So everyday I sit here and read about all these people losing their chickens to predators and thank my lucky stars I have a predator proof coop-----if I close the freaking door at night
this evening we got company and after they left -10:30-my husband looks at me and says you didn't get the girls up" I freak and grab my 357pistol (which only had birdshot in it
) and get our dog Morgan and we make our way down to the barn to close them up. As I get there a coon comes walking out the door--after sucking my breath in and assessing the situation(which included feathers all over the ground) I fire off two shots at him as he goes scampering around the corner with Morgan on his trail. I run in and check the girls--they were all there but one--ol poopy butt-I call her---she was given to me by a friend at christmas along with two others -one died and this one doesn't lay and always has the runs-hence her poopy butt-I have been wanting to get rid of her and just haven't done it. She has been with the rest of the chickens for months and none of the others have the runs. I was told on here since they came from tractor supply they are probably red sex links and don't live long and tend to get cancer so I am assuming that could be her problem-it's just her and another hen I got from the friend and the other hen is fine and lays everyday-they are problaby 3 years old now--the rest of my girls are 12 BO and 3BR and 1 BO rooster. the will be 20 weeks old the third week of august. I think it could have been way worse than it was but here is what I believe was my lifesaver(for tonight) 2 or 3 of the young girls and the rooster along with poopy butt have been wanting to roost in the nest boxes --I have nice store bought boxes that you can close the fronts of if you fold up the foothold-so I have been doing that after my egg in the morning so they have to get on their roosts at night- I built some new higher roosts for them last week so they have been liking that. If they had been on the old roosts or some of them in the laying boxes they would not have been able to get away from him. Anyway, I lock them up and go to the house and load my shotgun and put a small 25 pistol in my ankle holster and go back to the barn to wait him out and see if he comes back--I get down there and all is quiet so I start tracking feathers with a spotlight---Lo and behold I find ol poopy butt about 500 feet from the barn out in the field all hunkered down--she didn't mind me picking her up and taking her back to the coop and I didn't mind her ol poopy butt on me
she seems no worse for wear other than a few missing feathers--now i will never have the heart to get rid of her.
poor thing going thru that. so I was so happy that I cancelled my coonhunt--tommorrow is another day!!!!!
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