After the loss of my chickens a week before around 3 am I
heard a noise coming from the barn. I to this point still did not know exactly
what animal had attacked. I laid there listening to see if it was just a one
time noise and after it came again I was out of bed like a shot. Quickly threw
on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and ran downstairs. My ex was here visiting
the boys so I told him quickly what was happening and that I was going up.
I have no gun here at the farm. It’s been realized that I
need to take my fire arms safety course once it’s offered again in the fall. So
only armed with my phone’s flashlight outside I went. Looking back on it, no,
not the safest decision.
In the pitch black I quickly approached the closed doors of
the barn, hearing occasional screeches from inside and threw open the barn
door.
Inside was the biggest raccoon I’ve ever seen. It was as big
as a medium sized dog! I was almost in shock. It looked at me and then
amazingly went to the back of the barn scaled the back wall, crossed the hay
loft, crawled out the little 3rd level window and down the side of
the barn. Holy crap.
Going into the barn I saw it had killed another young layer,
my green laying Americana hen and severely injured another adult layer. The
darn rooster was still safe and fine. I’ll be getting him butchered with the
meat birds. No good at all in protecting his flock.
Okay. Time to deal. I grabbed the axe and killed the injured
chicken and disposed of the bodies. Then it was refortification time.
Collecting the drill, screws, boards and wire about half an hour later the barn
was as secured as I could make it until morning. The next day was spent with
further work on the barn and thankfully all seems to be good.
I’m still wondering how the blasted raccoon even realized
that top window was open to decide to scale the side of the barn.
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