Dogs!

Last night while sleeping dogs tore the doors off
of two lofts and killed 45 birds. The part that hurts the
worst is that I had just moved all of my breeder hens into
one loft. At the end of breeding season when I break a pair
up I put the hen in the flying lofts. Then when they are all
broke up I put the old hens in a separate loft. I usually
put any young birds I am going to save for what ever
reason in this loft also. The other loft of birds was a mixture
of 2002, 2003 and 2004 birds. I only have two old hens
left. One is my leader hen and the other is a poor colored
brown bar that sometimes looks like a ash red. I fly her but
won't breed out of her because of the coloring. It is hard
enough to get rid of that ash red look as it is without
using them for breeders. I couldn't believe they tore the
doors apart the way they did. I used 2 x 2 for the frames
using 31/2 course thread wood screws along with some
top line glue. I can understand the wire. I used poultry
wire and have for years. I do use welded wire sometimes.
If the screws and glue would have held I think that they
would have given up. They chewed on the wire of every
loft but only was able to get into the two lofts. This is
the second dog attack that I have had this summer. I
never in the world thought about dogs tearing the doors
off and getting the birds. Learn a new lesson every day.
This is a lesson I really didn't need to learn. It takes
about 3 to 5 years to get set up with the Voutes. It takes
that long to build your breeders and flyers up. This sets
me right back to the start again after three years down
the drain. I don have a nice bowl of anti freeze in case
any more animals get in. I had been waiting for some
friends help me put up the gate and short section of
fence. I help just about every one and was helping
a neighbor with his ceramic counter top when the
first massacre happened. If you have that type of wire
on your doors, windows or aviaries you need to replace
it.
tonyf

tonyf wrote:
> Last night while sleeping dogs tore the doors off
> of two lofts and killed 45 birds.

<Snipped>

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. I can only imagine how wrenching
that has to be.

--
Onorio