Electric Storms & Random Reptiles

The TV addicts amongst you watching I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in wintry England may have noticed that its been raining a lot here. We live just down the road from the show's location. The recent storms were extremely dramatic, heart-pounding on occasion. Fortunately we've emerged unscathed, just the loss of power for one night. No trees falling on the house, no roofs or cars destroyed by mega-hail. Meanwhile Brisbane (200km north) has suffered apocalyptically - cyclones, floods, cricket ball sized hailstones. Happily, the weather has changed and we now have a cool front drawing air up from Antarctica. After the apparently relentless rain of last week, we are enjoying crystal clear blue skies and a cool breeze.

The chickens continue to supply us with an abundance of delicious eggs. One hen has gone decidedly broody, giving Tam some hen-management challenges - Mrs Broody has taken up permanent residence in the nest box and has stopped laying.

The nest box, at one end of their run, was designed for two hens (see photo above) to find privacy and lay their wonderful eggs. However, after returning home at dusk yesterday, Tam discovered all four hens crammed into the nest box. This is very unusual and quite impressive, given the nest box only measures 37cm x 44cm x 25cm. Tam's immediate reaction was 'oh my god, they've ALL gone broody!'

What to do? Perhaps they've been put off their roost, at the other end of the run, by the big sheet of paper placed beneath to catch chicken poo for the compost? So Tam clambers in - the chicken house is only about 4 foot tall - to examine their sleeping quarters. She notices a shadowy shape on their roost inches away from her face and quickly retreats to find a torch.

'There's something in the chook-house', I hear her exclaim and there, curled sleepily and contentedly on the chooks perch, is a medium sized beautiful carpet python. Another WOW moment and understanding dawns - not four broody hens, four very scared hens.


Here's the python some time later down on the floor of the chook house, rethinking its accommodation strategy, given all the flashing lights and excitable human activity. We stomp heavily nearby and slowly and with reptillian grace, all 2 metres slithers off into the starlit buzzing night.

The chooks remained tucked up tightly in the nest box, emerging fluffed up and happy this morning, unscathed and ready for another day free-ranging. We're yet to see if their laying has been affected by the snake-scare.

Tam and I, with the benefit of this experience, have added another rule to our ongoing management strategy - never crawl into the chicken house at dusk without checking with a torch first. Whilst carpet pythons are harmless to humans, many other snakes are equally likely to try out this bed & breakfast opportunity. For example the potentially lethal Red Bellied Black, the Australian brown and the appropriately named Death Adder all reside locally, if rarely seen. We don't ever walk out of the house in bare feet for this reason.

Visitors, visitors: Nephew Charlie arrived in Aus about a month ago. Here he is assisting Tam with some felling:


Ollie (friends with Jake since the age of 9) and girlfriend Kate dropped by for a couple of days respite from life in a van in the relentless rain. Here's Ollie calmly enjoying some of our local wildlife:


So another day dawns - sunny and clear - and we wonder what wild adventures might await us and our humble hens today?

Please take a moment to let us know that you've read this - you can comment below or email us at: jenmartin@aapt.net.au or tamyeld@aapt.net.au.