Cat in the Hen House

Guess what??  Turns out cats like to chase chickens.  Who'd a thunk it?

Only a day after FB's first escape, I took Mirco back to look at them and ALL the chickens were missing.  AAGH!  We went off searching for them, and found all but fat bastard...the only one that couldn't fly...coincidence?  We're hoping so.  There were no feathers around, anyway.  We like to imagine him in the woods, re-establishing the wild chicken population.

Next day again, they all flew the coop...but this time we heard a major commotion first and saw the cat in hunting stance in the hedge.  Cat got hosed, chickens caught.  We thought she learned her lesson, but no -- two days later, another cat attack and alpacino ended up in the swimming pool.  Gab was right there and picked him out before he got waterlogged, and the cat got hosed again.

A couple of days without incident, and then the neighbour brought me Alpha and Beta, who had wandered into her hedge.  Then again the next day: this time we could only find Alpha, Beta and Al...Annie was missing. We searched for her everywhere, high and low, and didn't find her until Gab cleaned the pool that evening...in the filter skimmer.  First casualty.  (Picture shows Al and Beta)

And that was that -- next day was Friday, and Gab, Mia and Raff went back to the farmers market. They came home with a beautiful rooster, a grown bantam hen, a fully grown normal egg layer, and a beautiful little "pheonix" chicken.  Its been fascinating watching them integrate and establish their relationships and pecking order.

The rooster is called Mr. President 'cause he's more beautiful than he is smart, and he likes the ladies.  And we had just seen AlBorosie in concert and had been singing the song for a few days straight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tl1G995uPE.  His wife, the white broody bantam with black tail, is of course Mrs. President.  The phoenix is Fawkes (what else could we have called her?).  And the layer is just "ovaiola". In the picture:  Mr & Mrs President, Ovaiola (the big brown hen) and Beta.

Mr. President has taken to putting the girls to bed (we are having our doubts about Al...maybe he's a girl...no spurs, and no fighting with the Prez yet) and then he roosts outside up high in the trees behind the fence.  Drama yesterday morning, when in classic politician style, Mr President swooped down from his high perch and landed on the wrong side of the fence.  He was in a panic, trying to reach his ladies, crying all around.  Too stupid to climb back up and try again, not creative enough to use the ramp Gab put for him, and too freaked out to let gab catch him, Gab eventually cut a hole in the fence and put bread by the hole.  He had one direction only, straight ahead!  Once he was through, we fixed the fence and all was fine!

Oh yeah, and no more cat problems.  He may be stupid, but he keeps the cat away!

Gab is off to see about a piece of land today...maybe these characters will soon have a bigger better abode!  Everyone send luck wishes that it works out, and the next post will be all about our new farm!