Chickens and Turkeys and Foxes

The fox is still hanging around. I caught a glimpse of him this afternoon. He doesn’t seem real determined to get a chicken. I don’t think there’s any way he can get into the coop at night so I don’t worry about that but he’s around almost every day and I’m afraid that isn’t going to end well  .. either for the chickens or the fox but Vince has walked around the fence and doesn’t think he can get in unless he can squeeze through the wires. I think he’s too big for that but I’m also thinking if he’s hungry, he’ll find a way. 

On the chicken front . . I went out to check on the chickens and the full sized chicken was off the nest . . out gallivanting with the other hens, totally neglecting her motherly duties. All the sitting hens I’ve had would get off the nest from time to time, for short periods . . to eat, relieve themselves, get a drink . . so I waited about an hour and checked again and she was still off the nest. It was warm enough that I wasn’t worried about the eggs getting too cold in the middle of the day but after her being off the nest for an hour, I moved all the eggs over to the bantam so now she had 9 eggs under her little fluffy self.

I went back out this evening to check their water and what do you think I saw? Big hen had shooed little bantam hen off the nest and big hen was sitting on all the eggs. Poor little bantam was sitting back in the original nest where she started . . but with no eggs under her.

At the risk of having my eyeballs pecked out, I used my trusty toilet bowl brush and pushed big hen off the nest, retrieved 5 eggs and put them under the little bantam hen. If any of those eggs hatch, those poor little chicks aren’t going to have a clue who their mama might be . . not that the chicken sitting on the eggs is the mama anyway. Since there’s only one rooster, at least we know who the daddy is . . not that it matters either.

The final excitement around the yard . . 

Turkey

I was outside with one of the dogs and heard gobbling. I looked up and there was a Tom, not 20 yards from me. I had to walk back in the house and grab my camera and by then, he had moved a little farther away but I was still able to get a picture. He walked over to the opening, spread his feathers and was strutting around but I couldn’t get a picture of him strutting. You can see his beard hanging down. He’s very big and beautiful!

It’s really nice to see so much nature out here . . even if sometimes nature brings me snakes, skunks and other not so desirable creatures. It’s all part of nature and too often, we don’t think of what’s living around us.