When Animals Attack

Approximately a month ago we bought 13 chicks and moved them out to our new hoop house last week. We found out last night we had a few weak spots that an industrious raccoon exploited last night and dispatched with 9 of the 13. One of the remaining had his wing tore off so we'll see if he/she makes it or not but have separated the injured one from the remaining chicks to aid in its recovery. The reason we could tell it was a raccoon was due to it leaving paw prints on the tarp around the hoop house as well as primarily tearing the heads off the chickens and leaving the rest.

Our younger kids were upset but the older ones handled this much better than last time when our chicks were stolen over 2 separate nights (see Stop Thief Part I & Stop Thief Part II). We'll be fortifying the hoop house today and will hopefully prevent this episode from happening again. We've decided not to put out traps due to the risk with our kids but instead spend the time and energy making the hoop house more secure. It is unfortunate this happened but since we just ordered 30 more chicks we're glad we found out with a small death toll then what could have happened when our additional 30 head out to the hoop house.