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Husbands and chickens and possums, oh my!

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In 2017, we moved to a house on a larger lot. In 2018, I implemented my dream of having chickens. They are entertaining, excellent pets, and always a source of adventure.

Last night we had another night to remember.

My chickens have two areas: the run, a huge wire pen, and the coop, where they sleep at night. The large coop has an automatic door, which closes at sunset and opens in the morning. Last night, when I went out to manually lower the door on the little bantam coop, I noticed that the big girls’ door had not automatically lowered. But it was already dark and I was tired after a long, day, so I told myself I’d take care of it tomorrow.

The grandkids were over, so hubby got them packed off and was taking them home but he called to tell me he couldn’t get out of the gate. For some reason, it wouldn’t let him out, so I had to go out there with my screwdriver and a flashlight to see what was the matter. But as I walked out the bedroom door, I heard SCREAMING from the chicken coop–hubby would have to wait. I wish you could have heard that chicken screaming–sounded like a weird European siren, wailing over and over . . . until Mama arrived. 🙂

I shone my flashlight on the door–which was still open–and saw Easter spill out of the opening and run toward me. Pancake, who usually sleeps in the run on a dog crate, was all in a tizzy, running to and fro. (Chickens are blind in the dark, so if you ever need to catch a chicken without running, just wait until dark, and you can pretty much do anything you want with them).

So I ran to the back door of the coop, opened the door, and shone my light inside–and saw an adolescent possum who was NOT playing dead. What to do? Three of my hens were roosting within his reach, and I didn’t dare leave. So I screamed for hubby, who didn’t hear me, then made a few threatening gestures, so the possum ran out the door–but he was still in the run, and so were Pancake and Easter.

So I ran to the gate, gave hubby the screwdriver and wished him luck, then ran back to the coop. I picked up Pancake and Easter, and put them in the coop. Then I had to climb into the elevated coop (no easy feat, especially in the dark), and manually lowered the door.

Knowing the girls were safe, I went around to an alternate run door, where I could see the possum wedged between the coop and the metal run. He wasn’t trapped, he was waiting. Little rascal.

So I grabbed the broom I had picked up as a weapon, and swatted his hind end, which was only inches away from the coop door. That bad boy dropped out of sight and ran away.

I took several deep breaths, then went to see if hubby and grands had made it out of the gate. They had. 🙂

So–today I need to make sure the door works and plug that gap between the run and the coop. I love all creatures, but I will defend my girls. Poor babies.

Do you have chickens? Have you ever WISHED you had chickens? Honestly, I’d keep a few even if they didn’t lay eggs (which they don’t–much–in the winter, because a hen needs 14 hours of sunlight to produce an egg.) Fascinating, no? If you have any questions about chickens, be sure to ask!

One of the babies I hatched!
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Angela Hunt

Christy-Award winner Angela Hunt writes for readers who expect the unexpected in novels. With over five million copies of her books sold worldwide, she is the best-selling author of more than 165 works ranging from picture books (The Tale of Three Trees) to non-fiction books, to novels.

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Comments

  1. Hi, Angela!

    Yes, I have chickens! I grew up with chickens and officially owned my own in high school. Well taken care of hens can live for a long time! I still have a hen I adopted while in high school, and she is over 10 years old. They are living out their lives on my parents’ farm. I have caught a possum in my coop before and he was after the feed. Pretty scary, but trapped it and let it go outside. It’s always an adventure raising animals, and chickens make great pets, as well. 🙂 I enjoyed reading your adventure of your hens and am so glad they are safe!

    I received a copy of the book you retold, A Tall of Three Trees, as a baby shower gift and have loved reading the story to my newborn. I’m looking forward to the day when my son will become old enough to understand more about salvation, and even old enough to visit my parents’ farm and my hens. 🙂

    Have fun with your birds!

    • Don’t’ t you love it when the possums hiss at you? They can certainly be intimidating! Thank you for your kind words about TREES. God bless you and your family!

  2. I would love to have chickens, but given the critters we have roaming through our backyard—raccoons, possum, a fox, and twenty or more deer at any given time—I think keeping chickens might be in vain. And then there are the long weeks we are traveling…

    My grandparents used to have chickens on their farm and when we visited it was often my sisters’ and my job to gather the eggs. I loved that task until the day Grandmother reported that she’d reached under a hen for an egg and encountered a rattlesnake instead! (From that day forward, we were only to gather eggs from chickenless nests or shoo the hen off her nest first.)

    • Rattlesnake! Oy! I’ve learned never to reach where I can’t see. But the worst I’ve encountered is a roach. And Deb, you can live through my chicken adventures, if you like. I’ll share. 🐥

  3. Oh my, Angela, what a great story! Have you thought of writing a children’s book about chickens? My granddaughters would be delighted with a story like this one!

  4. Love the story of the chickens!! I have never had any pets other than dog or cat. I admire your bravery with the possum. I’m quite sure I would do what was needed to protect my dog!.

  5. Angie, my daughter in Texas has chickens, and I love to watch them when I go to visit. Sadly, covenants in my little subdivision don’t allow for chickens or I think I would give them a try.

  6. Angela, you’ve brought a big smile to my face this morning. I can just see you, as well as Pancake and Esther, frantically running in the coop. I’ve never had chickens, only dogs and cats, but you make owning chickens sound like an adventurous life.

  7. Fascinating! We only have one animal here (a 1.5 year old Cavalier Spaniel) but I’d love to live vicariously through you and read more about the adventures of your chickens. 🙂 I don’t know much about them at all.

  8. Chickens are part of the reason we sold our house closer in and moved to the country. We have more land and more animals now. We had opossums and coyotes before but haven’t been bothered by them here. We did have a squirrel get stuck in the chicken run. That was a pain to get out. And, a hawk that sits on top but the crows chase him away. It’s covered so that’s not a problem. Loved your story. Did not know that chicken couldn’t see at night. I guess that’s why they go into the coop so early. That leaves the ducks so much room to gather later on. They share the run.

    • I haven’t dared try ducks–Alligator Creek runs behind our house, and I’m afraid they’d get in the creek and meet, well, an alligator. Or, since the creek flows pretty swiftly, we’d never see them again. But I do love seeing the wild ducks come to play in the creek. 🙂 we have red-tailed hawks all over the place, so I only let my hens out to forage when I can be outside to keep an eye on them. We maintain a truce with the squirrels, who are cute, but can eat all the chicken feed unless I buy pellets–apparent squirrels aren’t too fond of pellets. 🙂

  9. I loved this post! I laughed so hard and had to read it to all my family at breakfast. Thank you for such a delightful way to start my Monday.

    Blessings!

  10. We had about a dozen laying hens and a rooster or two when I was growing up. I especially loved helping with the new chicks. Sadly, my parents had to give them away when I was in college because they started growing “chicken nuggets” commercially. And yes, possums are a problem even in those huge chicken houses.
    My husband and I have “free range” cats, but no chickens. The cats share their food with a variety of wildlife, especially during the winter months. Possums are frequent visitors and they get along just fine with the cats.
    In reference to Emily Westgerdes’ post above, I was just thinking about “A Tale of Three Trees” earlier today. I’m not sure what brought it to mind, but I remember thinking it is time to pull it off the shelf to read again.

    • I had no idea that possums would invade a huge chicken house–but they are cunning little creatures, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. We had a couple of cats living under our house. There’s an agency in town that will spay/neuter and vaccinate feral cats, so I tried to trap ours to take in . . . but trapped a possum instead! I haven’t seen the cats in a while, so they must have wandered off or met with some misfortune. :-(. Loved reading your comment.

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