Chicken Patrol


It’s two in the morning and I’ve got chicken patrol duty.

We’ve had two weeks of chicken massacres here at the homestead and we are just not taking it laying down any more. Maggie just finished her shift for a few hours around midnight and after we all were summoned out to the poultry barn on Jessy’s alarm, we finished up securing the area and I offered a round of time as they got some sleep. I was already in bed for a bit until I was awoken to the alarm around one in the morning.

It’s just dreadful. Over the last couple weeks we have had 20 birds killed. TWENTY!!!! The possum we caught was responsible for at least 5 or 6 of them and then in his place, a coon is ravaging the place and has killed the rest. We caught him in the act a couple nights ago, trying to carry off Cruella, one of our hens! Maggie and Jessy went out after hearing the terrible ruckus and spooked the coon and he let her go! She about scared Maggie to death as she dashed out of the tall grass into safety! She was wounded, a big gash on her face and a skin wound under her wing, but after a couple days in the dog crate hospital she is back with her flock.

Last night we came home to find the poultry barn flock all outside in the run yard, huddled in a corner. That old coon had managed to get in there and kill a hen. They were too terrified to go inside and roost. So we spent many hours out there making it super secure and herding them back inside. It was awful, our lovely tame birds were terrified and if we would even touch them to move them into the coop, they squawked and screamed like they were being torn apart.

I don’t blame then, they are frightened.

Two night before when it attacked the chicken tractor in the garden, we ended up moving the remaining twenty one birds to our garage. We couldn’t leave them out in the tractor, and there was no other safe place to park them. They are only day or a week away from processing, and it’s just dreadful to have to see the carnage that the attacks have left. What bothers me the most is that the coon just eats part of them, and leaves the carcass behind. Such a waste of the birds.

We have had lots of suggestions of guns and such, but the biggest problem is that we’ve only seen it once… during the attack on Cruella. We’re sure its a coon, it’s so smart and crafty, and just keeps hitting our flocks, searching out the most clever ways to get in to them. It’s finding all the weakness and flaws of our coops for us, but the cost is high.

Twelve of the deaths were young birds, pullets. Six were the meat birds. And two were grown hens. It seems to have a little harder time with the full grown hens. Our rooster brothers in the poultry barn each have feathers missing and some light wounds on their chests and flanks. I believe they have been trying to protect their ladies. Thank goodness… it’s why I love roosters. But still, they are no match to a strong, big coon with a mission.

Been just wracking my brain and searching wisdom from friends and the internet on how to stop the carnage. We’re going to try trapping him, going to find out about borrowing a trap tomorrow. Like I said, shooting would be an option, but we have only seen him once. We’re about to start setting out a plate of food each night, and see if we can’t lure him to the place over and over and then use that “training” for the trap or something else. That something else might be someone with a little more firepower than a stick and a fishing net. I’ve had a few offers of folks wanting a little target practice and I would like to be able to oblige them.

If I sound a little blood thirsty, I am. It’s personal now. This is not just a pass by grab and dash this is whole out war. I’m tired of the girls and I and the dogs being wakened by the terrified squawks of our bird friends. I very much dislike going out and finding a dead bird and feathers everywhere and our remaining hens terrified to even roost in their coops. I hate that we have to lock everyone up like some high security prison. It’s just wearing thin on us all.

At the very least, we are certainly getting a tough education on just how harsh predators can be on the small homestead flock. A livestock guardian dog is something that we might need. Granted, it would take a while to grow a pup and all, but right now, we’re just doing our best to protect what’s left. We’ve installed more lights, have tighten up all the coops considerably and have a few radios on talk shows keeping the areas under noise. We’ll be retrofitting the chicken tractor to have a wired in bottom. It’s so heavy, you would think it would be too heavy to lift, but it just never occurred to us that they might dig underneath, through the hard soil, to get to their captive lunch, but they did. Or he did.

I’m thinking about how to make a very secure coop in the near future. Something to house our pullets in safely, if we ever have anymore! I’ve got 42 eggs in our homemade incubator… I hope in a couple weeks we have a box of chicks! And once the meat birds are gone to the processor, that will be half of the birds that are luring that varmint into our fold. Any suggestions would be welcome, as this has been a major challenge for us! So heartbreaking, we love all our chickens, we really do. It killed Floppy Chicken and I loved her. She was our only white egg layer and such a sweet character. She was small and scrawny, so I’m sure that didn’t help, but still, it just makes me so sad. And all our sweet little homegrown babies… oh my, it makes me teary to think about the horror they had to go through when this beast was picking them off one at a time in the dark.

