Sunday at mid-day I went out to check on my chickens and discovered a little white polish hen had been dismembered outside of my chicken run. Her remains had been pulled though a very small hole in the corner of the run. Immediately I thought that it was a coon, but then thought that a coon wouldn't fit through that hole. Tuesday I found out that I was right when I walked to the run and found a "friendly" cat that my mother-in-law feeds and looks after, eating a second Polish chicken. So I set out to kill this cat. Last night I got it with a pellet gun. I immediately felt relieved and thought that I could sleep good again. Until last night. Right before bedtime I heard the chickens making a rucous so I ran out and found two raccoons by the run. One climbing down from the top and the other on the ground killing another one of my polish hens, outside of the run. I am so freaking disgusted with this. They're 8 months old and I've never had a problem until now. 3 chickens in 3 days. From a cat to racoons. Makes me sick. Could it be that they're now getting attacked since I recently got rid of the extra 5 roosters that were in there with them? Were they protecting them? There are 3 roosters still in there and when I found the raccoons, the 3 roosters were on the roost SLEEPING!! It appears that my 2 turkeys tried to fend them off. One is limping and the other has a gash in her shin. This is not how I wanted Thanksgiving to kick off...
Anyhow, now that I'm off my rant, Happy Thanksgiving Day Everyone!!
Anyhow, now that I'm off my rant, Happy Thanksgiving Day Everyone!!