Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
30th May 2020
Scared Crows
Apparently, along with toilet paper, flour and alcohol, one of the things that has rocketed in sales during the last few months, is chicken coops – and pet chickens. As the old adage goes, ‘you can’t beat a fresh egg in the morning’. And people are realising the pleasure and practical benefits of having hens at home.
I have had chickens since I was a kid, and my brother had a little pet bantam when he was 5 or 6 that he used to put in the basket on the back of his trike and ‘drive’ around to see the neighbours.
They are so much more sociable and intelligent than most people give them credit for (hens, not neighbours) but maybe not quite as intelligent as a crow – as I found out last week.
I was collecting fewer eggs than usual, but thought the hens were just adapting to the heat. Then I saw a crow fly out of their run with an egg in his beak. Not having seen this in over 50 years, and not believing my own eyes, I actually Googled it. And sure enough, a crow can and will go into a hen house and steal the eggs. Even more annoying was that this particular crow must have been stealing four or five eggs a day for a week or so.
I know you can use rubber or china eggs to deter the hens from eating their own eggs so figured that might deter a crafty crow too, but I was too impatient to order those online. So after a bit of a head-scratch, I filled two old eggshells with gravel and put them in the nesting box. The very next day the two gravel filled eggs were gone and two real eggs remained. I still have this comical mental picture of a rather puzzled crow – although the biggest puzzle has to be how on earth he managed to carry them.
Convinced I would now have an angry crow returning for revenge, I asked for advice on Facebook, and some wise friends mentioned a scarecrow. So I ‘sacrificed’ one of my garden wire figures and dressed it in my old work clothes – by a stroke of luck, he/she was a size 8 – and then put it in the chicken run. I knew it was effective when I went to feed the hens later that afternoon and nearly had a heart attack when I saw ‘someone’ sitting next to the hen house!
I’m pleased to report that 10 days on, I have had no more bother with crows and am now collecting my full quota of eggs each day. I move the scarecrow around the pen a bit and being made of wire it is flexible (more so than me, I fear) enough to adopt some convincing ‘human’ positions. He still gives me quite a shock if I’m not concentrating and I’m sure he would help to keep other predators like a fox away too. Maybe a project for the kids during lock down?
Guard Your Chickens
One of the best products I have ever bought is the ChickenGuard Automatic Door Opener which opens and closes the chicken coop pop-hole door on a timer. For a few years now, my chickens have been going to bed later than I do during the summer and I used to have to wait up for them to go to roost before I could. The ’world’s best’ automatic door opener has solved all of that and also shuts them in safely during the winter when they often go to bed before I’m home – I have just realised they sound a bit like teenagers.
Foxes are real opportunists and I can guarantee that the one night you don’t shut your hens in, or are late, the fox will beat you too them. It is the most heartbreaking experience. I can’t recommend the automatic door highly enough and have often said I think it ought to be mandatory with every chicken house, as it ensures the safety of your hens and therefore your own peace of mind. Pop into www.chickenguard.co.uk for more details and different options.
Eggs-ellent Idea
I often use empty egg shell halves to grow seedlings like marigolds and other annuals in and then crush the shells and plant the whole thing out in the garden, about now. But I recently saw – and recreated – another eggs-eptional way to repurpose egg shells.
Simply put little flowerheads into an empty eggshell (just take off the top when you crack it) and then fill with water and freeze.
You get he most beautiful little floral ice dome.
Obviously remember it will melt quite quickly, so be careful where you display it!
Muddy The Water
Well, nature certainly hasn’t been in lockdown during the last few months. Wildlife is more apparent, blossom has been breathtaking, and the weather has just been er, ‘unprecedented’. With record breaking sunshine, April was the driest on record and now May has been the hottest and driest on record too.
As well as watering vulnerable plants and containers, please keep water out for wildlife. Bees and butterflies need shallow saucers of water or boggy compost to drink from, butterflies get valuable minerals and salts from slightly muddy water, birds use water to bathe and remove parasites. and hedgehogs will need water to drink too. Try to use rainwater from water butts if you have any left, or water from a stream where possible, as no wildlife is keen on tap water.
If you are lucky enough to have swallows nesting in your house or barn, please be kind and make, and keep, a big muddy puddle for them to get beaks full of mud to use to build and repair their nests in the dry weather. They will reward you with the most wonderful sight, swooping down for their ‘building materials’.
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