Pet sitting failure

We have friends who have gone away for the long weekend.  They asked us to come over to take care of their animals.  Dogs, cats and chickens.

They had just put their younger chicks in with their older flock of one rooster and three hens.

Thursday and Friday went fine.  Yesterday morning when I got there their one white hen (one of the younger group) had been attacked.  I'm guessing someone pulled a feather out, they saw the blood against the white feathers and went after her.  It wasn't too bad.

I pulled her out along with two of the other younger hens and put her back in the pen that the younger group was in before integration.  I ran to the hardware store and bought blu-kote, came back and made her a tie dyed chicken, gave them fresh food and added some electrolytes to their water.  We checked the rest of them and they were fine.

I left a message for them saying I was so sorry about the one hen because it's their son's favorite (OF COURSE!) and I thought it would be fine, but if not, I'll get him another one.

I went back over last night and she was up and walking around.  I saw her drinking and, other than being purple and missing feathers, seemed OK.

The boys and I went over there this morning after church.

All three younger hens were dead.  An opossum broke into the pen the younger hens had been kept in and killed all three of them.  Actually, I'm guessing maybe it was a momma and babies because they did eat pretty much everything except the bones and feathers.

Ugh.  Why NOW?  Seriously!  We cleaned everything up and made sure the other pen was extra secure.  I'm so tempted to go spend the night out there the next two nights until they get back!