Hide and seek

Keeping bantam chooks that are completely free range is all very well, but it’s a problem when they choose to scorn the nesting boxes in the palatial shed that is their chook house. They don’t even roost there at night since being spooked by a feral cat or quoll attack years ago. Bantams clearly have longer memories than most give them credit for. They’ve never gone back, choosing instead to roost in a tree that is arguably less safe than the chook house.

But it’s when they decide to go bush to lay their eggs that’s tiresome. Most were being good as gold this season, but with a few cooler nights last week, and summer on the wane, the rats and mice are moving closer to the chook house – and probably our house as well! - where they know there’s likely to be a free feed. And so it was. Two eggs had been scraped clean of their contents with just their broken shells remaining. Time to bring out some rodent bait.

I was already sure one chook was laying somewhere else, as she’s done before, so it was a matter of revisiting some of her previous haunts. It took a while but finally found her just as she was ready to settle in for the duration. A pointless exercise given the eggs weren’t fertilised since we have no rooster, but chooks never seem to get that bit.

So we managed to scoop up a dozen eggs, and left her with just one to keep her happy for a few weeks before she’s tossed off her makeshift nest, as they all have to be eventually. Theoretically chooks are supposed to know when the three-week incubation period is up, but every time it’s a triumph of optimism over harsh reality, even if it does take several attempts before that reality kicks in.

John’s theory is they’re all getting desperate because they’re getting older and their instinct is to reproduce before it’s too late. Maybe he’s right given he knows more about chooks than I do. Certainly we’re amazed they’re all still laying given they have to be at least seven or eight years old which is positively geriatric in chook terms..

And they’ll never know how privileged their lives have been compared to their farmed cousins.