A bad day comes and gets you in a sneaky fashion.
To be fair it's not been all bad but it's been a disheartening day which are always tougher to come back from when you can't have a bubble bath to soak the cares away after dinner.
This morning we found the remains of a dead turkey in the pen when we went down to feed them. It had been almost entirely eaten and was just skeleton, wings, feet and a bit of head. Grim :( We deduced it must be rats and I left Ady and Star working out ways to make the pen rat proof. I headed off to school for the morning and then missed Ady coming back down as we must have crossed somewhere as he took the car down to the ferry and I walked home. I had stopped to call in and wish Happy Birthday to a fellow islander and then for a chat along the way with another one.
When I got back to the croft I stopped to check on the animals and there was a second dead turkey in the pen. This time the culprits were all still there with blood on their beaks - the hooded crows, bane of our lives and our number one enemy here on the croft. They took all seven of the chicks our hen hatched this year, stolen countless eggs, had a go at the dead piglets and now it seems are helping themselves to our wee turkeys and using Croft 3 as some kind of all you can eat buffet.
I hate them.
Having run across the croft swearing and waving my arms at them I set off back to the pier to catch up with Ady. I walked down part way with another islander, then the rest of the way with yet another one and then sat at the pier waiting for the boat bitching about the crows. At least it feels like we have a whole island on our side against them.
We've now netted the pen and reduced the size of it. If it is the crows then the turkeys should now be safe. If it's rats then we have a lot more work to do. Fingers crossed for the morning. Losing 20% of our turkey stock at less than a week in is pretty rubbish. And expensive.
In other news our animal feed delivery arrived missing a bag and the kitchen window of the static got broken. Not one of our better days.
Ah sorry to hear of your losses-nature can be harsh. Hope the nets do the trick and that you have better luck with the next batch x
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