Coons 1 Me 0 well almost 0

Last Thursday night when we got home from the farm I went to put up the chickens, I counted to make sure they were all in, I kept coming up 1 short. My wife and son had been letting them out in the mornings and putting them up at night, I thought maybe they had left the door open or something because I was sure a nothing could not get in the pen.

Well last night I was proven wrong, I went down to put the chickens up later then normal, I opened the barn, turned on the lights and what to my surprise, a mama coon and four little ones all started climbing up the post heading for the loft. Since the loft does not have any lights I went back to the house for a flashlight and "shootin iron"(pistol for you city folk). Up the ladder I went, I started shining the light around and saw mama but no little ones, I went ahead and dispatched of mama since she was not thrilled I was there. After shinning the light around I found the little ones in the rafters, I didn't really want to dispatch of them (too cute), plus I didn't really want any holes in my roof. I went back to the house to get a fishing net so I could capture the little critters. I grab a pole and knocked them into the net one at a time, the first three were no problem but the forth one did not want to cooperate. After catching each one I would climb down the ladder and put them in a rabbit cage. The forth one decided to run for his life, he would climb down into the chicken pen and when I would go down there he would climb back up into the loft, after about three tries he vanished.

This morning I got up and went down to the barn to take pictures, the little varmints had chewed through the wire and escaped, tonight I get to work on the chicken pen some more.

Until next time...

Tim