Raccoon Anyone?

The baby monitor paid for itself last night...'er early this morning. The chickens kept acting up last night and this morning. William went to check on them, gun in hand. He couldn't see anything to make the chickens squawk and carry on but he did say that they were not in the coop and were acting nervous. About three o'clock a hen let out a squawk that could only mean one thing.....Something had a hold on her.

We both jumped out of bed running for the back door. When we got to the pen the rooster and his ladies were all hugging the door of the pen. With flashlights we searched around the pen and couldn't see anything but then it moved. A raccoon was in the hen house.

William shot it with the shotgun. The thing acted like nothing happened. So William got a pistol and gave it a couple of loads of lead. After the fourth shot that hit the animal it finally succumbed to lead poisoning.

We have wire around the hen house. We have wire across the top of the chicken run. We have six foot wire around the run and a door to the pen made of lattice with wire over the lattice. Still the rascals get into the chickens.

They've about wiped out our flock again. There's three hens left in that pen. Well there were three hens....one escaped when William opened the door to get a shot off at the invader and we haven't found her yet. I hate to think about her being a late night snack for another animal. But it could be.

I wish people would take up "Coon Hunting" again. Maybe it would thin out the population a little. William killed nine last fall but we can't tell that it's put a dent in the number of those rascally raccoons. Personally, I'm tired of feeding them the costly meals they're having at our expense.

Any way, it's nice to be able to catch them when they do invade our chicken pens! But I have to tell you that William and I both need a nap! "Coon Hunting" is not our cup of tea! Not when it takes away from our sleeping.