Seasonal Almanac

The rats have been busily tunnelling into the chicken house.

I went to get some chicken feed the other day and the man at the store gave me scratch mix instead of the layer’s mix I asked for. The scratch mix is almost entirely made out of grains, seeds, and corns – the chickens love them. They gorged themselves on the mix and their gullets were so full I thought they were going to burst. The rats obviously caught whiff of the news and wanted a share of the pie.

At first we try to remedy the situation by placing wood blocks on the holes dug under the pen’s walls. In reaction to the blockage, the rats extended these holes into tunnels. More obstacles were met with more presistent earthwork.

I am sorry to say the rats won this round. Redmond ended up moving the tractor and putting mesh wire down the enclosed end. We replaced the food with ordinary layer’s mix. We also had to clean up the mulching areas to deter the rodent visitors.