When Art went to the chicken coop yesterday morning he found a dead chicken up against the wall of the coop. Because it was one of our older chickens and quite scrawny, he assumed it had died of natural causes. As he picked the chicken up, he discovered that it was not just lying up against the wall, it's head and neck were inside the wall. Well, I should just say 'neck' as her head was missing. Yes. Her head was gone.

This is rather odd, as most chicken preditors will eat the entire chicken, not just the head. While I was suggesting witchcraft, devil worship or even chicken sacrifice, Art was thinking some sort of animal. We've had opossums in the coop before, but they have always eaten the eggs, not the chickens. A raccoon would have taken the entire chicken away, not just her head. Cats, again, would eat the eggs, not the chicken. Art thought maybe a rat, but we've had rats before and they just eat the chicken feed along side the chickens. So we were at a bit of a loss.

This morning Art opened the chicken coop door and discovered four dead chickens; One missing a head, the others had been killed but their heads were in tact. Art saw the culprit (and it wasn't the Devil)- a weasel/ferret/mink. He immediately ran into the house for the gun, but by the time he got back to the barn, it had gone. What ticks Art off is that, 1) he's only eating the heads, and 2) he killed the other three out of sport. We understand that living in the country and having chickens attracts a variety of hungry preditors. If you are going to hunt my chickens, at least take the whole damn thing- don't just take the parts you want and don't kill it if you're not going to eat it.

I heard some shooting just now, so hopefully Art got him. If he did I'll be able to tell you exactly what it is; All Art could tell me is that it looked like a ferret.

So I'm down to five chickens and a rooster. I told the rooster today that he needed to grow a pair and start defending his chickens. He's so useless...just like most of the animals on our little farm.