Chicken Thief

 

Looking back at the previous posts, it appears that NorthernDaddy neglected to write about the raccoon that decimated the Northerns' chicken flock.

 

This Spring, NorthernMommy and Daddy decided to butcher the chicken flock. The birds were getting older, laying less eggs, and one or more of the hens was eating what few eggs were being laid. Time to fill the freezer and start over with a new run of chicks.

 

The new chicks were brought home, and housed in the brooder (back of the pick-up truck, again) until they (quickly) outgrew their living space. Then it was time for them to move out to the big house and learn how to live in a real chicken's home. They did quite well for a few weeks, until they had a visitor. Their visitor came for dinner, and invited seven of the chicks to the party.

 

Based on the crime scene, it appeared that the raider that killed the chicks was either a skunk or a raccoon. (As a side note, if you can read the predator signatures at a kill, you might have been keeping chickens for too long...)

 

One lonely chick remained in the coop. NorthernMommy wanted to move the poor little girl over to live with the ducks in their house, but NorthernDaddy is against mixing bird types (possible spread of disease), and he didn't want the poor chick to get its feathered butt beat down by the mean ol' ducks. He did, however, want to find out for sure what animal was responsible for the slaughter, so he set up the trail camera inside the coop.

 

This is what the camera revealed:

That's a photo of a raccoon inside the coop, reaching up to snatch the last of the chicks. Seven killed in one night, one removed the next night. Darn bandit.

 

NorthernDaddy has a new hobby: trapping varmints. He set a trap inside the coop and baited it with cat food. No activity recorded on the camera for more than a week.

 

Moved the camera outside the coop to get an idea of what was prowling the yard.

 

Sunday morning:

Moved the camera again to see if Bandit was visiting the coop. Monday morning:

New tactic: moved the trap outside the coop and baited it with marshmallows. The theory is that the trap being closed inside the coop was spooking the coon, who didn't want to get caught in a confined space. The marshmallows will hopefully attract the raccoon without drawing in any neighborhood cats or skunks (although catching a skunk is also high on the list).

 

Stay tuned for varmint updates....