the demise of chicken flock #2 - ghost marley lives on

ghost marley. last chicken roosting. [australorp]

those of you who grew up on a farm or in a rural area will scoff, or at least snicker, at this next tale of woe, but i tell it anyway.

last week a raccoon family of six moved into the woods in the backyard next door, just across the fence from our chicken coop & yard, where our last 2 of 5 chickens lived - buford and ghost marley. i first learned of the raccoons' arrival at 2 a.m., last tuesday morning, when i heard the piercing scream of a chicken in danger. the dogs and i rushed out to find the raccoons in the tree limbs just above the chicken yard. this repeated itself the following evening around 11:30 p.m.

i performed some makeshift repairs to the coop in the attempt to seal it off to predators of raccoon size. and for the next several days, not even a wail was emitted by either chicken. the proverbial calm before the storm.

this past tuesday, at about 5 a.m., the chicken distress call went out. sadly, it was too late for buford. the raccoon(s) decided to pull the stapled chicken wire away from the frame of the coop and squeeze in. and while they were successful in killing buford, they were not able to retrieve their prize. so i got to. 

while sitting vigil over ghost marley until daylight [the raccoons were patiently waiting in those tree limbs just above the coop], i knew they would eventually succeed in getting ghost marley, too, so i decided to give her away to other urban chicken-keepers, both for her safety and my sanity.

elena and i were both quite sad to say goodbye to ghost marley, and i give many thanks for dana goldman and jonah macdonald for so graciously saying yes to an addition to their backyard flock.

*for those who are interested, our first "flock" - red, butterscotch and vida blue. our second - greenhouse, clifford, y-girl, buford and ghost marley.