Suffering Chickens
Posted on March 28th, 2007 By scott at 1:25 pm (All, Chickens, Ducks, Four legs, Two legs)
This morning I killed another chicken. I’ve lost count. Maybe 60 chickens. These hurt, though. Pollack escaped from the pasture, killing four chickens and leaving four others so wounded I had to finish them off.
Poor Doris. Poor Trick Chicken.
It was all my fault. I should have brought the dogs in before leaving for the store. I should have pounded a t-post into the ground next to the gate. Pollack is strong and skinny. Should of… should of…
Laura had called me while I was out and said it was horrible. She was right. Feathers everywhere. Four dead birds in the coop. The ducks escaped damage; I’m guessing the chief male duck confronted Pollack. He has seen one duck die and another nearly strangled to death. He confronts the dogs, chases Jack around the cars and generally let’s it be known no ducks will be hurt on his watch.
I only wish I had his sense of responsibility.
I failed those eight birds.
Kristen said,
March 28, 2007 at 1:48 pm
ouch
sorry to hear that
side note: love the new layout
laura said,
March 28, 2007 at 1:59 pm
It really was a joint effort. We made a couple of bad decisions. We didn’t make the mistake of blaming the dog.
Rebecca said,
March 28, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Love this comment layout a ton!
Ugh - we’ve fought the “bad decisions” made with animals battle. Let’s just say “mistakes were made”, eh Scott? You’ll learn and soon you’ll be the best chicken/duck daddy in all of Michigan.
Susan said,
March 29, 2007 at 12:39 am
I’m sorry about your chickens and thank you for not blaming the dog. My sweet natured aussie would kill chickens if he had the chance. He was stalking a fly today and growling at it.
On another topic (which I’m posting here because I am afraid to go to the possum page), I saw a guy in downtown Seattle today with a pet possum on his shoulder. Ugh! Mostly I felt sorry for the thing but so many of them end up as road kill here that being a pet is probably a pretty cushy life compared to dodging cars.
scott said,
March 29, 2007 at 6:44 am
Susan,
The possum would be dodging me too. He killed one of our ducks, ducks we raised from the egg. Sad.
We used to let Smiling Jack wander the property, but he’s so car-driven, he ends up at the corner gas station. Meg The Border Collie isn’t to be trusted off the leash because she’ll try to locate every tennis ball in the county. So, Pollack is in good company — none of them are to unsupervised or off the leash.
laura said,
March 29, 2007 at 6:54 am
Susan, I just read that some people keep possums as pets. I was trying to find out about possums and distemper and I came across a website made by a fan. It’s hard to feel warm and fuzzy about them after seeing what they did to my duck though. I’m glad you didn’t look at the possum post. When I look at it I’m shocked that I posted it at all. I chalk it up to being very angry at the possum at the time.
laura said,
March 29, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Oh, and when Scott says that Jack is car driven, he actually means that he is car RIDE driven. His turn on is someone getting in or out of a car, so the gas station looks like heaven to him. Just so no one thinks he’s chasing cars…
Rebecca said,
March 30, 2007 at 9:17 am
Laura - I’m glad you clarified - I thought Jack was chasing cars…so very dangerous!! I have to figure out what to do with my dogs. They love to run - and when I let them out, if I stay outside, they pretty much stick to our yard. If they do stray, the come back when I whistle. I am, however, the ONLY person they listen to. Which means if I leave them outside with Alex in charge, or no one in charge, they’ll be 1/2 a mile away stat. They’re labs, they need to run, but my neighbors are going to start to get ticked, and when the weather warms up, I’m sure the chickens will be back outside. Oy.
Alice said,
April 1, 2007 at 11:43 am
oh, that is so sad. try not to be so hard on yourself. it’s hard to anticipate animal instincts…at least i think so. did i ever tell you about the pit bull puppy (one of many) my step mom had that ate another dog while we were at church? traumatizing. hang in there. you guys are doing a really cool thing.
i can’t wait to swing by the farm again and see you guys!
scott said,
April 1, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Alice dear, you’re always welcome here. Just to warn you, every time guests come by, some tragic animal thing happens. The poor kids’ friends normally see a dead bird or an attack.
Be warned, I like guests to earn their keep. :->
Kiley said,
April 10, 2007 at 11:39 am
I know it is really hard, but it isn’t your fault - just because something could have been prevented, doesn’t make it your fault. That’s not how the causal relationship works. You would have done things differently “if you had known”, but you didn’t know.
As for the possum, it sounds like he had it coming - and you have to defend your homestead. I learned that in every pioneer book I read in my elementary school “long floral skirts and boots” phase… Although, we did have this one possum that used to eat the cat food on our porch, and he got really fat, and we named him “Tubs” - you know, like Miami Vice, and we had to switch to light cat food because we were worried about his health. He didn’t like the new food and we never saw him again. Maybe if you had just put out some light cat food…The end.