Like I said, it’s personal now.

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About Mobymom

the banjo player for Deepwater Bluegrass, and the editor of BuckeyeBluegrass.com as well as the main graphic designer of the Westvon Publishing empire. She is a renaissance woman of many talents and has two lovely daughters and a rehab mobile home homestead to raise.

Comments

Chicken Patrol — 11 Comments

  1. Never believe a coon cannot manage to figure out how to do something. The reason I live with a house chicken (and they really can become an entertaining pet!) is because a year ago a coon killed her 5 coop-mates all in one night. My coop is a sturdy storage building…stupid me forgot to close and lock their little trap door

    • Oh my goodness!!!! What an ordeal! I have been reading and searching about them and my goodness. They are tough little dudes and super clever!!! I’m so surprised we caught one first try…. I’m sure if there are any others they are wise to us now! Thanks for sharing!!!!!

  2. (Oops…a continuation here)

    At this very moment I have an evil raccoon in a live trap on my porch. I am waiting for it to be the right time to drive it over to my son’s house where he will do away with it. Last year I caught 2, in a borrowed homemade trap, but a third one ripped the trap apart and escaped. This one has been so evil this spring, that I just purchased my own $80 Tomahawk trap.

    So I call this ‘coon Eighty Bucks. It started by coming in to the house via the cat port hole, a 5 inch by 8 inch opening, and ate a pie plate full of cat food and took a poop on the floor. So when I closed that up nights, ( like, then what is the point of having it?) Eighty Bucks tore through my kitchen window screen. I repaired the screen and re-enforced it with with chicken netting, but Eighty Bucks just tore it apart again. Finally I had to take the screen off entirely. Thankfully it cannot reach any other windows, although I have heard it trying–clawing on the vinyl siding. Since it had not found another way inside, it had been climbing my TV antenna pole and running back and forth across the roof in the night, and scratching in gutters and the soffit, I guess looking for an entry point. I won’t even tell you about all the potted plants,etc., this cute-but-nasty bugger has destroyed.

    The reign of terror ended last night. But I will reset the trap for many nights, maybe all summer, in case a relative takes Eighty Buck’s place, which would be highly likely.

    I can’t see where the chicken tractor can ever be an overnight thing. It is probably what convinced the coon to focus on your place. And when this one is gone, there will be another to take it’s place. They can seem like evil geniuses. My heart goes out to you in your battle.

  3. oh my! 20 birds?
    We lost one to a critter. One was an accidental death… I can’t imagine losing all your meat birds!

    I hope you catch the culprit.

    • Well, we only lost 6 meat birds, the rest were all laying hens and pullets to bulk up the laying flock. Still, it was no fun at ALL…. We have learned our lesson and are super diligent now. Our coops look like Alcatraz in the evening!

  4. Oh my – I hope you get the coon. About a month ago, I opened the front door and there was a possum eating the cat food. My husband returned with a crow bar, hit it in the head and it ran into a corner. Killing the thing was horrific without a gun. The weapons were crowbar, 2×4 with a nail in it, shovel, and knife. HORRIFIC! They don’t die easy! We talked more about getting a gun at that point, but were reluctant since we have small children. A couple weeks later, a coon was eating the cat food, then we found 5 ducks and 2 chicks dead. We got the highest powered air rifle we could get without FOID card. The next time we hunted! It came back for the cat food and we followed it. It stupidly and lucklily went into the pole barn and was cornered where we had some target practice. We have not had any problems since. Isn’t it awful how they just murder them without really eating the darn thing???!!! Hope you get the darn thing soon!

  5. I’ve found that the best thing to bait your trap with for a coon is canned tuna. It works well for us.

  6. Morning #2 and I got another one. I baited the trap with marshmallows the first night and bread crusts last night. (Uh, because I made rice crispy treats out of the rest of the ‘mallows–I really thought I’d only catch the one.)

    • Haha…. maybe the marshmellow treats would have worked too! We used sardines… apparently they are irresistible to coons!

  7. Oh god we had problems like crazy when the chickens were in the old coup before we got fed up and built the new one. Racoons, possums, weasels, you name it, it was breaking in. But when the bear broke in and ate four bags of chicken feed over two nights we decided something had to give. So we tore down the old half rotted coup and built a new one with a full size metal house security door and haven’t lost a bird in it since. Hopefully you can can fortify your chicken castle against the evil invaders.

    • It’s amazing how one varmint can make three gals work so much harder at making everything safe and secure!!!!!