Blanche goes postal

Now that I look back on it, it seems inevitable. But the day before yesterday, my daughter came home to find Blanche straddling an injured crow, pecking its bleeding head. My nephew and Marcy brought the crow to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. It turns out the injured crow had West Nile Virus and crows are carriers of it. It ended up dying, poor thing. While the rehab center didn't draw blood to test for it, the crow exhibited all the symptoms of West Nile, so they dubbed it "a candidate." Given that its election cycle, I felt compelled to ask what that meant.

A small gang of crows has been coming by twice a day for months now. They would heckle the flock - cawing at them, tipping over water dishes and eating food outside the run.

Blanche, since she's allowed to free range, has been giving the gang what for. But I never thought she'd just go ballistic on them.

I worried that the virus would transfer to Blanche and then to the flock. But so far, so good. According to Wayne at the U of MN extension service, chickens don't really get West Nile.

So, chickens 1, crows 0.

And Blanche continues her mean streak.

The gang of crows discuss the Blanche attack.