Thievin' Squirrels!

We keep the 2-grain chicken scratch in a metal trash can in the chicken yard. The lid was off the other day when I went to let the chickens out in the morning. Grayson, the granddog, was visiting. I thought maybe he had been nosing around and knocked the lid off.

The next day, the lid was off again. Grayson had gone home the previous day, so I knew I couldn't blame the dog! I know deer will go after corn in containers, but our deer fence is effectively keeping deer out of the yard. My next thought was raccoon, or possum. So I moved the trash can into the "safe" zone where it would be inaccessible to such animals at night.

A couple days later, as I was walking out to the garden in the afternoon, I saw the lid off again! Then I saw the culprit pop up out of the can.... a dad-gum squirrel!! I ran to the chicken yard. He saw me coming and went crazy, jumping from one side of the "safe" zone to the other. He didn't want to come out into the larger chicken yard because I was standing by the door opening. So he ducked into the hen house through the little chicken door. I jerked open the door, intending to terrorize him some more, and he was gone! I assume he escaped through a space between the walls and the roof.

When I told Rouse about it that evening, he had a good idea. He placed a bungy cord over the can to keep the lid in place. The very next day I went out to the chicken yard. There was the lid... on the ground... next to 4 bits of the bungy cord. The rascally rascals had chewed that bungy cord to pieces! Rouse said, "That pisses me off!" I was in total agreement.

I put a 25-pound weight on top of the can. Rouse says it's overkill, but guess what? The squirrels can't get the lid off now. Of course, it's a little inconvenient for us people who want to open the can daily to throw out corn. Brother! The things we do to keep nature at bay.