We shell overcome*

We have been having trials and tribulations with our chickens of late. We have had blood, guts and gore. In fact awful things have been happening.

The first was the death of a bantam. Brian found it at the crack of doom, decapitated, blood splattered over the inside of the coop.

Then things started happening to the eggs. They were laid and then they were pecked. Shell, yolk and white everywhere. We didn't have a single whole egg for days.

Then bantam Number Two went the same way as bantam Number One (but with slightly more head and a little less blood on the walls.) More eggs were pecked. Not so 'Chicken Run' any more, unless you imagine it as a new version as directed by Quentin Tarantino.

We immediately suspected the new birds and started removing the ones that looked the most suspicious. These girls have had a tough start in life. Where the bantams were fluffy little country bumpkins and not street wise at all, the new ones were Girlz from the Hood, all ferocious of beak and feisty of attitude. These birds would look at you and say "Dead bantam? Whatever. Loser." Then strut off to eat another egg.

These had their wings clipped and a cable tie put on a leg for ID purposes. Still the eggs were pecked, but we did have a couple of sunny days with fluffy bottomed hens scratching prettily around the vegetable garden. They may murder each other and eat their babies, but they're still cute.

But still the eggs got pecked, although (touch wood) there have been no more bloody feathery corpses in the morning. But no more pretty white bantam eggs either. Happy Easter from the brown hens.

We tried mustard eggs for a few days. They enjoyed eating those too.

So Brian spent yesterday constructing a roll away egg box. This required many hours spent in the company of the murderous birds (amazing how innocent they can look, scratching around, fluffy bottoms in the air.) He observed a hen sneak away under the potting bench, so he followed her and found her adding to an impressive clutch of eggs. It seems she had found away of hiding her eggs from her egg-pecking peers. She laid another one there today too. But it's not just her. Her contribution today has been joined by yet another one. It's almost as if they're laying a trail across the garden to a nice, secretive nesting place.

As for the roll away nest box - it works! (See picture).

* "We Shell Overcome" is the heading suggested by Brian. I think he has spent too long with the hens.

UPDATE: In a previous post I wrote about Itsy (aka The Prettiest Pony in the World) who had a hoof abscess. She's all better now and today had a visit from the farrier for a hoof trim. All, it seems, is well again.