Ribh's D'Coopage

[Ribh]

Hopefully he has learned his lesson.

I'm glad you didn't kill it.

I don't kill unless I absolutely have to. It's somewhere much safer for it where it should be able to find plenty of food.

 

[drstratton]

Gloriana: the Chicken with 2 lives.
She doesn't seem any worse for her misadventures last night.
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I'm so happy she's still with you!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Is she part corgi? She is very cute.

No, she's about the size of a Border Collie. I guess the angle of the photo foreshortened her legs. She's supposed to be a German Shepherd x Kelpie.
I think she looks a bit like the Firefox logo.

plus

equals

My Tarot.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I've been quite surprised here at just how many men are completely gaga over their chickens. I've mentioned before, here chicken keeping seems to be mainly a male thing.
There was a man in Sant Celoni, a nearby town with a rooster on his shoulder the other day.

Maybe he was practicing to be a pirate.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I may never be a sane woman again after last night!

We have been doing our tax ~ which is an unmitigated nightmare, as much because the man & I work very differently & he thinks I am a computer genius just because I know a little bit more than he does, as anything else. So it had been a super stressful day & I was doing something I rarely do @ night in an attempt to destress; I was still up watching a movie on the computer long after I'm normally in bed, & my earphones in, which is a left over from when there were lots of us & several were very light sleepers.

I was zoning quite nicely when I thought I heard a chicken ruckus.

Now I don't know about your flock but once mine has roosted I don't hear a peep from them till first light so I grabbed my phone, which has the only torch we still own [all ours ended up in the lads boats] & headed out to check on the girls.

I arrived @ the pen just as 2 chooks fell out of the coop!

You can imagine my horror!

I reefed open the door to find a snake wrapped right around Gloriana several times!!!

I'm not frightened of snakes but they're not welcome to help themselves to my girls either so I grabbed the metal rake & began reefing the coils from around Gloriana. I found myself with one really, really angry snake as it slithered away from the body. I was trying to hang onto my phone & wield the rake when I noticed I had a Vorwerk on a stump & the snake was heading right for it!!!

Rake down, Vorwerk grabbed & shoved in the coop.

I made a quick exit to grab a pitch fork, shoved the phone in my teeth & proceeded to try & deal with the snake, who was proving an elusive customer. I wanted to try & pin the head with the rake & stab it with the pitch fork.

I tried bellowing for the man a couple of times but he's deafer than a door post & I wasn't holding out much hope of him actually hearing me. About 20 minutes in he wandered downstairs to fend of night starvation, noticed I was missing & in checking out the window heard me ~ @ last!

With the cavalry in sight I figured we had some chance of dealing with the snake. The man used to keep all sorts of reptiles, including snakes, as a kid, so while I know the theory I've never had to actually catch one. With me shining the torch the man was able to pin the head & shove the thing in a bag. Pretty sure we have nabbed a carpet snake.

I was pretty upset, thinking we'd lost yet another chicken when all of a sudden I hear Gloriana's distinctive, distressed honking. She was up & looking for a way back to her roost so I grabbed her & brought her inside for a quick check over, some electrolytes & a sip of water before putting her back on a roost. The 3 smaller Vorwerks & Portia were all huddled in the far corner nesting box so I reefed them out one by one & put them back on a roost too.

Here is the Lady of the hour enjoying her morning in the sun

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The snake is bagged & due for a long car trip later this morning.
It's over 6' long but very skinny & the man reckons it was starving.
It's in even worse shape now, with several puncture holes from the pitchfork!
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I found the hole the snake had made @ a join in the wire & mended it but I think I am even more traumatised than my chickens​

Me too ~ & of course I didn't sleep well for worrying but everyone seems fine this morning ~ including the littlies who were awake & upset by all the hoo~ha in the big coop.

I'm amazed you could sleep at all with all that adrenaline coursing through your system!
Well done you fending off the snake. I'm so glad all your girls are OK.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

This is Notch and Myth. They've been separated from Donk and Knock by Punch.
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This is Punch trying to pretend that he isn't really up to any mischief and just happened to be having a bit of a groom when I arrived.
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This picture tells a rather different story to the one Punch would have you believe. That's the rest of Tribe 2 tucking in to Notch's tribes grub!
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That Punch is a cheeky beggar!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I captured this lovely shot too!
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I was thinking of you as I took it!

I think I'll enter it on picture of the week.

It's a wonderful shot. I think it would go well in the next calendar too.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Lots of people are terrified of snakes so I won't hold it against him. I'm lucky I'm not, though wary as it was hard to be sure what sort I was dealing with in the dark.

Time to invest in a headlamp Ribh. I got mine from Big W last year. It has a white light and a red light so I don't disturb the girls. Very useful when I need both hands.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

@Ribh tonight's sunset was tailor made for you.

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Absolutely glorious colours Bob.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

This is our snake.
As suspected a carpet snake & very subdued after 12 hours in a chicken feed bag.​

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We released him in swamp land devoid of people habitation.
May he live long in the land & forever more avoid chickens!

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That's a big lad. So glad you could send him off somewhere far away from habitation.