Amé's Ordeal.

So... if you have been paying attention you will know that Amé is the hen we got from next door, the only survivor of their fox attack, who came to live with us as she was all on her own over there. Well, she is very highly strung and definitely has her wits about her and that is probably why she is still alive.You will remember that we got a dozen Guinea Fowl eggs and happily Arke went broody and started to sit upon them, however after two days she abandoned them and seemed very ill and we were worried she had caught something from the recently deceased Hecate. Arke has since recovered well but showed no desire to return to the eggs but yesterday Amé stepped up and began sitting on them. I couldn't believe it at first and kept checking to see if she was still sitting on them and at my third check she'd had enough interruption,  got up off them and wandered off for the rest of the day. I was kicking myself but she returned to sit on them last night.Today Will discovered the probable reason that Arke abandoned them, the nesting box is infested with mites! These little pests had pretty much drained poor Arke of her blood leaving her very weak. We now suspect that perhaps they are the reason for Hecate's death as she was spending the nights in the nesting boxes rather than roosting on the poles in the pen.We have removed Amé to the isolation box that we put Long-Mu into when she went cuckoo over Dou-Mu's chicks. Another reason for moving her was because the other hens are muscling into the nesting box she is sitting in and laying their eggs in there too forcing Amé out of the way and off some of the eggs. We have found her sitting on 8 while 4 are lying uncovered.This will hopefully be her home now until the eggs hatch...but if we do get some baby Guinea Fowl I suspect it will be a miracle after all the palaver that has gone on.We initially thought we would remove her at night but Will felt that was when the mites were most active so we went for her in broad daylight. It did not go well and she escaped out into the pen and had to be chased back in and then cornered again in there before finally being placed in her festive box.  We are leaving her undisturbed to settle in. Fingers crossed everybody.As for the others we need to treat the pen with diatomaceous earth, (yes such a thing actually exists though I have never heard of it). It sounds like something off Star Trek to me and is perhaps only found on one of the moons of Jupiter...but for our 'Chooks' we will boldly go wherever is needed.