My neighbor lost 3 hens to a raccoon because he left the coop door unlatched one night

Last spring, old Mr. Henderson down the street called me in a panic at 6 in the morning. Said he heard a commotion around 2 AM but figured it was just the wind. When he went out at dawn, three of his five Rhode Island Reds were dead, and the others were hiding under the porch. Turns out he'd been nursing a cold and forgot to slide the barrel bolt shut on the run door. The raccoon just pushed it open. He told me through tears that he'd raised those hens from chicks and they'd been laying like clockwork for two years. I helped him bury them in his back garden that afternoon. Has anyone else had a close call with a simple latch failure?

3 comments

3 Comments

davis.keith1mo ago

Respectfully, I see it a bit different. A latch failure is just the immediate cause, but the real issue is that we as keepers tend to get complacent after months or years without trouble. Every single night should be treated like the first night you brought those birds home.

angelab621mo ago

Is it really that serious though? I mean yeah you should always check your locks, but treating every single night like your first with the birds seems a bit much. After a few years of the same routine, you kind of know what's what, and a quick double check is plenty. I feel like people get way too caught up in worst case scenarios sometimes.

victor_carr541mo ago

I hear you @davis.keith, but I think that swings a little too far the other direction honestly.