Predators & Guard Chickens!

Last week we had an unexpected visitor to the garden. No, this time it wasn’t Mr Fox but instead a predator of the two legged variety…

At about 5:45 the chickens started making an almighty noise in their underrun and although they regularly kick off to be let out of the run they normally have the common sense to wait until about 7:30am or else they forgoe all treats for the day!

I stumbled out of bed to give them a good telling off only to find them still squawking and all of the gates open. My garden is split into three parts. The patio which has a gate leading onto it from my neighbours’ access road, the main garden where the chickens live with another gate to it and the duck run which has yet another gate into. All three were open and the chicken coop partly open too.

Despite being half asleep it was clear that two legged vermin had been in pursuit of my girls and that only their demands to be let out of the run and be given treats had saved them. I’d like to think that they were being guard chickens and were alerting me to the strangers in the yard, but in reality those three will screech for treats from anyone, and that is just what saved them on this occasion!

About an hour later one of my neighbours knocked on the door to say had I seen anything suspicious as her shed had been broken into. The thieving toads had been unable to break the shed lock, but that was ok they just took all the shed doors off instead in order to steal their bikes.

I’m very lucky that the girls made such a fuss and got me up scaring them off. At over four years of age they lay little in the way of eggs and sadly had these idiots managed to steal them I suspect they would have soon been sent to an early grave when they realised they no longer laid.

I have now had a word with my next door neighbour and am putting a lock on the main gate into my garden which means to get in they would need to scale the six foot fence or wall. I hope it puts them off trying again, but in the meantime sleeping with the window open and a large bat by the side of the bed isn’t that bad….