A rare guest post from my husband, Paul Vail.
Honey, there's a deer in the chicken coop again.
by Paul S Vail on Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 7:45pm ·
I'm conflicted. You see, we have a Bambi infestation something bad. They are everywhere - at Rachel's office window licking out the expensive black sunflower seed we get for the cardinals by the tongue-full, or camping out my door in the scuppernaugh vines, or stripping off the lacey frills of asperagus leaves. Early after sun-up as one of us heads out for a run, evenings when they play deer gang initiation games such as dash in front of the commuter. Or even in the broad daylight, mocking us all with a diurnal lust for non-native yard plantings -- deer salad-- all they are missing is the dressing. Chudleigh is shaking uncontrollably at this temptation. I'm conflicted. Do I let the door open, or not. See, it isn't as simple as asking him 'What would you do if you caught one?' He knows, and I know, he is in it only for the joy of the chase.
And yet, this game has unexpected consequences.For weeks, Chuds has been tasked with protecting the chicken coop from the plague of tree rat food thieves, the eastern Grey Squirrel. We've been burning through the chicken scratch at an alarming rate, while skippy the squirrel and family have been approaching American obesity rates on our food (and dime). We can see them from the back deck, with the feeder visible, swinging inside. The chickens are dainty eaters, they don't swing. To keep Skippy et. al. out of the coop, we let Chuds go nuclear on them. He's all about being part of the solution.So what does a good dog do when it isn't Skippy gorging at the chicken trough? Three days ago in the afternoon, a time no self-respecting white-tail would be anywhere close to human habitation in a normal universe, I came out on the back porch to see a deer with its head and neck stuck entirely through the small coop hatch. What the Freeloader is that?, I thought. Slipping the latch on the deck gate, I let Bambi have a taste of Chudleigh justice. Now, to give her credit, it was only a half dozen casual bounds before she cleared the fence line. Not much of a contest. Still, both Chuds and I were a bit surprised at her brazenness.
So things put us both in complete shock just two days ago. There was some squawking from the coop and I could see the chute feeder moving about in the middle of the day. Calling Chuds on to the deck, I knew the tree rat chase would be on in seconds. Chuds flew down the steps, executed his hairpin turn for the straight away 40 meter dash ... and boy did he pull up short of the coop ramp. There was a frightful amount of commotion in the coop, with wood banging. Chuds actually backed off. Uh oh, what's in there? Fox? Redtail? So I turn to bolt down the steps when suddenly there's a crash of wood and breaking glass. I spin in time to see Bambi leaping away from the coop, past the bee hives and over the fence.Chuds even forgot to bark until she was clear of the fence. Crazy! A deer had crawled completely into the coop through the 18x10 chicken ramp hatch to get to the chute feeder, gorging on the chicken crumbles. We didn't have a tree rat problem, we had an ungulate issue in the coop. Chuds had stood by the hatch expecting someone small and grey, totally NOT betting on tall and tan. The deer realized its entrance was now thoroughly canined, and like a bad biker movie, she opted to go through the hardware cloth screen ( to keep the foxes and coons out) and one or the hinged double-plate glass windows for her escape. Amazing. I'm still picking up bits of broken glass.
Back to the now. Maybe I can ease the screen door open just a bit. She has a good 10 meters lead on him...
