Well, Scott had his trauma with the dead mouse but our deaths are even more tragic – our first six hens enjoyed their new home for less than an hour and we’re left wondering ‘What did it’?

During his farming career, John bred cattle, sheep and pigs but never hens, though of course he had learnt a bit about poultry breeding at college. So he decided he wanted to have a go and set about building a coop, and very satisfied he was with his endeavours!

We carted the weight down the garden to a spot he thought would be ideal, with some shelter, good grass and plenty of space to scratch around in. Content with that achievement, John set off to buy the first six hens – a mix of breeds and really beautiful birds, I wish now I had photographed them.

He planned to keep them closed in for a few days to settle down before he let them out to run around – but only during the day, he knew they would have to be closed in at night.

An hour later he returned to see if they were OK, only to find a gaping hole in the wire netting, three hens with their necks broken, and the other three nowhere to be seen! Dusk was falling but we got the torches and searched the entire garden to see if they were trembling up a tree – but not a thing to be found – no feathers, no bloodied bodies, no evidence, nothing for CSI!

So were they taken off and eaten, one after the other – or did they panic and fly off… and where are they now?

Our Tico farmer neighbour Alberto came round to examine the crime scene. Given the size of the hole and damage done to the netting, he reckons the culprit was probably a tayra, or ‘tolomuco’, (its local name) a large black member of the weasel family. We’ve only seen one once in the garden in over four years but they are known to be in the area. One hen’s neck had two incisor teeth marks but there wasn’t a drop of blood on them; just killed for the sake of it.

Its just amazing to imagine that the animal had smelt our hens and destroyed them within an hour of their arrival. John’s satisfaction was pretty short-lived; not only upset for the hens, he’s a bit red-faced that he hadn’t sought Alberto’s advice at the outset. More of the great learning-curve and in telling the tale, I hope we might save other fresh-egg-hopefuls the same pain. Whether or not John now builds a larger impregnable fortress remains to be seen!

Happily our wild animals continue to thrive! This latest construction is fascinating – a hornet type of insect with iridescent blue wings; can’t find them in any books so if any reader can tell us what they are, I would be very grateful.

Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of San Isidro are about to commence; I’ll cover the fun next time!

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