2 AM. Frantic chicken screaming. We have four chickens. They live in a chicken house in the backyard, a house with a small run attached. The outdoor run has a roof over it, and wire up to the eaves of the roof. We have had chicken disasters in the past, the last major disaster was all 12 chickens murdered without a sound. Just dead chickens torn apart silently at night. We left them untouched and put a trail cam out, to see what came back the next night. It was a bobcat, who found the smallest hole right up under the eaves of the run. I beefed up the wire on the run, plugged any possible entry that I could find. And got these four new chickens last fall. But last night was different. Just chickens screaming bloody murder, not silent like last time. I leapt up, and looked out my window (not that I can see anything because it’s DARK outside). My trusty cat, Prickle, also came to the window, and he was growling. He can see better than I can in the dark. These chickens are friendly and quiet normally, very tame. I had to GO out there, right away.
I looked around for the flashlight. It was NOT where it normally was. I looked everywhere… no flashlight. Also no weapon handy… I was hoping for a pitchfork. But no… nothing. Found a broom, took that in desperation. Put my gumboots on and exited the garage, flicking the light switch on. Burned out bulb… still dark. Was really fairly unhappy about this… we do have cougars etc. But went out there anyway. These chickens are halfways dam pets.
Found the pen secure. Two chickens roosting quietly on the outside roost out in the pen. They must have chosen this over the indoor roost, it’s not been cold here yet. Two other chickens cowering in two of the corners of the small outdoor pen… both still crying something terrible. There was no predator in the pen, no feathers on the ground, no apparent injuries. I went to each of them, picked them up, and gave a quick inspection. No blood. But still crying and crying. LOUD. DH arrived. I complained about the lack of a flashlight, and one was produced. No sign of any injuries or feathers ripped off birds. Two birds still crying and moaning. I picked all four up, and put them in the house, and secured the door which is normally left open to the run.
There has been a packrat in the chicken house. He has been removing chicken pellets from the feeder and storing them in one of the nest boxes… which doesn’t really matter, he isn’t going to harm a chicken so I was kind of ignoring it. But I got to thinking that if a pack rat can get in, something of a similar size could too… like a mink. We’ve had a mink around before, under the chicken house actually, we were face to face for a moment… it was kinda scary for me, because they don’t think that they are small animals, they think that they are BIG animals, and completely fearless of anything. Including me. I’m wondering if I have another mink now, and he got in wherever the pack rat has been coming through. So today, when it gets light, security will be beefed up yet again. I didn’t think that would be possible after the last time, but apparently I was wrong. Because SOMETHING was in there I guess. Just lucky that everyone with feathers has survived it. And my brave and trustworthy guard cat Prickle is the star of the show. He keeps watch to keep us all safe.
There was no further sleeping done after this event. For anyone.
