And Now For The Good News

Yesterday we recounted a sad story about the death of two of our hens by a bloodthirsty trespasser. That was really bad news for our flock.  Something had to be done.  I didn't want to lose another bird to whatever predator that took the lives of the two Aracauna sisters.  My initial guess was that this was either a raccoon or a possum. The fugitive must be brought to justice!

It is a joy for the just to do justice, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. Proverbs 21:15

I had a couple of cage traps stored in the rafters of the barn.  Benjamin and I pulled them down and tested them to ensure that they were in working condition.  Tricia had a tupperware container of canned salmon in the fridge that I conscripted for use as bait in our trap.  The salmon would stink and attract our predator.  If you look in the picture below, right outside the perimeter fence is a patch of woods that grows right next to the hen house.

I located a trail of sorts that ran parallel to the perimeter fence on the woods side of the fence and figured that this might be evidence of our predator.  I put the traps directly in the path and placed a paper bowl with a dollop of smelly salmon in it to attract the predator.  I hoped that Saturday night after we set the trap, the killer would go on his nocturnal hunt and would meet his end.

Sunday morning after the sun rose and we made our way to the barn, I looked around the hen house and saw no new feathers and saw no new chicken carcasses. Good.  I walked to the south side of the hen house and immediately saw that we had caught the murderer!  A big, fat, male possum.

You know I like my chicken fried...

This bad boy was fat!  He was unhappy with his confinement and hissed at me.  I hissed back.  No doubt that he was on his way to eat chicken on Saturday night, but those plans changed when he came across the smelly salmon.

After church services, Benjamin, Russ, and I walked back out to the trapped possum where a brief trial was held, the guilty perpetrator sentenced and then was summarily executed by Benjamin and his .22 rifle.  With two properly placed shots, the possum's days of killing chickens were brought to an end.

But that was not the end to the possum.  We don't waste a thing around here. Where one man might see a nasty dead possum, I see fertilizer.  We carried the old possum to the garden, dug a hole and trench composted him between the Sugar Snap Peas and the Russian Red Kale and right next to the carcasses of the two hens he killed the night before.

So that's the good news.  The killer was brought to justice and in so doing, brought fertility to our garden.