Chickens, dogs, neighbors *could* get along

This morning I had to linger at home before heading in to the office because we had another incident with the neighbor's dog and Fino and I felt it was time - yet again - to call Animal Control.

This has been an ongoing issue for many years (early on we didn't know whose dog it was) and each time an incident happens I get more angry.

Not at the dog.

This dog is just being a dog. She's never been properly trained to heel on command and the prospect of chasing birds around is simply too tempting to her nature.

Who I am angry and frustrated with is the dog's owner.

(BTW, nearly every one of the 20+ houses in my neighborhood has a dog but only this dog is consistently running in our yard and attacking our poultry).

I really don't understand why it's so hard for him to put a collar and leash on his dog.

And I want to know why this guy makes such poor decisions about controlling his dog that it forces me to be the bad guy?

I don't like it. Not one bit.

I may not have called Animal Control this morning (I usually err on the side of not reporting if the dog trots back home and goes right into her house) if another neighbor (and responsible dog owner that the girls' adore) hadn't told me that last week she witnessed this other neighbor's dog biting one of our chickens. Actually the dog killed a guinea hen and took a bite out of a chicken's behind. That chicken later died too.

She said the neighbor was cursing a blue streak trying to get his dog to stop and drop the chicken (he was walking the dog without a leash past our house when the dog took off running away from him). Apparently he did a lot of looking around to make sure he wasn't seen once he finally grabbed the dog (after the mauling was done).

Well he and the dog were actually seen doing the crime and my friendly neighbor let me know about it, figuring we'd be wondering what happen to our flock while we were out.

We did wonder and the girls were bummed when the injured chicken didn't survive her injuries.

But I didn't report that incident to Animal Control because I hadn't seen it myself and I think there should be a first-hand accounting of events for me to call (although Fino begs to differ and I'm deferring to him to handle future incidents).

This morning though, having the dog barking at me in my own driveway while walking to my car and then watching the dog take off chasing one of my chickens, I got angry and finally made the call.

Animal Control said it's time for a monetary fine for this irresponsible dog owner (I've been resistant in the past because honestly, I really do just want to get along). But the officer said that in the past AC used to mandate the dog be moved to another location but found that the people just got another dog and the old problems ensued anew. But when things start to hit the purse strings, well the officer said, that gets people's attention, and usually a turnaround in compliance with the law.

So I ask again, why do I have to be the bad guy and cause financial hardship on my neighbor? I really resent that his poor decisions have put me in this unpleasant situation for both of us.

So I stomped my feet this morning like an indignant 5-year-old.

But I'm going to move on now. And wait and see how many times the Animal Control officer has to visit the neighbor before he mans-up and actually answers his door when the officer knocks...

Guinea fowl good watchdogs ... in theory

We've raised chickens since the girls were little and overall it's been a great learning experience for my family. We don't raise meat chickens (ours are egg-layers) but the wildlife in the woodlands bordering our property find them a tasty meal on occasion.

We lose between 3-5 chickens a year, some to old age (a chicken's typical life-span is approximately 5-7 years with only a couple of those years as egg-layers) but it's the predators that get them mostly.

(In addition to foxes and fishers, one year we found a full grown red-tailed hawk in our yard stalking the chickens. We were about three feet away before it decided to take flight. It was the most impressive bird we'd ever seen so close -- and the most intimidating as the wing span was wider than our mini van was long!).

A couple of years ago some friends were calling it quits with their chickens and offered us their remaining flock (about a dozen birds) and included in the mix was a guinea. Up to that point we had never had any guinea fowl but had been told they were great 'watchdogs.' They make a very loud screeching noise whenever they perceive danger is near and Fino had already been doing some research about these birds so he was pleased with this new addition to the coop.

And as it turned out, since the guinea became part of our flock we have lost fewer chickens to predators.

So fast-forward to this spring. We've had the single guinea for a couple of years and things were going well and not overly noisy. But with the ordering of some new baby chicks (our flock is getting older and their egg-laying was becoming less reliable so we needed a few new chicks this spring) Fino decided to order THREE new guineas.

The girls and I tried to convince him that three was too many; one more would do us just fine. The one guinea we had already made an awful racket at random times (including the crack of dawn) and we thought adding more than one more to the mix was not a good idea.

But no, Fino was set on three (I still haven't figured out why he chose this number except that he was feeling ganged up on by the females in his life, which admittedly does happen frequently, so he dug his heels in to be contrary) and that's what he ordered from the feed store (and I made note a while back that I was concerned about this decision).

The new guineas are about three months old and have been fully integrated in to the flock for about three weeks.

And in a nutshell... they are a friggin' non-stop irritation!

The guineas start their racket at the crack of dawn (sometimes earlier) along with the rooster (a reluctant adoption but he's turned out to be only a minor irritation in comparison to the guineas) and are pretty much non-stop yapping "watchdogs" all day. There are actually times when they really get going that even the air conditioner and/or TV does not drown the noise out while we're in the house (which is to say nothing of days we have the windows open).

Yesterday morning I went outside with L. to record her morning pig chores for a video project she's doing and we gave up on her voice narration because the guineas were busy scaring away every predator within a 10-mile radius.

OK, I'm exaggerating but I have a one-minute video clip to share to demonstrate how truly annoying this noise really is. Yes the video offers a visual of the pigs and L. but it's the sound track I want you to make note of.

And I'll go out on a limb here and wager you won't make it through the whole minute before you turn the sound down and/or click the pause button.



Actually a real life pause button would be really nice right about now.

The Almeida guinea posse:

And because I have recent video of Chickenland (for those new to my blog, that's the kids' nickname for our chicken coop and flock), here are the usual noises and activity that start at dawn (sometimes earlier) on any given day in our backyard.