When cleaning out the garden on Saturday, we came across a nest of 10 baby rabbits. Apparently, we have fewer feral cats in the neighborhood than I thought. We debated what to do, since we have had years when the population of rabbits explodes and we have to bring a family friend in to harvest them. We didn't have the heart to dispatch the bitty fluffs of fur, and so we moved the nest off to the side and continued our chores. Two hours later, we watched as the mother rabbit came back to her spot, sniffed around, and quickly located her offspring. Harmony restored.
Our garden production would suffer for this, no doubt.
This morning, our tender-hearted son opened the run so that the chickens could forage and run about a bit. After lunch, I went out and saw that the nest of 10 is now down to just three. I feel certain that the hens found a new source of protein, especially after watching the hens chase after one bird that clearly was playing keep-away from the rest of the flock. All I can say is that it wasn't a dandelion that she was carrying. Ugh.
Bottom line - who needs cats when you have chickens to keep the local rodent population down.
Our garden production would suffer for this, no doubt.
This morning, our tender-hearted son opened the run so that the chickens could forage and run about a bit. After lunch, I went out and saw that the nest of 10 is now down to just three. I feel certain that the hens found a new source of protein, especially after watching the hens chase after one bird that clearly was playing keep-away from the rest of the flock. All I can say is that it wasn't a dandelion that she was carrying. Ugh.
Bottom line - who needs cats when you have chickens to keep the local rodent population down.
