Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

lostinrates

So, dh and I have a thing about bird related stuff. Today we have excelled our selves with two pieces of delicious tat. One is a tacky little coloured glass humming bird which we are going to hang from an old hook that is above our bedroom window. We have been looking for something for there for a while.

The other is a frightful plastic pair of parrots which we have put in one of the horse chestnut trees. So tacky we are cackling with delight at them. Slightly less hideously, but only just, we got two wicker birds to put near the small chicken house. That needs serious repair...a fox ripped the front off it and took our dear Cotton Bud on Friday night. The white garden is full of white feathers as a result, sadly.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...a fox ripped the front off it and took our dear Cotton Bud on Friday night. The white garden is full of white feathers as a result, sadly.

*hugs*
That's very sad

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

*hugs*
That's very sad

It's been a shocking year for the chickens. They have been killed by foxes and rats and I think a badger and a buzzard.

The fox on Friday was a surprise, as its just so close to the house. The three girls in there were fine. For the first time we have no rooster. :eek:

For the lawn birds we are considering not getting another rooster. We have two millefleur bantams and he snow ball, so not sure what type of rooster we would get for this mixed crowd. I have suggested we consider two tiny houses and keep a small group of each....but that suggests breeding more of them....and tbh, don't want to ATM. Keeping numbers low for a while seems a good idea.

neverdespairgirl

How big is your tunnel, lemon?

Spirit_2

lostinrates wrote: »

a fox ripped the front off it and took our dear Cotton Bud on Friday night. The white garden is full of white feathers as a result, sadly.

Bl**dy foxes.

Having had some success I expect the horrible creature will come back. Would Kiwi see it off?

zagubov

lostinrates wrote: »

So, dh and I have a thing about bird related stuff. Today we have excelled our selves with two pieces of delicious tat. One is a tacky little coloured glass humming bird which we are going to hang from an old hook that is above our bedroom window. We have been looking for something for there for a while.

The other is a frightful plastic pair of parrots which we have put in one of the horse chestnut trees. So tacky we are cackling with delight at them. Slightly less hideously, but only just, we got two wicker birds to put near the small chicken house. That needs serious repair...a fox ripped the front off it and took our dear Cotton Bud on Friday night. The white garden is full of white feathers as a result, sadly.

M'good self and DS walked the dog in the local park this AM, and when he was still on his lead, he started pulling us towards a pigeon on the grass. There were feathers all around it and it wasn't moving but was clearly alive and no injuries.
We kept him well away from it. not that I'm sentimental or squeamish (what am I talking about., I'm actually a bit of both) but nature 'll take its toll and I didn't fancy an honorary (canine) family member making a kill in front of DS and every child and adult in the park. :eek:

lostinrates

Spirit wrote: »

Bl**dy foxes.

Having had some success I expect the horrible creature will come back. Would Kiwi see it off?

I don't know about kiwi. Today he did a brilliant job of killing some pond weed, he killed it all the way arou d the field while we poo picked and then proudly killed it again for the client that turned up.


I am hoping to bring him to visit a friend in the big green space too whose terrier is a great ratter, to get him started on that part of his career. I have been told to buy him a come of pet shop mice first, but I think I would rather apprentice him to a good ratting terrier for the odd day.

The other two would if they saw it. This is an awkward area, its RIGHT by my house in a sort of side garden (think traditional cottage garden to the side of a house) and its unvented to the road at the far end, so I cannot leave the dogs in it over night, for example. But they will be let put there last thing tonight for their waddle, and first thing in the morning. It's about six hours clear the thing gets. But yes, he'll be back.. We need to make reinforcements to the house. It's had some damage so I think I'll buy a small new one while we overhaul this one decently. It could do with new base boards all the way round, ours are dodgy, making a mobile house immobile!

Also, we have quite a lot of cover and I suspect last spring a vixen reared cubs in one of our hedgerows. I might even bring all the hens into the garden this spring summer. At a push they would all squeeze in the small house now.

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

M'good self and DS walked the dog in the local park this AM, and when he was still on his lead, he started pulling us towards a pigeon on the grass. There were feathers all around it and it wasn't moving but was clearly alive and no injuries.
We kept him well away from it. not that I'm sentimental or squeamish (what am I talking about., I'm actually a bit of both) but nature 'll take its toll and I didn't fancy an honorary (canine) family member making a kill in front of DS and every child and adult in the park. :eek:

I am now sentimental and squeamish...thus I would have got one of my dogs to finish it instead of doing it myself these days. The nice thing about no rooster this year is no slaughter of excess boys later this summer.:o

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

It's been a shocking year for the chickens. They have been killed by foxes and rats and I think a badger and a buzzard.

The fox on Friday was a surprise, as its just so close to the house. The three girls in there were fine. For the first time we have no rooster. :eek:

For the lawn birds we are considering not getting another rooster. We have two millefleur bantams and he snow ball, so not sure what type of rooster we would get for this mixed crowd. I have suggested we consider two tiny houses and keep a small group of each....but that suggests breeding more of them....and tbh, don't want to ATM. Keeping numbers low for a while seems a good idea.

Sorry to hear about Cotton Bud.

What happened to Chickadee?

You all seem to have been very active and energetic this weekend. I have been doing nothing very much all weekend. By the third week of the holiday (the ones where the kids were back at school and I wasn't) I was finally beginning to feel I had some energy and getting all sorts of things done, and now I am back at work I am feeling flat and unmotivated again. I'm not sure whether it's work that disagrees with me, or getting up for it instead of sleeping half the morning.

lostinrates

Chickadee, and his successor, le cockerel tocker ( pronounced with corny French accent) were fox and I think but not certain, badger victims respectively.


Seriously bad year. I think we have eleven birds left ATM.