"Mom, what are those? They look delici...uh, I mean, they look like they need to be protected!"

Daughter brought our dog down to the farm so we could work on her off-leash commands in a large fenced-in area. Had to get pretty stern with her to get her away from the chicken pen, but she did very well with "No!" and "come" commands. Very smart pup.

I think my wife is falling for her too, spent a lot of time petting her and talking to her. Even suggested to the daughter that she should bring her down with the new pup when he arrives so she can train them together.

Every once in a while, one of my devious plans bears fruit...

He is just thinking how he would love to just play with the chickens.
How do you protect them from the air,I think you have hawks and eagles up there.

quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:
He is just thinking how he would love to just play with the chickens.
How do you protect them from the air,I think you have hawks and eagles up there.

I just blew ~$200 on aviary netting. If you look to the left of the picture, you can see a row of poles. That's 10 foot sticks of 1/2 EMT driven into the ground. PVC tee fitting driven into the top, wire rope threaded through the tees and secured to the chain link on each end. The EMT is on a 10x10 foot grid. Aviary netting draped over the wire rope and secured to the fence on the edges.



Wire rope is overkill, but I had a whole spool of the stuff on hand that somebody gave me, so that's what I used.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
"Mom, what are those? They look delici...uh, I mean, they look like they need to be protected!"

The Northern breeds of dog tend to be stubborn. I would not trust her too far at first. We have one.
 

 

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

The Northern breeds of dog tend to be stubborn. I would not trust her too far at first. We have one.
 

 

I agree. I'm fairly certain it's too late to try to train her to leave the chickens alone. The last dog I had that I could trust with chickens was started with them the day she came home with me.

Thanks to the #($ing foxes, eagles and hawks, they're kept penned up all the time anyway so it won't be an issue.