Tragedy at the Jarrell Farm

Adam and Logan spent at least a couple of hours reinforcing the chicken pens yesterday and Adrian had gotten some of the materials for an electric fence to put up. Adrian set a couple of traps and we had all been down there trying to make the area secure for our chickens, but evidently we are no match for the vicious nighttime marauders! It seems that we have at least another raccoon, and maybe several. This morning as Adrian was getting ready for work and Adam and I were getting ready to leave for Winston for his appointment with the oral surgeon to have his wisdom teeth removed, the guys went to the chicken pens and found several chickens dead and a raccoon still in the pen! While Adam tried to get to the house to get a gun, the critter managed to get away. I am just heartsick over the loss of Princess, Captain Jack, Roofer, Chicken Little, and our big Rooster. To some they probably just seem like a bunch of chickens, but they had names and personalities and we enjoyed hearing them cackle and crow and watch them scratch about and do all their chicken stuff. Adrian has taken great care to watch over them and learn about raising chickens so we could have fresh eggs and be more self-sufficient. We all feel bad to lose so many of our chickens this week. We are now trying again to put our heads together and see if we can outsmart these raccoons! Logan has been working on some ideas this morning which include barbed wire, paintball guns, and BB guns....so we'll see what happens!