raising a livestock guardian – Crack of Dawn Farms

Chaos Reigns

It has been nuts around here. Every time I think we are getting into a rhythm of sorts, it goes haywire.

As I reported earlier, all the critters did admirably well while Ryan and I were gone on our weekend jaunt down to Florida. Then, Tuesday morning, Atlas decided that 4 months old would be a splendid time to go through a regression.

I went downstairs to feed everyone and let the Black Stars out of the coop, and Atlas was laying at the gate with our Red Star between his paws, mouthing at her feathers!

It's a rope! I promise! — It’s a rope! I promise!

It has been a week of correction, crating, and leash time interspersed with times of freedom thinking that all was going to be ok only to have him go back to chasing (and catching!) again. He seems to have decided that it is real fun to catch the “old guard” (Dominique or Red Star) as they come out of their tree roost in the morning. I even caught him stalking them as they started their descent while I was out in the yard one morning!!

Last night, Jerry and I decided to get them and put them in the coop for a week of coop training to get them to where they would roost indoors finally – in hopes that they would seem more “normal” to Atlas again.

That was great, but then I relented and let everyone out this morning. I couldn’t see making the Black Stars stay in all that time when they have been doing what they should. Instead, we limbed the tree that the old guard has been using so that it is a MUCH higher flight to get to the roosting branch.

It was kinda sad watching them pace and cluck at dusk tonight, but they eventually made the decision to sleep indoors (YAY!). The Dominique did make one valiant running leap/flight attempt to reach the limb, but she gave up shortly after that.

Then, it seems as though Atlas decided to try and be a herding dog. He laid quietly by the gate while all the coop entry shenanigans were taking place – up until it was the Dominique’s turn to finally go in, then he was stalking her almost like he was trying to round her up!

I’ll tell ya, I was pretty happy to close that coop door tonight! I am hoping that tomorrow night will be more natural for the old guard to go inside. Now, it is just a mystery what tomorrow will bring. I feel pretty certain I don’t have to worry about any Pyr feather plucking before I get down to the yard at least!

SO…. my question to the masses is… Are there any Great Pyrenees being used as Livestock Guardians that are only protecting chickens??? Does everyone out there also have goats/sheep/etc. to help keep the Pyr company? I’m wondering if Atlas is just lonely/bored. I’m not ready for goats, infrastructure-wise. I guess I could put my boys on shifts to occupy the dog during the day…

Until next time… Here are some pics from around the farm:

: The Black Stars had a fascination with Atlas’ crate area for some reason.

: Penelope even hopped on top for a bit (but no escape so no problem)

: You know it’s Fall when the boys take to raking leaves – unprompted!

: The girls found a nice corner of the yard to dust bathe in.

: Protect the chicks. Protect the chicks. Gotta remember that is my job… NOT PLAY with the chicks!

: This boy LOVES the little ones. He is perfectly at home inside the CamperCoop with the chicks.

: Learning to roost already (but we discovered some motivation from pecking at the window tint… that won’t do!)

: Does Atlas know something I don’t about the forecast?

Good Dogs and Up-cycling

My view from the car when we got home - Atlas sitting at the gate. Good boy, Atlas! — My view from the car when we got home – Atlas sitting at the gate. Good boy, Atlas!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we made a quick overnight trip to Atlanta for Jackson’s IronKids Alpharetta triathlon. My folks were generous enough to volunteer to get up early Saturday and Sunday to take care of chicken/dog duty for us while we were gone.

I am so excited to report that Atlas did GREAT while we were gone! As of today, he is on Day 4 of ZERO crate time. Yes, he still has moments where the flitty hens will catch his attention, but he is maturing enough to stop. He runs, but is clearly not running to chase, or more importantly, catch! It’s more like he does this bunny hop play move to entertain himself as much as anything. It is so nice to be able to relax a little about the activities in the yard during the day.

Livestock Guardian in Training - Too LGiT to Quit! — Livestock Guardian in Training – Too LGiT to Quit!

I wanted to go ahead get a post out today, as I feel very much like I am sitting in the calm before the storm. We got notification that our 6 originally scheduled chicks were shipped Monday morning. Since they didn’t come today, I expect them tomorrow. The ladies at the post office are to call me when they get there.

We are excited and anxious and nervous and really just looking forward to their arrival. BUT, after a relatively calm week, critter-wise, I do acknowledge that we are introducing yet another variable into our equation.

On the plus side, these 4-week old girls will have separate quarters for a while. The original plan was to have them in the original coop that we built. But that has pretty much been taken over by laying, and soon-to-be-laying, hens. So, we found ourselves in need of a way to keep these gals separated but still in the yard so everyone could get used to everyone else while the littles finished filling out their feathers and size.

I was planning to build a simple A-frame chicken tractor, something like this:

But, my mom remembered that my brother had a spare truck camper shell – turns out to have been from a truck that Jerry’s Uncle Don had – that would make a nice topper for a chicken run. So, we put our pens to white board and started working out how that might work. Upcycling is the in thing now, right??

