In the dark, Double trouble

Last night as Cindy was finishing up dinner prep I flipped on the TV and saw there was a Walking Dead episode on the dvr.  WTF, I figured the DVR taped a rerun.  Well imagine my surprise when it was a brand new episode.  I had absolutely no clue that the season was resuming already.  I’m not quite sure how I didn’t see something on tv or social media mentioning it.  It was a good episode, setting up what I hope is a solid second half of the season.

This morning when I went out to the coop it was obvious that the raccoon had been there last night.  As I got closer it became evident he was all over the coop.  The plastic sheet we have on the outside of the cage to keep the food dry was ripped loose, another similar sheet by their grit was bent, a pvc pipe we have inserted through the wire as a perch was knocked out, the lamp portion of the flood was pushed downward, and there were what looked to be muddy footprints on top of the corrugated plastic that covers the chicken run.

As a further FU to us, the chicken jerky I baited the live trap was gone.  Evidently the coon managed to step over the trip plate and snag the bait.

Of course when Cindy came out she was freaked out.  Last night I did not put the ramp to the coop up, I just closed and locked the door leading to the run area.  Even though the coop held up to what was obviously a pretty thorough assault by the raccoon it made me feel like I need to close that ramp every night, just to make sure the birds stay safe in case the raccoon shows up with a pair of wire cutters next time.

We were already bummed out about the raccoon visit.  As we were working on the coop one of the chickens was chasing and pecking the smallest chicken, which Cindy has dubbed Lola.  Then another one of the birds squared off with the aggressor.  They stood toe to to toe, stuck their chests out, held their heads high and then threw their feet at each other.  Instantly Cindy and I recognized this as the ways roosters fight.  Betty, Wilma, and Pebbles would fight once in awhile but never in that manner.

Ironically these were the two chickens that were the two middle birds size wise.  If we had a rooster I assumed it was the biggest bird but now I don’t know how many we have.  I am going to call the lady we got the birds from and describe what we saw.  Unfortunately she does not use testing to definitively sex the birds when they are young, she just uses physical characteristics.  So if we have roosters in the group they are going to need to go back asap before we get too attached and/or one of them hurts another in the group seriously.