We have been very blessed for the past three years of keeping chickens to never have a problem with predators. Well last night that all changed. Hubby had been asleep since like 8:30 (we all had a big weekend) and I was watching some television. Around 11:00 chaos ensued in one of the chicken coops. You could hear the cries of the chickens very clearly. Hubby immediately jumped from the bed with no shoes and ran outside in the snow to find a opossum in one of the coops with a chicken in his mouth. The handiest thing around was a shovel which was used to um.... dispose of the culprit. Luckily only one chicken was hurt. By flashlight we looked her over and found no blood, marks, etc. Today she is gingerly walking but by all accounts seems to have cheated death. It was very scary and I am sure very traumatizing to the chickens. Even though our yard is fenced we will need to start shutting all the coop doors again. Looking forward to a more relaxing night tonight.
Update: A day and a half later tan chicken is having problems. Infection has set in to a wound I have yet to locate. Gave her some bounce back and will continue to do that the remainder of the afternoon. More than likely hubby will have to put her out of her misery tonight.
1 comment:
Not a fan of the opossum, they creap me out the way they hiss and drool. That is impressive your husband was able to get it with a shovel. Glad your chicken had an extra life.
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