It's been two years since I built Susie's spinning wheel, She's now a very proficient spinner and my homemade wheel has started to show wear and tear and squeek and creak! So time for an upgrade. The Schacht ladybird wheel is beautifully designed and manufactured, silent and smooth!
Yesterday a small grey fox came a calling. He tried to take Flocon our white Sussex hen, but i gave chase and he dropped her trying get through the fence. Flocon sought refuge in my office and apart from a few less feathers, she's fine. We'll have to stay vigilant. It's a difficult decision as to whether to build a secure run around the hen house. The chickens are way happier free range but if the fox returns we have no choice. I m hoping he was an itinerant, temporarily displaced by the hunting dogs who came through earlier that morning.
Then this morning another attack this time by a male martin. Again I ran down to the hen house where he was wrapped around Tiffany our red hen. I managed to pin his rear foot to the floor with my boot and she escaped unharmed. The martin squirmed unable to escape, but I was not going to attempt to pick him up and I couldn't reach a stick to "teach him a lesson", so I had to let him go.
As if that wasn't enough at lunchtime we heard another squawk...Susie ran outside and this time Tiffany was pinned to floor again having yet more feathers pulled out by a Buzzard - which flew off as soon as it saw Susie.
Chicken run construction is now an urgent project. There was a mouse population boom in spring but it has now crashed - neither cat has caught a mouse in months, so I m guessing the martins and foxes are looking for other food.
I was hunting on Saturday and bagged a huge wild boar of 80kgs...unfortunately it seems it's the predators that causing damage at the moment.
Aucun commentaire :
Enregistrer un commentaire