The Missing Dozen

Yesterday, All Bright Sanitation (828.894.5009) came to swap out the big yellow construction dumpsters. Despite the treacherous nature of giant machines lifting and pushing a 22-foot-long steel container filled with a ton of debris, 12 delicate eggs were found unscathed in a small nest beneath the dumpster. A little backstory: Checkers, the only hen of our three hatchlings from last July, seems to be following in the footsteps of Gloria, our Araucana "Houdini". Checkers has been consistently jumping the 4-foot-tall chicken wire fencing of the new chicken run. We found it futile to put her back in, so we let her explore the new grounds on her own despite the dangers of being a lone wandering hen. Since she is the youngest Araucana, we can distinguish her eggs because they are smaller than normal and blue-green. We found one of her eggs near the edge of the forementioned dumpster a while back, but didn't realize she had continued to lay them further under, where we couldn't see them. This morning, Checkers let herself out, as usual, and was wandering around the exact spot where the dumpster (and her dozen eggs) were located just 24 hours earlier. Poor girl didn't know what to do so she ended up just laying today's egg in the grass. While the eggs may still be good, they may have been damaged due to recent freezing temperatures so we're giving them to the dogs---not our customers. :-)

Screams in the Night

Occasionally we hear some odd sounds at night out here in the country. While sleeping with the windows open one night, Dionne and Maya were awoken by some eerie screaming that came from the field between our rental cottage and the landlord's house. It lasted for about a minute and sounded unlike any animals they had heard (but you must remember, we're still relatively new to the country!). When the screaming stopped, the chickens could be heard quietly clucking amongst themselves as if to say "Be very quiet or we may be next!" A few nights later, on the weekend, we heard the same (or a similar) noise and I was able to capture it on my cellphone.

http://www.tk899.com/blueharvestfarm/nightcreatures.mp3

We're still not 100% sure what it was, but my guess is coyotes fighting over a deer carcass. Either that or the chupacabra.