Chickens Foraging in the Woods

Chickens Foraging in the Woods
Chickens Foraging in the Woods

Friday, August 22, 2014

Great Pyrenees Adventure

Several months ago I posted my last blog.  I seem to be apologizing for not blogging when I have so much to share, but once again I will apologize for taking so long. I last posted that my two great prys let themselves out and that this was a story for another blog, so I will begin there.

We had our dogs inside a mesh electric fence, which they respected greatly, because they were still a little too friendly with the chickens.  One morning we found Sarah on the porch.  Abraham was still in the fence, but when he saw me, he came barreling through a gaping whole in that fence.

It appears that Sarah wanted out so badly that she tore the fence up getting out.  I can only imagine that for her there was a predator on the farm that she had to take care of.  I was very excited about her desire to protect, so I set them free, and all was wonderful.  They did not mess with the chickens and seemed to both enjoy patrolling the outer perimeter and chasing whatever all night.

We had one predator left, a weasel or weasel family, but with these two dogs out all the time, they were quickly gone.  I am not sure exactly how they caught these very small but very dangerous predators, except that they would come in with caked on mud up to there knees and on their noses--possibly burrowing for the weasels?

But then Abraham started climbing the four foot fence that has two additional barbed wire strands at the top.  He was going through the barbed wire!  I would begin to miss him and would find his hair left behind on the barbed wire, but when called he came out of the woods and willingly came home.  Then one day my neighbor called and said he had my dog.  My neighbor's farm was a good distance away and close to the highway so Abraham became friends again with the power fence and with a tie out.  He was so funny.  As soon as Sarah would get out of sight, he would cry.  But remember he didn't mind leaving Sarah while he wandered the neighborhood.  Typical male?  They have both been neutered.

They were very amusing during this time.  I would see Sarah bark and jump at Abraham as if she was saying, "We got work to do.  Come on."  Then she would run a short distance, turn around, and bark again at Abraham, and he would then look at me and bark as if to say, "Let me go.  I got work to do."

While he had been penned up, the chickens were not and have not been laying well, and Sarah comes in exhausted since she is the only one working, so we have installed a power strip around the inside of the fence to stop Abraham from climbing.  We will turn it on this weekend and train him to it and hopefully he can remain free to patrol.  We are not dog trainers, but these dogs make any effort successful.