Firstly the Rhode wasn’t eaten the other night, unfortunately it was just LS (ooops I have just read that back & I don’t mean it how it sounds – I don’t mean that it was unfortunate that the Rhode wasn’t eaten).
We were so confident that the fox would not come up either so close to the house, or to the barn where all the goats are. We were so certain that she would be fine. We were confused though as to how the fox got both LS and the Rhode as the Rhode is brooding somewhere in the field and the fox would actually have to be stalking her – and I know they say cunning as a fox, but even so would he know that one of the chickens went into the field at night – and would he know then which Rhode he had to follow? We can take no chances so I did try to follow her today, however found I was stalking the one who stays up here in the shed, and the one who goes elsewhere disappeared whilst I was watching her sister.
Luckily the chickens do put themselves to bed at dusk. The silkies put themselves to bed late afternoon – they are the Bob of the chicken world, they get up for breakfast, have a little nap until siesta, nap until tea time, have tea and then bed. I think they are faulty actually, as they still have not gone broody – I think that ours have spread their broodiness out, so rather than sit solidly for three weeks a few times a year, they have spread it out over an entire year sitting for several hours each day.
The worst ones are the little chicks who stay up a bit later, but even they have been popping into their shed as it gets dark with the others. We are having a real problem with these chicks as they are so quick and they nip into the house as soon as the door opens, appearing from no where. One of them – Tan Tan will jump onto Ians hand and they gaze lovingly at each other. Stangely this is the one that bites me. I wonder if Ian has been training it?
The ducks, however are more of a challenge. We have one group of 4 (the orginal two and the two ducklings that LS brooded), and a group of 5, which I think were left from the group of ducklings that were brooded by two sets of hens. We are putting them all in to the cellar now, the group of 5 waddle doing the Runner Duck Dance, as they are quite tame, the four are more of a problem and entail Ian flinging himself round the garden after them, although tonight they did seem to almost go in without too much of a song and dance. hopefully they will get in to the habit of this soon.
It is horrible waking up in the morning and not hearing the quaking of the ducks as they would be waddling around outside waiting for their breakfast. At least we know (hope) that they are safe in the cellar though.
Ian spent yesterday building a fox trap. It is made from pallets and a fire guard. I can’t think of words to describe it really, I do hope the fox wasn’t watching and laughing. It works on the principle that the fox goes in after bait and then the door shuts after it. It probably needs a photo to do it complete justice.
Unfortunately one of our injured ducks died yesterday, so we have two injured ones left. Poor things – their necks are really bitten, but they do seem to be getting better. The one that died we planned to use as bait, thinking that if we used it and caught the fox then it would be some sort of vengence.
Of course this morning I was suprised not to find Freckles and Black Knees snuggled down in the trap, and I suppose I was not suprised to see that there was no fox. Interestingly yesterday I blocked up a load of holes under the stables – I had thought that these were rabbit holes, but….? This would explain how the fox knew where LS slept.
Farmer Mike said that the other thing it could be was mink. In away I hope it is just a single loan fox which is lost.
A quail got out as well, no idea how, but these things seem to have a will to self distruct. Not only do they only fly verticly, but they also then come down to earth in the manner of a pin ball machine, bouncing off of walls, doors etc. Thinking about it when they were chicks we were convinced that they had the quail equivelent of mad cow desease, as they sometimes did this strange sort of breakdance, jerking and bouncing around. it was so pronounced that we thought that they would not last the night – I think now that it was the start of their strange flying habits. The next option is to limit their flying opportunity. Not sure how.
I have put the rabbits away at night, althoguh I am sure that the fox could not get in there – well I know it couldn’t, however I really couldn’t sleep if I started thinking about this, and lets face it Ian is not best happy to be woken up in the middle of the night anyway and my waking him and worrying about rabbits is not going to make him any happier. I have also been out witted / DIY’d by the young buns. Having made them a rather nice run, they then climbed out. So I have tried a number of things to keep them in, the last bit of building work has resulted in my looking at them tonight and watching them running round the top of the run like a tight rope walker. They then jumped down to the floor with ease – so I am going to have to rethink this. I must admit that Stud muffin is looking less happy since he has been in his run, he did have the whole stable floor, however it is better how it is.
The goats all seem to have foot rot. The first time for the pygmies. We have put dry straw round in the barm and treated them. We know that the angoras are prone to this – I suppose that the pygmies must have some in built resistance or is it where they are younger I wonder. They were both tricky to treat though despite their size. I am quite glad that Debbie, who man handles sheep and 25kg bags of feed without any concern didn’t see the two of us wrestling with Gertie, who let’s face it is a very petite pygmy goat.
Good news on the shop – we’ve had a rental offer. We’ve also had another person interested too. Isn’t it funny how we’re getting interest now that Alston is getting quiet (also had a dentist asking about it), when we would have thought that the summer would have been the key time that people would be interested. The potential tennant is a greek cypriot with take aways in penrith and around – so knows the area and what the ups and downs are. Jeremy says that they have paid for the credit checking – so hopefully, as this is non returnable, that they are fully commited.
Well see what happens…..