GOOD LORD … what a nightmare!
With the best of intentions, Hooey and I set out to relocate the second broody hen’s elevated 5-gallon bucket-of-a-nest into the other coop with broody hen #1 and her recent hatchlings.
In hindsight (and 20/20 vision), I should have anticipated the hen would resist, and maybe put something beneath the nest in case something (dunno, maybe eggs or chicks?) would fall out, which is EXACTLY what happened.
Lost two chicks. One looks to have been expired before we started the relo activity. Probably died last night. The other had either just hatched, or may have been forcibly ejected from her egg when it hit the ground. Not sure. But what I AM SURE OF is the stupid hen pecked the crap out of it and killed it. Great mothering skills there.
The rest of the video speaks for itself.
FOURTH SNAKE in three days! This one scared the ba-Jeez-us out of me. I think I pulled a muscle in my right shoulder snatching my right hand away from that monster. Why did I react like that? Because in the heat of the battle, in the first few micro-seconds of recognizing there was a f*cking snake right in front of my face, I couldn’t tell whether it was a black snake or a copperhead. NOBODY wants to come literally face to face with a copperhead, because (a) they are extremely aggressive (i.e. bite first, ask questions later), and (b) poisonous.
I lost count of how many exasperated sighs I let out. Cursed a bit, but no F-bombs (surprisingly).
As a secondary revenue pipeline strategy, I’ve decided that I’m going to start a new micro-business selling black snakes on eBay. Might as well put a little coinage in my pocket, right?