Carnage in the Coop

I arrived home today from work to find one of my chickens dead, another suffering horribly from bite wounds, and another in shock...and the other five very nervous. Before I could figure out what happened, the hen with the obvious bite marks died. I buried the two corpses and as I was trying to get the other hen to be a little more responsive, I heard something in the coop.

I knew the coop should have been empty because all of the birds were accounted for in the pen. I opened the door to find a small dog in the coop. I was tempted for a moment to get my gun...but opted instead for a few hard whacks with a nearby stick that left it running out of the yard. I hope that the dog doesn't return...if it does, then no guarantee about the gun. I really don't like the idea of shooting the dog...but if it is going to be a repeat offender, that is the likely outcome.

The hen shown above from a few years ago was the one who was laying down in shock when I arrived. One of the two birds that were killed was one of these chicks all grown up (another Black Jersey Giant), and the other was a Barred Rock hen.

Not that way that I wanted to start my weekend at all. Granted that I had thought about cutting down on the number of birds that I have, but not in this manner. I hope the other hen recovers....morning will tell.