Preditor/Prey

I went out to the chicken pen this afternoon to feed, water, and talk to my little creatures. Do you know what I found?? Feathers. Lots of feathers. Not attached to chickens, either. That normally means that some poor defenseless chicken has given his (or her) life for the benefit of some wild creature. Not that I have anything against wild creatures. Far from it. I love wild creatures. Just not when they chew on my babies. And if I am correct, these wild creatures that chomped on my chickens last night were raccoons. I'm not fond of raccoons. If you have ever seen a raccoon up close and personal, you will know they are not a pretty sight. They've got some gnarly teeth, and are uuuuugly!

Of course, I walked around the inside the pen, and found what I was afraid of. There was a feathered, wet carcass of a young chicken. Not a pretty sight. It was one of my roosters I raised this spring from an egg one of our older hens laid. I was sad. I know I have lots of chickens, and it was a rooster, but really! What a horrid way to die. I want to rip to pieces that raccoon that ate him. I'm normally a peace loving woman, until somebody messes with my animals. Then I want to rip them to shreds. I would go into greater detail, but I like to think this is a family friendly place, so I won't. Course, I guess this is a family friendly place because there's only one person that reads it, and she's family! But I digress.

So what's a girl to do when the He-Man Dude is gone, and chickens are dying? Ahhh, enter if you will, to the 21st Century! I sent a text to my hubby, and he suggested replacing the batteries on the hot wire, then check the wire all around the pen. And go into town tomorrow morning to buy a live raccoon trap. (They are bigger than cat traps.) Luckily for me, I have D batteries in the frig! So off I go, and replace the batteries on the charger. Then I went inside the pen to check the wire. This whole time, of course, I have been talking to my chickens, and they are acting like they want me to get off their turf. I was almost finished walking around, and I saw Speedy, our biggest cat, outside the fence. He was acting funky, so I just kinda watched him, and still worked at the same time. Pretty soon, he hops up over the chicken wire and through the bigger hog wire, and into the chicken pen, skipping the whole hot wire thing completely. Uh oh! Maybe it wasn't the raccoon!

NOW what's a girl to do?