Bruce's Journal

[Southern by choice]

LOL your chickens are neurotic!
We had a goose gored by a goat horn on her throat-ripped it right open. Never hid.
Chickens (years ago before dogs) that were attacked by hawks, fought them off and never hid.
Once we even had a Min Pin get lost as his electric fence collar thingy had dead batteries and he showed up on the farm confused (neighbors dog) poor thing had to be rescued because he found himself surrounded by 20 chickens going after him... the dog didn't know what to do.
Even chickens that have been in the jowls of pups never run off and hide.

Seriously I have never seen a chicken run off and hide from being scared.

Oh and yes more than likely Merlin like most dogs will help themselves to eggs if they have access.

 

[Bruce]

Then I have a problem. If he is going to eat the eggs, the only reason I have the chickens, he has to be excluded from the coop.

Echo was a half second from being fox food April 2015. Saved only because I was looking out the window when it grabbed her by the neck. I yelled and ran outside, DD1 ran out another door. Fox ran to the woods, Echo ran between the little barn and the house. I thought she was going to go down between the barns to the safety of the coop. When we found her 2 hours later it was at the neighbor across the road diagonally, about 400' away.

Now you know why the chicken crossed the road.

 

[Southern by choice]

Well you have the chicken door and that is adequate.
He doesn't need to be IN the coop he has run of the aisle and the barn that is pretty much all he needs from the indoor perspective.
I thought you just wanted the birds to know he is ok and not some predator.

 

[Bruce]

Guess I'll be putting the dog excluder back in the door when the chickens start laying again. Hopefully by then they will be comfortable coming and going from the coop when he is present.

 

[Bruce]

This morning I did the animal feeding thing, put Merlin's food in the green bucket in his "dining room". One of the Favs came out of the coop and went into the feed room (between the coop and the 'dining room'). I have no idea why she did that but I went in to rake the coop. Shortly I heard her making a commotion and thought maybe Merlin had gone in the feed room.

Nope, passing the coop was Merlin's green bucket, dog attached of course. I guess the hen saw him go by and panicked. He went through the alpaca gate and took his breakfast out their north door and went to the area in the barnyard he favors just south of the gate that keeps the alpacas from coming up between the barns. Meaning, he carried it upright about 150'. He put it down, stuffed his face in and started eating. Clearly he would just prefer to eat outside so in the future I'll do it his way. No idea why he didn't go out the south door unless he couldn't get the bucket through the opening. It was pinned in the "chickens can come and go" position. Merlin can squeeze through, I can't.

 

[Bruce]

Chapter 3 of "where are my chickens".

I was moving some wood from the little barn to the enclosed porch. As I was putting the garden tractor away I heard a chicken making a big ruckus. When I got to the gate between the barns I saw a Faverolles behind the alpacas' exclusion gate running toward it with Merlin on her tail. Of course I didn't see the start of this and maybe she got too close to his green bucket (empty). I picked her up and put her in the coop. Counted, missing the other Fav, Persephone (my best laying older EE hen) and one of the White Rocks. I found the Fav in the same place I found Echo. Not moving a muscle, not even when I put scratch in front of her. At least this time there were no dead burdocks to pull out of the way.

I found Persephone buried in a green garden hose that was leaning against the wall with the black plastic sled against the hose. How she got in there I don't know but even after I moved the sled she was as still as a stuffed animal.

Couldn't find Yuki in the barn or in back so I looked under the back deck. Nope, but I did see some chicken prints heading north. I found her under the steps to the enclosed porch out front. Lots of 'out from under, hide under the branches of the lilac right next to the steps, back under the steps' (rinse and repeat) I got her out to the driveway. Could I get her to head down to the barn NO! Back under the steps she went and then under the porch. She wasn't going for the "look I have scratch" thing that got the two girls out from under the deck in a previous chapter. She was captured after at least an hour and only after adding my wife and DD1 to the hunt. DD1 crawled under the porch (easier at 5' almost 2" and 23 years old than for me!!) and got her to go out the end. Where she then turned tail and ran right back to the steps. Eventually with DD1's body blocking the opening under the side of the steps she managed to catch the wayward bird and carry her down to the barn.

Perhaps @Southern by choice would care to send a "we never hide from anything" chicken up this way to school my girls.

 

[Southern by choice]

It really is strange. I don't doubt what you are saying it just is not the norm.
I would put up netting so they can't get through fences and make them face the music!

 

[Bruce]

Yep. Originally they didn't seem to be able to get through the vertical bars on the upper gates, worked fine all summer. Don't know if they got skinnier or if fear will shoot a 'too big' bird through a 'too small' slot. I will be putting some wire over those gates tomorrow. Too bad, they are kind of attractive now. Won't be with wire attached in some fashion.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Well Bruce just think of it as temporary....and you'll have your attractive gates back before long....Hopefully

 

[Bruce]

If they can get through, it isn't temporary When I want them to stay in the back, I want them to STAY in the back!! Plus we need to get some chicks this spring. They can fit through no problem!

I have 2 human/LGD behaviour questions

1. When I go to the top gate, Merlin will back up so I can open it. I scrub his ears then say "let's go to the barn". At this point of course he is between the door (~45' distant) and me. He will take one step down the slope then move sideways and wait for me to take the lead. Always. I have not asked this of him, in fact I assumed he would go ahead, most dogs do I think. Is this something related to our relative position in the "pack" or something else?
2. I go down every night about 8:30 or 9 to say goodnight. We go into the barn because it isn't windy in there and is sometimes a bit warmer. Then he gets ear scrubbing and sometimes a bit of brushing to get the ice out of his fur.
   1. Is this something I SHOULD be doing, as a bonding thing?
   2. Is this something should NOT be doing for some reason?
   3. It doesn't really matter?