Hello dear friends, it has been quite a week here at the farm. We started the week with having a skunk take up residence near the barn. So not unexpectedly on Tuesday evening our German Shepherd Abby was sprayed. Anyone that has had a pet sprayed by a skunk with sympathize! Then, on Wednesday evening our Yellow Lab Lucy was sprayed. If anyone is wondering, we have had a great deal of experience in this area and a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing liquid is the most effective way we have found of getting rid of the smell.
While this misadventure was unfolding we discovered feathers on the lawns. For anyone with chickens this is a dreadful sign. As our chickens are confined to a hen house and run finding feathers means we have a predator.
I did some internet research to learn more about skunks and discovered that they are generally beneficial creatures. Skunks eat mice, rats, grubs and fallen fruits. Unfortunately for us however skunks also like eggs and will kill chickens. Further investigation tells us that skunks can dig their way into the hen house and that, my friends, is precisely what happened. They will eat eggs and kill the chickens.
We have different colours of laying hens. We have found white feathers, red feathers and even striped feathers. Clearly many birds have met the same fate.
On Thursday evening I was on our veranda and glanced towards the chicken run and was astonished to see a fox at the run. It appeared to be staring intently inside. I rushed to the area and although the fox was able to run away I discovered this hole in the fence. Upon inspection I found other areas of the chicken fence had also been broken away.
As I walked around I found more feathers. Friends, I cannot tell you how distressing this was. It appeared that we were not only dealing with a skunk that was entering the hen house to kill chickens but that we also had a fox that was grabbing chickens from the run outside.
This predator issue has taken over our week. What to do? The skunk has evaded the live trap all week. If we left the hens in the coop they were easy prey. So we decided yesterday morning to let the chickens run free thinking that they could at least try to escape a predator by flying up into the cedar hedges. So imagine our horror yesterday as we were standing on our bedroom balcony looking down only to see a coyote come right into our grove and nab a chicken. The photo below is of Abby who was also in the grove and was chasing the coyote at full speed. The coyote just managed to crash through the page wire fencing with the chicken before Abby nearly caught up to it.
The coyote is an even bigger concern for us than the skunk or a fox. We have several young lambs and having a coyote so close to the house and barn is a serious threat. We are surrounded by forests and use electric fencing to protect our animals but unfortunately it is too soon to turn on the fencing. As you can see from the photo below although most of our snow is gone the fencing along the forests is still buried in snow.
I must confess that we have moments when we wonder if it worth having animals but the big answer is "yes". We love living in the country and raising our sheep and chickens. Every challenge is an opportunity for us to try something new and get better at what we do.
Yesterday we had our remaining 2 roosters and 4 hens running free. It was a beautiful sunny day and the chickens had a field day! They love to dig and scratch and look for bugs and young shoots. The air was filled with the sounds of our roosters crowing and the early spring smell of decaying leaves being disturbed by the scratching of the chickens.
This is the view across one of the sheep pastures with part of our forest in the background. We really wouldn't ever want to give it up!
Thank you for visiting!
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