Diary of a Poultry Farmer: Small or big, beef up security on your farm

“Jane has disappeared,” Cleophas, my farm manager, told me on phone the other day, sounding anxious.

I had just returned to the house after taking my son, Baraka, and daughter, Amani, out for their usual Sunday rendezvous when I got his call.

This was unusual because, in most cases, we communicate through text messages.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I had just prepared dinner and took food to her room when she bolted through the door,” he explained.

“What about Jack?” I asked. By now, I was almost shouting on top of my voice and Baraka insisted to know what had happened.

When I told him that Jane had disappeared, he vented, “Dad, we have to call the police immediately.” Of course, I wasn’t going to involve the police.

“How can I help with the situation?” I asked Cleophas.

“You need to come over and help out,” he said. This was not practical considering that it was going to take me a minimum of three hours to get to the farm.

Instead, I advised him to leave the kennel’s door open for the night. I was relieved when the following morning I received this message from him. “Jane returned at about 9 pm and she is safely locked up.”

If you are still bewildered, Jane and Jack are black German shepherds I brought to the farm recently to beef up security following theft of chickens in the neighbourhood.

I didn’t know why the robber barons would target poultry yards until I met Jennifer Wangechi Mwangi of Kieni South Constituency in Nyeri County, who has been a victim twice.

“They arrived at night during Christmas and on New Year’s Eve, and took away 180 of our Kienyeji chickens that we had planned to sell that season at Sh1,000 each,” she lamented.

DEPENDS ON DOG BREED AND TRAINING

“We had cars, cows and goats on the farm, but they were interested only in chickens,” she added.

This last statement made me more curious. “How come you didn’t hear the chicken clucking or the dogs barking?”

“These guys are smart. The first thing they do is to throw poisoned meat to the dogs. They then enter the coop and spray the birds with ‘doom’ to sedate them before carting them away. They are then slaughtered and sold to hotels.”

I got the point, but pressed on, “Did you report to the police?”

“We reported as a matter of procedure. However, if you care to know, my husband is an ex-policeman and we are not very far from Kiganjo Police Station. That is how daring they can get,” she said.

For now, I am a very worried farmer. I need to train Jane and Jack not to fall to the intruder’s bait.

Another thing is teach them how to live amicably with the chickens because I have watched Jane who exhibits some predatory behaviours.

If you recall, I had narrated the story of Chief, the Rottweiler that brought fleas to my farm. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of him because he never learnt to live amicably with the females.

To find out if dogs can co-exist with chicken in the same yard, I consulted a dog trainer. She told me, “It all depends on the breed and training to make it overcome its natural instincts.”

Another thing is that if you are leaving in Nairobi County, you will need a licence to keep a dog. You will also need to ensure they are vaccinated against common diseases like rabies. The licence costs Sh1,000 and is renewed annually.

Now, you will have to wait a little longer to know if I managed to get Jane and Jack to love the chickens and keep thieves at bay. If this happens, I will one day write a children’s best seller similar to the ‘The Chicken and the Dog’, that fun-filled children’s book series about two urban chickens, Crimson and Clover and their friend, Sean the Dog.

All said, never take the security of your poultry farm lightly; chickens are precious, few keep them but many want to profit from them.