by George Collins » Mon Sep 30, 2013 11:22 am
Experience has now taught me that electrified netting is no substitute for electrified poultry netting. And now, my cute little chicken house sits unused, surrounded by electrified netting that the chickens walked through as if it weren't there. Now they are free range. Problem with that is we live in predator central. Worse still, one of them can't fly well enough to make it up to the roost prompting me to go out every night right after dark to put her ungrateful butt up in the magnolia tree they use for a roost. Being off the ground doesn't do a thing though to protect them against coons and possums. Since my wife won't let me get any more farm toys until payday (the 15th), I walked into the house one day and asked, "Who wants to go camping?"
Everyone said they wanted to so I tasked my two eldest boys to sleep outside every night that it doesn't rain until i can get the proper fence so their scent will keep all predators at bay. Some of course will think it cruel of me to have my boys sleep outside in lieu of obtaining suitable fencing materials but then that's just the way I roll. (Between the ages of about 10 and 15, durin that portion of the warmer months that we weren't in school, my brother and I slept outside every night it didn't rain.)
And this morning, as they were coming in from pulling chicken-guard duty, one came running up to me with our very first Dorking egg.
My babies are all growed up.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"
"If you can't beat them, bite them."