A week before xmas a fox managed to get into our chicken pen, after I accidentally cut the fence while strimming and didn’t notice, and killed 5 chickens and our xmas turkey.
Then last week a fox found another tiny hole (again from strimming) and killed 3 of the replacement chickens which we had only recently bought at Tabua market, took one of our two geese, and our pair of ducks.
So, I have now reinforced the fence, repaired all the holes, put in new treated fence posts to make it sturdier and I have been shutting the four new ducklings and 4 almost point-of-lay hens into their shed each night.
They all go in when it gets dark, so I have to get the goose back out (she terrorises the others and has been known to kill young birds in the night) and then put the ‘door’ in its slot, and push the brick up against it. The new young hens had to be taught how to roost, but only once, and they do it themselves now.
I think it would be a good idea to buy a few more chickens and maybe quite a few more baby ducks this sunday at market. The hens are 5.50 euros each, which we thought was expensive, especially if they quickly become fox food, until we recently watched River Cottage on DVD, and Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall paid loads of money for chickens. I guess it is all relative. But the ducklings are 1.25 each and we have always done well with ducks, both for eggs and they are the only anmals we have successfully bred for meat.
And the ducklings are so cute.
