Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

A much quieter day today: we spent some time this morning putting up more poultry netting to stop the birds wandering towards the part of the paddock where we know the fox came in yesterday. We also hope it may make it more difficult for him/her to gain access. The fox scarer is switched on again although we don't know how effective it is now. We have contacted someone about setting up a fox trap for us although the debate still continues as to whether killing foxes who steal chickens is acceptable. The trap captures the fox live and then it either is released elsewhere, or more usually, shot!!! We have the weekend to ponder. It was a relief to get to the end of the day, give all the poultry their afternoon corn and then shut them up for the night.
Interestingly, the perches nearest the pop-hole and the lower perches in the barn are getting less and less used: partly perhaps because as our younger birds become fully grown, the pecking order changes. Those who are low down the pecking order get the least favoured perches and so as the young adults are now finding their places, this means some of the older birds may be getting pushed down the ranks a little. These two Leghorns (second photo) are quite high up in the order plus they love to perch high anyway. It is also very likely that the stress of the recent fox attack is making the birds change where they want to sleep: the desire to survive means 'not' perching near the pop-hole and/or going higher.
It was certainly a very noisy 'settling down for the night' session this evening, suggesting there was indeed a lot of jostling for places. Let's hope our good luck continues tomorrow when we have help on the holding so ensuring someone should be around outside most of the day to scare off any foxes that may come sniffing...