We are very familiar with this area having had our family living here for many years. On arrival the beautiful 1 acre property was like all others in the area, very dry not having seen any rain for a while. The weather soon changed and we had rain for most of the sit.
The owners had 5 free range chickens and we were the recipients of lovely fresh eggs each day. Along with keeping chickens the owner is a keen native bee keeper and we had approximately 25 hives to check daily.
We arrived home one afternoon to unfortunately find that a snake had entered the chicken coop and taken one of the chickens. Due to the size of its meal it didn’t appear to be in any hurry to move on. This was to be the first of two visits to the coop from snakes but thankfully the second snake did not take another. The owners son has his boat at the property and thankfully on both occasions had arrived to take the boat out so removed them from the property for us. One of the drawbacks we feel to rural living.
Responsibilities Included:
Feeding Chickens/Fresh Water & Egg Collection
Checking the Hives Daily
Security of the Home
Mail Collection
Mowing of the 1-acre property & Gardening
What a shock to find a snake in the coup, and to realise it had eaten one of the chooks! And then to have another snake visit. How great the son visited and moved the snake on. But I bet you were very nervous collecting the eggs.
Estelle, Bruno had gone in several times before noticing the snake curled up in the corner. It was horrible – we have been told that the chicken would not have known what hit her as the snake would have taken her head first, hopefully that is the case. Every inch of the coop high and low was checked before entering after that!