Playing Possum

This morning the oldest was helping me in the garden and he dragged a trash can over for us to load with dead weeds and grass.  He quickly freaked out saying there was something in the trash can.  I was a safe distance away, so I told him to figure out what it was.  He knocked it down and there laid the possum.

While he did look fierce with those teeth, he wasn't moving at all and the longer I stood there staring into his face, the more pity I took on him.  I told the oldest that he couldn't kill him, as I thought for sure it would go running away as soon as the coast was clear and our chickens would be fine since we were around.

An hour later we had to leave, but I still thought the thing would run away when our noise was gone.

New predator

We have lost about 1 chicken a week for the past couple weeks to a predator. I thought it was a fox again, but was surprised that the birds were being left behind.

We pulled up to the house a couple days ago and even from across the yard I knew that Norma Jean was gone. I saw the mix of her colored feathers in a pile and knew it was her. And that's when I saw a hawk flutter away from her body and rest on a nearby tree.

I had no idea that a hawk would kill our full-sized chickens but now we know that is who the culprit is.

In order to keep the birds safe they have not been able to free range since then, they aren't happy, but they're alive. Hopefully when the leaves come back on the trees that will provide enough cover for safety and they can have their freedom again.

The hunt is on

Last week, Silkie Sue was killed by a raccoon.  We found her body with evidence to prove who killed her.  It was sad because she's been such a great girl and was a wonderful mom hen to so many of our hatches.  She was also in the very first batch of girls that we got.

So we had a hunter come set traps to protect the rest of our birds and I set up our game camera.

It was only the second time that I pulled the card and I saw this fox walking across the driveway into the garden area.

A few days later he caught a fox.  He also was tracking the foot prints and found two sets of fox tracks, at least one raccoon and an opossum.

This morning the youngest came running inside to say that a opossum was in one of the traps.  I went out to snap a picture and felt really bad.  It's so cute!

The trapper came and took care of things.  I don't know what that means because I don't want to know.  I know he's let some things go before, especially younger animals, but I know I need to protect our hens so I just let him do what he does best.