area to find our schnauzer, Shume, next to a fatally injured white chicken.

He immediately got the chickens into the coop for safety but only counted six when there should have been seven (we had a total of eight to begin with). He searched the little yard and everywhere nearby but could not find the seventh chicken.  Eventually he noticed that our second dog Ozzy, a shih-tzu, was nowhere to be found. He started calling Ozzy and finally found him laying in the grass by the front of the house with a lifeless brown chicken next to him.

There are so many lessons to be learned from this event and I now know that dogs are the number one predator of backyard chickens.  I never would have thought our useless little twenty pound dogs who only bark and eat and sleep were capable of anything like this.

Here are a few points to remember to save other chickens from a similar fate.

1. Your dogs may be loving companions and family members, but there are still thousands of years of instinctual learnings that may make them do things you never thought possible.
2. Chickens have pretty much no way of defending themselves from a dog, unless they can quickly get to a high enough perch.  
3. As a human with a cerebrum, it is your job to think, plan, and perceive the dangers in a situation and protect any animal in your care.

Now, if we are visiting the chickens, which we do at least every evening after work to say hi and give them treats, we make sure the dogs are inside the house.

Cactus also rebuilt the gate entirely so it is much easier to lock and unlock. He did a really great job and was very upset that this happened at all.  Trust me, I was not shy about pointing out that this was his fault.

I share this to save anyone else from the same tragedy.  I feel like we failed these little creatures and hope they didn’t suffer too much.