Then Brick disappeared. Wouldn't come when called, so I went out in the woods to find him yo-yoing between coming to me and running to a lamb stuck in a vine. Took care of that, put the sheep back in the arena, then lost Brick again.
Found him around the coop, then found there was Marq exclaiming about snakes in the coop.
We had just this morning place the ducklings and chicks out in the coop. Mistake apparently. There were two snakes, black rat snakes, fat with having eaten ducklings and chicks. Lost 3 ducklings, two chicks - only two survived. I fished the live chicks out of the coop with salad tongs since the snakes were in defense and striking like crazy. The dogs were trying hard to reach the snakes, very upset. They were grabbing at the snakes every time they got struck at and had already injured both.
Stood back and let the dogs milling and jumping around me do their job. Kestrel, Powwow, and Brick quickly did them in.
One was 69 inches long, the other 58. Not small game really. Never had two snakes at once - or that large. This would also explain the loss of turkey egg production - they were being eaten. Probably ate 25 bucks of ducks, chicks and eggs, easily, probably more costly than that.
1 comment:
That is ... amazing. Utterly amazing.
Post a Comment