- Sep 18, 2010
- 188
- 2
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Hi,
It's been a difficult year for chickens at my house. Although I had a double layer of wire around the bottom of the chicken pen, and wire on the roof, AND wire buried around the perimeter of the pen, Mother Raccoon (we think), and her babies stuck their paws under and through the wire and lured 4 chicks to their death by pulling them through the wire. Apparently she wiggled her claws and they found the wiggling irresistible. You can see the hole just right for a raccoon paw, and a trail of feathers on the outside where they were pulled through. I am certain no raccoons got inside the pen.And this happened during the day!!! I'd heard about this happening but thought it really only applied to chickens sleeping near wire. All those cliches you hear about bird brains, well, they are true!!! Anyway, one chick was lured over and apparently the raccoon grabbed its leg, but the chick wrenched its body free, leaving the raccoon with the leg. Now I have a one-legged chick. This is no longer an emergency, since it happened 1 1/2 weeks ago. I gave it a round of antibiotics. It didn't bleed much, and is eating and drinking. I figure that it would have died by now if it was going to. It moves around by a combination of flapping its wings and hopping like it's on a pogo stick. Does anyone have a one-legged chicken? How is it? It's about 6 weeks old now.
It's been a difficult year for chickens at my house. Although I had a double layer of wire around the bottom of the chicken pen, and wire on the roof, AND wire buried around the perimeter of the pen, Mother Raccoon (we think), and her babies stuck their paws under and through the wire and lured 4 chicks to their death by pulling them through the wire. Apparently she wiggled her claws and they found the wiggling irresistible. You can see the hole just right for a raccoon paw, and a trail of feathers on the outside where they were pulled through. I am certain no raccoons got inside the pen.And this happened during the day!!! I'd heard about this happening but thought it really only applied to chickens sleeping near wire. All those cliches you hear about bird brains, well, they are true!!! Anyway, one chick was lured over and apparently the raccoon grabbed its leg, but the chick wrenched its body free, leaving the raccoon with the leg. Now I have a one-legged chick. This is no longer an emergency, since it happened 1 1/2 weeks ago. I gave it a round of antibiotics. It didn't bleed much, and is eating and drinking. I figure that it would have died by now if it was going to. It moves around by a combination of flapping its wings and hopping like it's on a pogo stick. Does anyone have a one-legged chicken? How is it? It's about 6 weeks old now.
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