we have some raccoons. started out that dh killed a huge one a few months ago, it tore the door off a temporary coop(it's a ware, but didn't expect the coon) and pulled out my poor wheaten ameraucana hen that was inside. well, it must have been a momma cuz we started seeing 3 little ones wandering around a few days later, dh felt horrible. They started eating the leftover chicken food from the day and stayed away from the coops. I know we should have just dispatched them but we felt bad
. One disappeared a couple weeks ago(probably neighbor dog got it) and we were down to two. Three more wandered in now, up to 5
. Dh was trying to trap them but it didn't work. We got home late tonight and they were all smack dab in the middle of 5 coops/runs, just starting towards my polish, it was still a little light out. Dh grabbed his rifle and headed out, shot one. He wanted to make sure it was dead(felt bad enough, he didn't want it to suffer) so he shot it a second time. He was getting ready to get the other one(was the original pair) and the neighbor started screaming. Dh turned and through the woods the neighbor was going crazy saying they were calling the game warden, he was poaching, etc.
. It just so happens to be deer season, but bow season
. Dh said he wasn't doing anything wrong and the neighbor asked what he "had back there". Dh said we had coons and they were killing the chickens. Neighbor meekly said oh and left. Unfortunately the second one made it into a tree and dh didn't want to take a shot that wasn't great so we are down to 4. I know we should have taken care of the young ones right away, and rationally I know they won't survive the winter. They survive on chicken food, we have had chickens for 4 years and nothing other than crows ever take it. They would have just starved, or killed our chickens.....
sad thing is we have lived here 9 years and would have thought they(neighbors) would know my dh would never do something like that
we have had a lot of predators come through, skunks, opossum, coyote, fox etc but the only one up till now that killed anything were the daytime hunters.....everything else has just moved on. hoping the rest leave but not holding my breath....
sad thing is we have lived here 9 years and would have thought they(neighbors) would know my dh would never do something like that
we have had a lot of predators come through, skunks, opossum, coyote, fox etc but the only one up till now that killed anything were the daytime hunters.....everything else has just moved on. hoping the rest leave but not holding my breath....
