Monday night I forgot to close the doors of two of the Chicken Houses. It must have been on my mind as I woke at 5.am Tuesday morning realising what I had done. On checking the Chicken House close to the Kitchen door all was OK with the eight Chickens that live in it pecking around the Lawn. On my way to the other house my worse fears were justified as I came across white Chicken feathers. There were some of the Chickens including Asbo walking around but not in the place that they normally should be and not greeting me in anticipation for their morning feed. On checking the House inside was the remains of a Light Sussex hen. The Hen was the Mother of three Chicks that she had hatched over six weeks ago. The Chick were OK and at an age where they would no longer rely on their Mother. They were already usually on their own so loosing their Mother would not be to much of a hardship. By the side of the Chicken House I found parts of another Light Sussex and a trail of feather around a large area but no sign of an other Chicken. After a count it was two Light Sussex Hen that had been killed. Another of the Light Sussex looked as if had a very luck escape with the amount of feathers that was missing from various parts of it body.
On this occasion I am quite sure that it was not a Fox that had killed the Chickens. Recently on quite a few occasions when I had checked around the Farm Buildings last thing of a night I had disturbed the Badger Cubs with an adult Badger just by the stables within ten metres from the Kitchen door, I am sure it was them that had killed the Hens. They had found some old Emu eggs that I had left in a bag and had been trying to break into the eggs for a food source. That day I had collected the remaining eggs and had put them in the dustbin for the Dustmen to take away, it had made the Badgers look elsewhere for another food source. The other reason for blaming the Badgers was what remains where left of the Hens. I would have expected a Fox to have taken the Chickens away. The remains of the hen in the Chicken House had been only partially eaten.
Asbo and his family usually house themselves very early at night compared to the other Chickens, but last night not surprisingly they did not want to return to their House. It took a long while and not before nearly 10pm did we get most of them shut up in their house, and that only with the help of one of our Holiday Guests and a large fishing landing net. I must admit I nearly gave up trying. The Light Sussex that had a lucky escape and a Leghorn found another place to roost and were found this morning.
The Welsh Assembly got put in their place yesterday by the High Court for the proposed Welsh Badger Cull. The Judgement was that the cull would be unlawful. The better news is that there will not be an appeal against the Law Lords decision. It puts it even more in doubt that there will be a cull in England. Not that I expected this new Government would have wasted any money with an English cull.