Otto took one of my hens

Lately my hens have been laying eggs like mad. The cockerel has been servicing them regularly and one of them had started to go clucky. Instead of going into the roost at nightfall, it decided to stay in the nestbox. I failed to close the door and in the morning the hen was gone. I followed a trail of feathers to the water pipe at the bridge and there it was. Otto had taken the hen in the night.

Otto has wild instincts and under normal circumstances will take wildfowl, not to mention rabbits. A part of me is annoyed at this but the other half is glad that he has started to hunt.

From now on at nights I will lock the hens in their roost and let them out in the morning. On the mainland this is common practice due to foxes, mink etc. Coll has none of these. The only predator that we have here are...otters.

If the hens go clucky they will also be locked in at night. The nesting areas have hatches that can be closed at night.

On a brighter note... In the wild Otters will take bird eggs such as greylag geese, gulls etc. I tried him out on hen eggs but he would accidently crush them when trying to carry them...not any more! Otto can now carry an egg in his mouth without breaking it!