ShiftyShickens
Songster
so awhile back i had posted questions about the dangers of opossums. having taken care of a few over time i had felt confident my flock was safe, but alas... yesterday morning seemed normal with feeding time at dawn as usual, but as roll-call carried on it became clear someone was missing and in fact with that small notion i began to really look around to find to my horror entire tuffs of feathers mottled in various areas that clearly had been torn out. poor girl. Ms. clucks was found shortly thereafter under the stairs of the coop completely mangled, she must have fought very hard because the fight started on one side of the coop and ended outside by what i could tell. she was a real sweetie, bless her poor chicken soul. so instantly i go on the hunt and in all the scoping i actually found a tooth! ha! serves him right! among the carnage i inspected the rest of the flock to find that nearly every bird had been attacked,with a large patch of feathers being completely ripped out on my smallest mama's back. i was livid to say the least. now we move on to booga-jin. booga-jin is my breeder stock pure barred rock cockrel that is such a sweetie, nicest chicken by standard( since he isn't fully grown yet and mean ) and apparently a bad to the bone bird. he is totally messed up ( keep in mind he's three months old ) has gashes on his entire head from comb to wattle, the whole comb is black and blue from bruising, he's missing feathers on his front, back, sides, and wings. he was covered in blood on his feet, and i mean COVERED his legs were almost black with the blood of the enemy. something tells me he's the reason why there was a tooth in the coop...oh and he chipped the front tip of his beak off. it's gone! he is messed up! but still eating and drinking and socializing like nothing ever happened! savage! anyways. before nightfall i locked fifteen birds in the brooder cage since i knew it was completely safe, and waited. first check of the night yielded the culprit, a huge opossum nasty and wounded from the night before but still back for more reaching into the brooder cage grabbing whatever he could......big mistake buddy. in fact the last mistake he ever made as the only swing-able object in the coop is the large hatchet i use for culling. wasn't expecting to catch him like that but there was no way i was letting him scott-free. NO WAY. my girls were skittish all day since the night before, for good reason. but once i dispatched the nasty in question and they saw it happen right on the side of the cage they began to coo and caw happily and even started flying out of the sky-port to greet me and peck at my shoes. safe again treats and love were administered properly, along with medical care for jin and lady. the family may have lost a wonderful member, but the enemy did not go unpunished and for that i say victory!
