Luckily the big guy is in a different coop; him and the other Blue Orps (well black and splash Orps!) are in my most secure coop up at our new house. They're under lockdown. I moved the remaining ducks and turkeys, and shut the chickens up in the house part for now.
I set a Havahart trap with some fish I caught in it, so hopefully there will be a little masked critter in there.
You know? We had that happen to some of our chickens when I was growing up...the breasts ate out of them while they were still roosting! It was a big ol' possum!
I hadn't seen a raccoon up close before. Those teeth are huge! The funny thing is the cowboys here seem to be taking it personally that the birds got killed, even though they give my DH hell anytime they can about being a chicken farmer LOL There's a vendetta against the coons now.
We lost a duck last year to a coon and the son of gun came back 4 days later for another duck dinner.. Noah was on Duck duty (sleeping on the couch) after 2am he hollared Grandma something's after my ducks... I run out of the house in my night gown yelling ...
no glasses on, bare foot, to scare what ever it is.... (I'm sure the site I was scared it plenty)
I had lights on around the pen.. I see this coon inside trying to find a place to climb out of.. the ducks are next to the pen door so I open it to let them out.. DH comes out with his jeans on and got the ducks in the carrier cage. Then goes to get his rifle,,, shot it with a 270 . No more duck dinners for that one.
Don't care for coons or opossums either.. So I'm defantly all for getting even in that game.....