Camper shell loaded and on the move to the "building site" — Camper shell loaded and on the move to the “building site”

I will tell you, I almost bailed several times during this project. What seems like a simple concept can get tricky in the implementation. In hindsight, it would have probably been simpler to go with the chicken tractor, but if we had we wouldn’t have the all-in-the-family CamperCoop™. Ultimately, we want wheels on it to be able to move it around in the yard, but for now, it just takes a few strong folks to move it around. It is designed to easily separate camper shell from base so that it can be removed from the yard and stored once the chicks are out and about. If it does become a more permanent structure in the hen yard, it definitely needs a coat of Barn Red paint in order to have it not stick out SO much like a piece of backwoods yard art. 🙂

But, it should do the job – giving these 6 chicks plenty of room to scratch around and stay safe from an overly playful livestock guardian and overly friendly (?) established flock.

Here are some pics of the CamperCoop™ project.

Jackson learned how to man the rivet gun when we installed the roof vent.

It's all in the family: Ryan and Grandpa attaching hardware cloth to the window frames — It’s all in the family: Ryan and Grandpa attaching hardware cloth to the window frames

Ta - da! Almost complete enough for the chicks to arrive. — Ta – da! Almost complete enough for the chicks to arrive.

Until the next adventure…

Caught Up… For now.

01-20140908_103826 — Growing, growing, growing…. Yes this doggie’s growing!

This has been a good week. We actually got caught up on all of our school work so that we ended the week “on schedule.” The boys worked really hard and we were able to be much more efficient since I was able to put Atlas in the crate when he would start showing too much playfulness towards his charges. It really helps with our productivity to be able to remove the distraction of having to go check on them every few minutes! As much as I truly enjoy just sitting in my chair in the yard watching these critters, there is schoolwork and housework and farmwork to be done.

By the end of the week, Atlas had earned much longer stints out of the crate and out among his birds. In fact, Friday, he only went in for a short period in the morning and then was out the WHOLE day without incident. Good boy, Atlas!

What a good dog! Out among the chickens... doing his job nicely here. — What a good dog! Out among the chickens… doing his job nicely here.

I’m typing this as we are headed down to Atlanta for Jackson to compete with his Aero Youth Triathlon Club in the IronKids Alpharetta. He has worked so hard this summer and improved so much! I am excited for him to have this opportunity. To be honest, at the beginning of the week, I wasn’t sure how we were going to do it. I am so grateful to my parents – they are going to take care of things for us as we make this super-fast trip. I just pray that Atlas will cooperate. When we left this morning, he was out and just napping while the ladies were out doing their typical scratch, scratch, peck, peck. Hopefully, the day will continue, and they won’t cause any drama for the Grands 🙂 Update: Just got a text from home… everyone is accounted for and tucked in for the night! SUCCESS!!!

I am grateful to have a flexible nature! When we initially planned this trip, I was going to leverage my homeschool flexibility and head down to Atlanta early in the week to hit some Civil War historical field trip opportunities. That, however, assumed that the new chickens weren’t going to be so “new” to Atlas and be seen as such a novelty. Once I realized there was going to be more integration training necessary I realized we’d just have to make it a quick trip. C’est la vie.

I did make an important observation about the interactions of my farm critters this week. The new hens don’t do themselves any favors. Atlas, the Livestock Guardian in Training (a.k.a puppy) likes to play. When they go flitting across the yard flapping their wings all willy-nilly, it is sort of like calling “Hey Atlas, catch us if you can!” Of course he’s going to run after them! Yes, he has to be corrected, but it is easy to see why these new birds have presented such a training opportunity. They are also loud. Lots of chattery cackling going on when they are in the yard. SO different from the other two.

Meet Lightning - Ryan's name for the other bird hurt in the initial introductory melee. Teaching Atlas that us holding the birds does not make them toys is another challenge in and of itself! — Meet Lightning – Ryan’s name for the other bird hurt in the initial introductory melee. Teaching Atlas that us holding the birds does not make them toys is another challenge in and of itself!

The old guard are very laid back and pretty quiet. Except, they (especially the red one) are definitely making it known they are higher up the pecking order. “Red” will make a beeline across the yard sometimes when the other hens are at the feeder. No drama, just when she shows up, they scatter. And, they stalk Atlas’ food dish. They both do it. When they hear the food rattle in the pan, they come just as sure as Atlas (if not more). They will pace around while he eats, and the moment he leaves they are in. I pick it up when he’s done because I think it would get expensive to feed the chickens dog food. Thanks to Elaine’s suggestion, I started feeding him at night after all the hens are up so he can eat in peace.

Boldly going where no chicken should really go.

Stalking for the good stuff... puppy kibble is wayyy better than this chicken feed she gives us! — Stalking for the good stuff… puppy kibble is wayyy better than this chicken feed she gives us!

This week will be yet another learning experience… we are expecting our original chickens – 6 4-week old juvenile birds: 3 buff orpingtons and 3 rhode island reds. They’ll be in a separate run/coop in the yard which should make it easier. “Should” being the operative word… If I’ve learned nothing else, it is that nothing ever goes as planned/expected 🙂 But, you know, life is still better when you’re up with the chickens!

Have some more pics to close out this post…