January 19, 2012

A Letter to the Neighbors


Dear Local Wildlife Neighbors (in particular, those of you who inhabit the skies above us),


I really enjoy your presence. I've been a lifelong fan. In fact, I spent four years in college just to learn more about you and how to work with you, not against you, in my daily activities. However, my decision to raise chickens was not meant to be a joint activity. I've done my best to not tempt you with the presence of my chickens -- sturdy coops, pens, well secured food barrel, free ranging only with supervision, etc. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you would hold up your end of the deal and LEAVE MY CHICKENS, AND GUINEAS, ALONE!!!!

Thank you.

Your neighbor, Amanda

If only it was that simple. I had the disheartening experience once again this morning of finding a partially consumed carcass in a pile of feathers, inside the chicken pen. It was barely beginning to get light outside, and I just assumed it was yet another guinea casualty (they have short memories, and several of them have taken to sleeping outside the coop again). However, this death was my remaining Salmon Favorelle hen (the hawk Joe spied about a week ago had indeed gotten the other SF hen. We found the carcass in the back corner of the outdoor kitchen a couple of days later). I'm pretty sure this newest death was also the work of an aerial predator, which unfortunately means that my chickens are not safe in their pen during the day when I'm not there. Once upon a time, I had a plastic netting "roof" over the chicken pen to protect from overhead attacks, but snow, ice and sun broke it down in less than two years. Now it just looks like my pen is decorated for halloween with torn remnants of netting draped all over it. I was all excited about heading into this coming summer with 9 hens, five of which were going to be in the prime of their laying days, but now I'm down to 3 young hens and four older ones. That is still plenty for us, but these birds of prey need to leave it at that! Argh!!! And, before anyone starts sharing their favorite predator extermination tips and offering to bring over their guns and take care of the problem, even if I wanted to take such steps, hawks and owls are federally protected species and it is illegal to kill them. So, let's just put that argument to rest before it even starts. Looks like it's time to do some re-roofing and reinforcing of the chicken pen.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

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