#Chickens for pest erradication

[wamurancountrylife]

Tick Eradication Program

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Back in November we told you how our goatlets returned with more than just a full belly. We also decided at the time, that rather than douse them in poison, we would try installing something that would recycle annoying pests into food. So I’m happy to say that stage two of the tick eradication program has begun dear reader. After much huffing and puffing, we’ve built “Chicken Manor”. Yes… a veritable chicken mansion, positioned near the base of our goat paddock.

The chicks from November have been installed… along with automatic doors, automatic water systems, automatic backup food supplies… in case they run out of bugs and crawly things to eat… and an automatic watch dog…

We recycled some old plastic drums we were given into nesting boxes, so that when the hens get older they can recycle the bugs and critters into eggs… We also recycled the sawdust from the timber mill into nesting box filler.

Zeigfreid the chicken herder LOVES his chicklets… And it’s reciprocated… We often take the arduous journey to Chicken Manor at wine o’clock, where we sit and watch the little ones race around after their big, black… furry… adopted father. The first few evenings we wondered why the little chicks didn’t go inside to roost when it started to get dark, and then we realised… they were waiting for their parents to lead the way. So Ziggy, Wonder Doris and I went and sat inside the manor, and sure enough… in trudged ten little chickens.

We also learnt that if you sit in the manor on dusk, the little chicks will all hop up onto the perches around you, as if saying good night - before they move into the corner nesting box where they huddle together, tucked in for the evening.

We also realised that with all of this automation, that we’ve now created a self walking dog. All we have to do is open the gate, and Ziggy happily races down the gently sloping mountainside to check on his new flock.

The other realisation though was not so welcome. We have ten perfectly healthy and very very happy chooklets… all sired by speckled rooster. His rooster seed appeared to work well… his offspring are surprisingly good looking. We have Speckled “V2” from Speckled mating with the one of the black hens. We have three perfectly white chicks, two black ones… and of the four that came from the loving embrace of Speckled and the brown hens, we have two that are so good looking, we should sign them up to chicken modelling agencies.

But, did seven of them have to be roosters!

  P.S., I wanted to call the new hen house “Fort Fowl”, but the bride won this time.

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