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It’s all she’s ever wanted to do since she was knee-high to an egg herself. Hatch babies.
She was finally going to fulfill her life’s dream.
Having watched her sit unproductively for nearly a month on her own unfertile eggs, it was time for an intervention. A couple of days ago, I put three likely-fertile eggs I’d picked up from the other hens in my little banty’s nesting box while she got up to get a drink. She looked them over when she came back, rearranged them, then rolled them under her.
Satisfied and filled with new hope, she settled down on top of them to keep dreaming her little dream.
Raccoons killed her sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning. We have free-ranging chickens and ducks, but they aren’t bothering them. They’re going after the hens that are penned up. They’d decapitated another hen, one of our young Domineckers, the night before by reaching into the chicken yard.
They got the banty from behind. There is a hinged door that opens into the nesting boxes behind the chicken house. It has an extra lock designed specifically so raccoons can’t open it, but they didn’t have to open the door. They just slipped their paws into the crack, tore her up, and pulled her out, leaving nothing but a bit of feathers and blood behind.
The struggle must have been brief. Only one egg was broken in the nest.
I have a live trap and I know what to do with them after that. This is war.
I loved that little banty. She was going to be a mother. Was too.
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Sweet little banty didn’t deserve that. Not at all.
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Time for them to go.
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I’m sometimes amazed at the depth of human emotion…have never met you or momma Banty…but I can’t believe how sad I am right now!!!
Where was the giant puppy while all this was going on and why did she not sound the alarm? Maybe the goat yard is too far away from the chicken coop and those stealthy bandits are professionals….
I’ve no doubt they’ll be sorry they ever chose to mess with your feathered friends…..
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Good luck with the trap. I put one out and caught nothing but a baby woodchuck. I think the raccoon is trap smart. If someone has caught and released them before they are trap wary.
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I just can’t stand thinking about this. I’m glad it seemed to be brief for her. I just can’t imagine the terror.
You know what ya gotta do girl.
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I think today we’ll go get some new latches for the doors.
Someone mentioned something about “bad” animals. Coons aren’t “bad” they are just animals. Doing what they do to survive and who wouldn’t eat from a seemingly free buffet? But we are animals too and we do what we have to to protect what is ours. I’m not raising chickens to feed the coons (or minx or dogs, etc) I am raising them to feed my family with eggs and meat. (I also have a few pets in there as well who will never go on the table) I’m not much for sharing, esp. when it comes to my chickens or geese.
Hope your traps are full in the morning.
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Google “racoon stew”. Don’t forget to tell us what time dinner is.
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Poor hen, to have that happen to her. We have had that issue and they tried to rip chickens out of a knothole here
so the whole family met the shotgun.
good luck and stay safe!
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Have you thought about getting guineas? They make great ‘alarms’ – they carry on & squawk about any kind of visitors. That might help alert you & Coco to any midnight raiders.
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One summer night she decided to have a sleep over with her sisters out in the chicken coop. That was the one night the damned racoons came and raided my coop! I lost her and her sisters and a lone rabbit that lived in the coop with the chickens.
I HATE racoons, hate them!
I am so sorry to hear this news, I know the pain those coons have caused you.
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I think all of us who raise poultry have gone through this at one time or another. We lost 17 pullets just ready to lay to a pine marten. Mass carnage.
If you weren’t such a fantastically talented writer, it might not have brought so many of us to tears this morning. (That was meant as a compliment.)
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I agree with Beth . . .There is a place for all animals in God’s world. There will always be battles to be fought over food . . .this is one of them.
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Sometimes country life is sad.
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I wanted to say that I so admire the way you gave that banty dignity in her short life. I loved reading about her, she was my favorite. She was just so….dinigifed. Thank you for that!
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I knew in my heart when I posted about the raccoons that the little brooding hen was gone! Notice what I said in the post….”I knew she wasn’t a party gal.” I suppose it was another of my ESP or telepathic interventions! Mercy, Mercy…I am so sorry for the little brooding hen, which I had nick named “Chicko.” This was a real jolt! Sometimes I think ‘mean Roo’s’ incarnate self plays with my psyche from long ago when I was a little girl! Another story for another time!
Just keep “moving and grooving”! Get yourself some more sweet little bantys….We loved Silkies, barred and buff Cochins, Sebrights and an a sweet, but ornery, little Old English game bantam roo’ named “Jerry” His favorite pass time, except “you know what,” was riding on my shoulder around the yard like a parrot!I guess I was his pirate, he let me steal his prodigies without a fuss…but he was busy with many little hens..so an egg or three missing didn’t bother him much…
It has been years since we belonged to the American Bantam Association. I would have little hens disappear in the spring and I would fret, since we had an endangered species, (at that time), Red fox living on our land…A few weeks later there she would be with a brood, bringing them out of the woods onto the low grass to feed and show off her chicks!
I had called the TWRA about the fox….They said they preferred to trap it but I had a right to kill it if it was in the livestock….I decided to let nature take its course…and as far as I know it never got any of our bantys…but years later…I did catch a fox carrying off a Rhode Island Red…He just grabbed it, threw it over his back like a picture in a book and off he went before we could do anything!…This was just before dusk…I think the hens were sleepy and going to roost and just weren’t paying attention..!
PS….the little Cochin hens look like they have skirts on and the roosters look like they have pants on…..they are so cute and sweet…but are more for pets and eggs or to sell and show in my opinion!
PS….If you are going to buy feed, work and relax, please do buy quality stock…even if you can only get a rooster and one hen or two …of each species…
PS…so sorry but this will lead to better things….Mercy, mercy!
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Blessings from Ohio…
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I think that is the hardest part of the farm life. Dealing with death…Ive been there too and I KNOW how you feel.
You gotta do what you gotta do..Take NO prisoners for sure!!
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So, so sorry for the loss.
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