It's War !!

It’s officially war !!! We have allowed for the occasional accident, we have allowed for the odd soft shelled egg being “cleaned up” but I’m not prepared to turn a blind eye to our feathered ladies having an egg banquet at our expense. Hourly visits to the two hen houses have not been received well, the ladies appear to have elected to make our egg raids as uncomfortable and loud as a chicken ( or LOTS of chickens !!) can possibly make them. Walking up the pen fence, the chickens get ready for a counter assault, beady eyes fixed on the potential egg burglar the ladies guard the fence and assess the level of threat. The feathered advance party head into the hen house to set up the line of defence and as the door cautiously opens Adolf the Rhode Island Rooster ( or Adolf’s identical brother Adolf) is invariably waiting accusingly, silently watching….and waiting. One black chicken usually hops up, effortlessly onto the perch, loudly clucking and squawking, warning that the egg napper is in the building she is invariably followed by the advance party who relentlessly patrol the nest box perch waiting for an unguarded moment or unprotected hand. . The rest of the flock rally and answer the call, chickens pop through the hen house door three abreast, eyes fixed and focused on making pillage and plunder from the nest boxes as challenging as possible. We press on, trying to ignore a scenario that is starting to look like a scene from Alfred Hitchcocks “The Birds” and cautiously slide our hands under the by now growling hens to retrieve what eggs we can. Some chickens capitulate to the inevitable and lift their feathered butts grudgingly, some watch and wait, clamped tightly on the nest….beaks ready to make the perpetrator pay dearly for the intrusion. Occasionally (but sadly not too often) a chicken is caught red handed, beak buried deep in the creamy yellow yolk of a stolen egg. There is no second chance, egg eaters are very unceremoniously removed from the flock and reborn as soup ! The ladies have  taken to laying their precious eggs and some have taken to not laying their eggs but helping themselves to someone elses ! Clearly helping themselves to our precious commercial commodity is inexcusable and “Google”, “Ask Jeeves” and “Bing” have been scoured for some genius or chicken guru to resolve our growing chicken cannibalism problem.  This morning I have a plan, I feel triumphant and excited to test my new theory….I’m going to bait the eggs with mustard stirred into the yolk to render it unpalatable. Hopefully there wont be a follow up request for a hot dog and the ladies will choose to lay eggs rather than feast on them !

So, the chickens are eating their eggs and the crows are eating my strawberries….it’s NOT going to happen !  Yesterday was spent stretching green bird netting over my strawberry beds watched by a troop of crows who have happily been feasting on my juicy red berries. I have heard that crows recognize and remember individuals that inconvenience them and judging by their presence on the fence line….I have caused them great inconvenience and I am pretty sure I am a marked woman.

Quatra is back, Carla is taking a couple of days back in the city and Rebecca our new WOOFER has become a welcome part of the team currently constructing our new horse stall. Rebecca has joined Quatra and Carla learning about and using a variety of boys toys and sawing hammering drilling and stapling are all part of her newly acquired resume. Thanks girls, it’s looking great!

Well, time to go, somehow there never seems to be enough hours in the day. Take care, keep safe, M