Hi Jae. I’m sorry to read about the loss of one of your girls. I had to look up what a stoat is, nasty little buggars from what you’ve said. I hope all your efforts will keep it away. Kiwis are so cute, it is sad to know that they are hit so hard by predation. Better them than your flock though, circle of life and all.Those babies are adorable, and they are going to grow into beautiful birds.
Sadly one of our bantam hens was attacked and killed by a stoat on Saturday.The chickens stayed locked up on Sunday (which they were most put out about) and I've walked our dog around and around their area to put the stoat off coming back again. We've put the cattle around the chickens to eat down all the tall clumps of grass too. So far we've seen no sign of it again and we got a trap from the Regional Council which is set with rabbit meat which is apparently their favourite. The lady there said she wasn't surprised as this time of year the young ones get kicked out of the den to fend for themselves. And she said there will be Kiwi in the area and there are definitely some on the farm across the road! It's awesome to think they are around, but sadly up to 90% of young Kiwi are killed off by stoats. Horrid creatures.
It doesn't help that our dork of a young cockerel (the big boy) keeps trying to get the girls to nest as far away from the coop as he can get, in the longest patches of grass.
Hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Hope those ducklings don't take too long for you @igorsMistress .
Thank you for the good hatching vibes! They aren’t due to hatch until Thursday and I’m just feeling impatient. Lockdown is always the hardest part of incubation, so close and yet so far. I understand ducks are notoriously slow to hatch as well so I kinda feel like I’ll be lucky to have babies by the weekend. Take care!
