Wednesday 10 April 2013

Grrrr that D**n Fox !!

Just a few lines to vent off about the horrid fox !!!
Took three of my girls last night. A black maran, a buff Orpington and our favourelle called  Fi Fi. The rest have been very subdued all day, as have I.
A positive side to my day was when I spent an hour and a half interviewing a woman and her husband (both in their nineties) about her memories. These "oral histories" are towards a book that two other women and myself from our Civic Society are to publish later in the year. . This couple were so lively and chatty and kept checking things out with each other and laughing at their shared  memories. What lovely people !
Back to my quilting and an early night methinks as I didn't sleep well last night after finding the poor hens. I gave up at 4 o'clock and made myself some hot milk and then had a fitful couple of hours before getting up to do the first bottles (lambs) of the day.
Good night all . A peaceful night
I promise to be in a better frame of mind tomorrow!
Gill

4 comments:

  1. It must be heartbreaking when that happens.. We do have foxes here but the coyotes kill more things. They even take small dogs. No one I know has hens; what can you do about it ? Are they shut in at night; I expect the foxes know how to get in anyway..

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    1. Yes, we shut them in in fox proof runs and houses at night. Since the clocks went back they have stopped out later and later and we have to keep going out to see if they are all in, so that we can lock them up. On tuesday night we had folk round and when I went out it was already dark. We know that the fox is always waiting for us to make a mistake, which indeed we did!. When I came across Fi Fi she was warm and still bleeding, so I reckon I probably disturbed the fox. It's the carnage that makes it even more upsetting, they seem to get carried away with the killing and slaughter more than they need or can cope with.
      Thanks for your interest
      Gill

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  2. Bless you- foxes are so quickly destructive and they are so desperate for food at this time of year they will take risks and patiently wait for us to make a mistake. My nextdoor neighbour turned her back for seconds and a fox jumped out and tried to make off with one of her hens. She chased the fox and the fox carried on chasing the hen. We had a fox in the garden several mornings last spring and we took the decision to keep the ladies in their eglu run unless we were both outside to keep an eye on them. Sad that they can't roam freely around the garden but we have extended the run. We have three male dogs and apparently foxes don't like boy dogs. Don't know if there is any truth in that. xx

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  3. Feel for you and your chickens :(
    Those kind of conversations are absolutely fascinating you're right. Have you heard the BBC's Listening project. Its so interesting. Not all historical, some is just a conversation on a particular topic here's the link for you if you haven't

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-listening-project

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