Raccoons in the Chicken House

So Harold goes to collect eggs the other day around supper time and close up the chicken house for the night.  As he puts his hand into the nesting box to gather the eggs, he feels fur!   Oops, that's not a chicken!  He bends down and peers into the nesting box and a pair of big raccoon eyes is staring back at him!   And the raccoon is making weird noises.   After the initial shock, Harold just picked up the whole box, raccoon and all, and dumps it outside.   The raccoon ran off.   We usually get about 14 eggs a day, and there were only 6 left, so Mr. Raccoon apparently had a real feast eating eggs.   Not good.

We remembered that we always put a radio in the garden 24/7 to keep raccoons away from our corn crop.  We put the radio on a nice talk radio station, and the sound of a human voice makes the raccoons think there is somebody in the garden and they stay away.   So we decided to try putting a radio in the chicken house!   Harold hung it from the ceiling and covered it lightly with a plastic bag to keep dust out.  So far so good!   The raccoons think somebody is in there talking!  Those egg-eating stinkers are leaving the eggs alone! Of course the chickens have to listen to talk radio from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Wonder if listening to Rush, Sean H and Glen Beck will make all our hens good Republicans,  savvy about politics and the economy?  hee hee!   Hopefully it won't stress the girls out.