Horrible Day.. so sad...

What a day. My normal routine of chores was upset by taking a shift I normally don't work. I worked from 7am-1pm, so my mom helped me by doing morning chores. When I got home from a busy day at work, I had 45 mins to do afternoon chores, make lunch and dinner, catch two roo's that I was delivering on my way to school, then head to school.

When I went out to the tractor housing my 10 week old chicks, I found a chick strangely hiding under the ramp of their tractor. I pulled him out and was HORRIFIED to see he was missing a leg!! It had been RIPPED RIGHT OFF! It must have happened overnight and my mom didn't see him snuggled under the tractor. I spent the next half hour crying and trying to figure out how I could physically make myself kill my poor little chick. Poor guy It was absolutely horrible. I ended up using the quad exhaust, I was too upset by his missing leg to do the "broken neck" method. Unfortunately I lost 1 other chick to a lost limb, as well as a few other whole chicks vanished. We have been blessedly unharmed by raccoons the last few years, but I'm thinking they were the culprits. Whatever it was had to literally pull the leg off the chicken, under the little tiny 1 inch gap between the bottom of the tractor and the ground (it was at the back where the wheels lift the tractor off the ground to move it easily).

I know some people think they are "only chickens", but after nurturing this little chicken from the time he was an egg, until now, it was very sad to see him suffer and to know that I lost several others. I have now locked them up more securely and have set a trap for the 'coon. Fingers crossed it works.

so sorry for you,
that is a very tough thing to find, I have heard those coons are very sneaky and they have such tiny agile fingers...
Good luck with the trap setting tonight.

I'm so sorry for your loss, chickens have feeling and they hurt.
I know this is a horrible thing to suggest but use a dead chicken for bait Racoons are horrible critters, they do love bait like dead chickens. I hope you catch the varmit quickly

Oh Briarwood, what a sad story, you painted a very vivid picture for our mind's eye. These kind of things sicken us to our souls, and nothing good can ever be said about it. The only consolation is that you have learned even more about how vermin can attack our birds, and it will cause you to be even more armed with how to protect others. I am so sorry to hear of this thing, it must have been a dreadful shock and I can well imagine how you feel. I would think that most of your forum friends have had losses like this from predation, in one form or another. Keep that chin up, as hard as it may be.

I have often wondered if chickens experience pain as we know pain. Sometimes I don't think we can understand that, to what depth do they feel pain? I know that they hurt, I have seen a limping bird, one clearly in pain. But I would love to think that their pain is not as painful as the man experiences pain, that would be a nice thought, but who knows. Sorry this happened, having to get up the gumption to dispatch a critter is very difficult to do, but as responsible chicken keepers, we must do this deed, when that necessity arises. Do try to find something to still have a good day, CynthiaM.

Oh Briarwood I am so sorry. It is a horrible feeling to come across this sort of thing. I have been there too and don't wish it on anyone chicken or human. And yes, I do believe they feel pain as we do. You did what you had to do, hard as it is. Take care and I hope you solve this soon.

Oh no I am so sorry Briarwood. What a horrible find, I feel so bad for you. I know how much you love your chickens and how well you take care of them. I am sorry you had to put it down but thank goodness you were able to do it. Hugs your way!

XOX Monika

Thanks all. I am super, duper paranoid now and sleep with the bedroom window open, dog at the foot of the bed, myself dressed in full pj's (instead of birthday suit.. ha ha ha) ready to leap into action should the need arise. The trap hasn't caught anything yet, but I'm hopeful. I wonder if it was just a wild animal eating in passing? I can hope! Fingers crossed everyone else is safe.

And, I was trying not to "count my chickens before they lay" type thing, and never got an 100% accurate count of how many chicks I had in each tractor so I don't even know how many I lost, I just know they aren't as full I guess we were lucky for so long with low predator losses it was bound to happen. For now I'm just lovin up the ones I still have a little extra.