Blooded

Last night was a bit fraught. As I bounced up the allotment track in my little jeep (which is making an horrendous farty noise at the moment by the way) I noticed that the two Copper Black Marans - Marge and Margo, where strolling about in the top part of the orchard. As I got nearer I saw Jacques the Copper Blue cockerel up there too. The dividing gate was wide open!
Needless to say both Jacques and his Copper Black half brother Louis had been scrapping and were both the worse for wear, covered in gashes and oozing blood.
Now the wind had blown up a bit in the day, but when I re-hooked the gate shut and tried to shake it free again like a hurricane had just hit town, I couldn't make the gate jump open.
Conclusion: Either the chickens have learnt how to stand on eachothers backs and open the latch on the gate. Or. Someone has decided it would be a good idea to watch a cock-fight and has opened the gate.
I get upset at the thought of that so I'm trying not to let my paranoia get the better of me.
As I can't be up there all day (it's 2 miles away from my house) I've decided to get one of those trail cameras. Wildlife photographers, army snipers etc., use them to capture animals and such that trigger the camera on movement. They even have IR lights that illuminate the area and are invisible to the human eye. It's either that or getting a steel pallisade fence around the plot which will make the whole allotment experience like visiting someone in prison.
Who knows maybe I'll be posting a pic of a three chicken trapeze act.