Two Less "Tweets"

"I've got my eye on you two!"

Our Maker's Acres Family Farm is not on Twitter, but with baby chicks running around the barn, we have our fair share of "tweets".  Sadly, there are two less tweets from the original four.  Yesterday's Post (Click here to read) left you with a teaser at the end about the demise of two of momma hen's offspring.

In the photo above, momma hen appears to be alone, but as you can tell she's looking down.  She is protecting her little family by keeping a watchful eye on them. She's giving them freedom, but at the same time she is ready to step in, if necessary, to help them out.  So what is she looking at?  Well, this for starters:

I can't quite get that high up on the gate, Momma

Where's the other one? Ah, there she is:

We'll keep trying, though.  One of these days, we'll get there.

But where are the other two?  This was a great mystery until last week.  Benjamin was at a school function so I was gathering eggs for him.  I picked up eggs out in the pasture in the chicken tractor, then I gathered some from the henhouse, some from the goat barn, behind the freezer we use to store chicken feed in and then some in the nesting boxes in the goat milking stall.  The last place was a couple of nests that hens made atop some hay stacked in the goat milking stall.

When I reached in to pick up the eggs, I'm not kidding you, a five foot long snake was in the nest, coiled around about a half dozen eggs with one in his mouth.  I ran for a shovel, swinging wildly, but the snake escaped underneath the pallet.  It was a snake that is harmless to humans - a rat snake or a chicken snake, as we call them. Although they are harmless, they get huge and thus are scary when you come across them.

They are named after what they eat.  I have a buddy that will NOT kill them.  He calls them 'heat-seeking missiles' that rid his barn of rats.  He's right, you know. But... they'll also rid your barn of baby chicks and I'm 100% certain that that snake had the #2 chicken combo meal off the value menu one day last week.   That's where the other two chicks went.  So what to do?

Well, I'm not like my buddy.  I'm going to kill the snake.  Here's how.  I purchased four ceramic eggs from the feed store.

I'll place them in the nest atop the hay and the snake will eat the ceramic eggs thinking they are real eggs.  Except these eggs will give him a case of constipation that no amount of Metamucil will heal. The snake will be stopped up and he'll slither off and die.  I'll discover the missing ceramic egg one day in a snake skeleton under the barn floor or a pallet and I'll recover it and use it again.

So I placed one ceramic egg in with the other three real eggs in one of the nests.  The ceramic egg is the egg in the 11 o'clock position in the photo below.  Can you see the problem? They look TOO much like real eggs.

I did have to make one change since these look and feel SO much like a real egg - I added a racing stripe to differentiate them.  Otherwise, when gathering eggs each day, Benjamin would mistake the ceramic eggs for a real one and Tricia would discover it when she tries to break it on the cast iron skillet when making an omelet for breakfast.  We can't have that!

Putting a racing stripe on the ceramic eggs ~ They're racing to get into a chicken snake in the henhouse!

The chicks, hopefully, after watching their sisters become snake food are being vigilant and watchful for the snake, seeking protection beneath their momma's protective wings.  We hope the hen is on her guard as well, protecting her babies under her wings.  You know, this story has relevance to humans in addition to our fine feathered friends in the barnyard.  The Good Lord wants to protect us under his wings.  Sometimes, however, we want to do things our own way.  We're hard-headed ( tête dur) and venture away from Him.

There is a Serpent out there that means to do us harm.  He wishes to devour us and that's exactly what he'll do, too.  If we're wise, we'll stay under the protective cover that our Great God provides.

He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.  Psalm 91:4