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I'm livid.
This morning we received a letter from the council saying 'a rat' had been spotted in our village a while ago and the rat man has been around to look at the village. He believes that as 'we alone in the village keep chickens' it is our chook keeping that has encouraged the rat (singular)
He hasn't looked very far. This is a sizeable village, now they've built all the new homes, and we know of at least two dozen other households who have poultry. The difference between being that ours are the only chooks kept in a front garden. No one in the village has seen this guy, and he certainly hasn't knocked on any doors. I know, because I have. No one else has received a letter to date.
He has sent us a patronising leaflet telling us how to look after our chooks properly (go teach your grandmother to suck eggs, mate!) It tells us to keep all of our chook feed in hoppers (check) and off the ground (check) but they don't know much about chooks it seems; or rats come to that. Any self-respecting rat can get food out of a hopper! We also take the hopper in at night because our DD isn't too sure the local hedgehogs should eat the layers pellets.
The leaflet also goes on about putting food on the ground for chickens i.e. corn & grain as any left lying will attract rats. 'Any left lying'?? You have to be kidding, mate. There isn't ever any food 'left lying' with a dozen greedy girls!! But everyone hereabouts feeds the wild birds. I don't think it's possible to pass a garden around here that hasn't got bird tables of all heights, hanging nets/balls/etc and seed holders and most people chuck stuff on their lawns every day. None of these things are particularly rat proof. A rat can't climb a bird table stood alone, but it can climb onto birdtables attached to walls and sheds or stood too close to neighbouring plants. The DD used to have pet rats and they were hugely intelligent creatures.
We also have eight cats - if rats take up residence around here they'd have to be daft. And, talking of daft, the person who complained that he saw a rat was Christian. No, not that type of Christian - Christian is our local addict and I quite like him. He's actually a very clever guy, unless he's stoned - which is 90% of the time. Christian sees pink orang utans FFS.
Tomorrow, when I'm calm I shall reply sensibly to the stupid letter.
This morning we received a letter from the council saying 'a rat' had been spotted in our village a while ago and the rat man has been around to look at the village. He believes that as 'we alone in the village keep chickens' it is our chook keeping that has encouraged the rat (singular)
He hasn't looked very far. This is a sizeable village, now they've built all the new homes, and we know of at least two dozen other households who have poultry. The difference between being that ours are the only chooks kept in a front garden. No one in the village has seen this guy, and he certainly hasn't knocked on any doors. I know, because I have. No one else has received a letter to date.
He has sent us a patronising leaflet telling us how to look after our chooks properly (go teach your grandmother to suck eggs, mate!) It tells us to keep all of our chook feed in hoppers (check) and off the ground (check) but they don't know much about chooks it seems; or rats come to that. Any self-respecting rat can get food out of a hopper! We also take the hopper in at night because our DD isn't too sure the local hedgehogs should eat the layers pellets.
The leaflet also goes on about putting food on the ground for chickens i.e. corn & grain as any left lying will attract rats. 'Any left lying'?? You have to be kidding, mate. There isn't ever any food 'left lying' with a dozen greedy girls!! But everyone hereabouts feeds the wild birds. I don't think it's possible to pass a garden around here that hasn't got bird tables of all heights, hanging nets/balls/etc and seed holders and most people chuck stuff on their lawns every day. None of these things are particularly rat proof. A rat can't climb a bird table stood alone, but it can climb onto birdtables attached to walls and sheds or stood too close to neighbouring plants. The DD used to have pet rats and they were hugely intelligent creatures.
We also have eight cats - if rats take up residence around here they'd have to be daft. And, talking of daft, the person who complained that he saw a rat was Christian. No, not that type of Christian - Christian is our local addict and I quite like him. He's actually a very clever guy, unless he's stoned - which is 90% of the time. Christian sees pink orang utans FFS.
Tomorrow, when I'm calm I shall reply sensibly to the stupid letter.
COnsidered thought is the order of the day (or of the 'morrow).
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