Homage to the Working Dogs

One of the things you ask me most often is how we are able to keep our pastured chickens safe from predators.

When folks think of getting a flock of their own, they have visions of happy hens frolicking and free-ranging around their garden.

But so frequently, people come to us to purchase our started pullets because their entire flock has just been wiped out.

Around here, we are blessed with flourishing wildlife, but that doesn't always translate to safe pastured chickens.

We have foxes, racoons, possums, skunks, weasels, hawks, owls, and coyotes, among other predators - everything likes chicken!

Yet we all know how exceptionally important it is to have our chickens on grass and receiving the benefit of the varied diet provided by the greenery and bugs, as well as the exercise and fresh air.

Enter our Employees of the Month, every month: Tristan and Rhea. Our livestock guardian dogs are the MVPs of our farm.

We realized that we absolutely needed an LGD when we lost 195 chickens over the course of TWO nights! It was absolutely heartbreaking.

We surround our Feathernet with step-in mobile poultry netting attached to a mobile, solar electric charger, which we keep at a minimum of 6,000 volts - touching this fence will make you see Jesus, haha

But something went OVER the 4-ft tall fence and took out 100 chickens the first night. On the second night, Chris went on the hunt, but by the time he got out there, the predator had already come back and was inside the fencing and had taken out 45 more chickens.

WE WERE DEVASTATED.

Shortly thereafter, we got Tristan, and then we lucked into finding Rhea on Facebook a few months later.

Since these two have been on the job, we have had ZERO predator losses, and our girls can enjoy life in our no-spray fields without becoming lunch for a fox.

These dogs work hard for us and their flock. They are bonded with their birds, with each other, and with us, and visiting with them is frankly one of my favorite parts of my day.

Here's to all the working dogs - we couldn't do this without them.