On 05/04/2011 14:14, Janet wrote:
In , says...
Absolutely! what a wonderful thing to have otters in the garden. I
think I would be more than happy to share. Shame about the fish, I
know how I felt when the heron took all mine one year, after which I
netted the pond. I now have a really large flourishing pond community,
but would gladly remove the nets if I thought I could encourage
otters. Not sure I would keep replacing the fish, that could become
expensive. What else do they eat?
We were just talking about this last night, with the friends who supply
our eggs. They had just seen a chicken taken in broad daylight by an otter
:-) (They are very "country" people and would not mistake a mink for an
otter).
A month or so ago they and their neighbours' henhouses were being
raided in the daytime by local badgers who live on the same hill. D solved
this by closing the ground-level pophole to the chicken house, and
relocating it high up above badger reach (his chickens are agile enough
for limited flight). The neighbours keep a heavier breed of chicken, so
they too relocated their pophole to high up above badger-level but leaned
an old ladder up to it, so the chickens could get in. Next thing she hears
a commotion in the chickenhouse and arrived in time to meet the badger
nimbly shinning back down the ladder dragging a dead chicken in its gob...
Janet
Good gracious I had never heard of badgers taking chickens. Don't think
we have any badger set inside the electric fence but I do worry about
rats in the hen house. The humane traps we put out only trapped a couple
of wood mice, which were promptly released again. Still no sign of rats
in any of the outhouses but we remain vigilant. Angus the Westie will be
back with us next week so the combined efforts of Pickles Benji and
Angus should soon get rid of any marauding rodents. Add to that the fact
that the kittens get spayed next week and will soon be free to roam the
area. ( I am still in two minds about that, being rather partial to the
bird life that we have here)
Bobbie