The great chicken Massacree of 2013 - 12/16/13
My chicken collection had been reduced to three over the last couple of months and thursday night these were all killed by some sort of varmint. They are kept inside a 20x20 fenced in enclosure of 4 foot high fencing, the kind with the 2x4 inch vertical squares and a good gate made of cattle pannel. The coop itself is an 8x8x8 inclosure made of chicken wire and 2x4's that I usually leave the door open on. I have been suffering from the flue but still set some steel traps. Old rusty worn out traps. Friday morning I had the reason I had not been getting any eggs for a couple of weeks, a skunk. He was executed with a shotgun. Nothing saturday night though something got in the coop and set off one of the traps, chewed a bit on what was left of Goldie (my ex rooster). Last night though was different. I got up this morning to find a note on my keyboard there was a dog in one of my traps. Sure enough there was a wild Cur type dog in the trap set next to Goldie. She was a very scrawny brown dog, 5-6 years old and very unhappy to see me though she had been barking and whining for a while. I said sorry about your luck and she growled showing me some rather impressive dental work. I put a 22 bullet into her head and she was done. The other trap, a #2 Victor had been sprung but nothing was in it. This trap is so worn out you could hardly call it a trap other than it's looks. I have used it for more than 30 years in Wyoming, Colorado and Texas. It may have just gone off as it was still sitting where I set it. The dog weighed about 40 pounds, would surely have weighed around 50 had she been in good shape. No collar, many scars. I wondered about how many of my chickens she had killed in the last 3 years, I have lost over 40. I am going to keep the traps set for a week or so before buying more chickens as the sign showed there were at least three dogs in on the massacree.