Bleedin' fox!
Came right through the wire and took orange.
Woke up to find feathers all round the bottom of the garden. Then ad to spend rest of the day reinforcing my chicken wire putting additional wooden spars round the base of the blue run. Reminded all morning of the carnage as I looked at the blood in the run. Found some seriously thick rusty railings on the road the other day. Have now added these to the side.
That's the trouble. Unless you have a state of the art run, my girls are never going to be totally safe. It's like your house. You can have the finest keys, locks and bolts...but if one someone breaks your window then they get in. A lock only stops an honest thief! Chicken wire keeps chickens in but not necessarily foxes out. And how many honest foxes are there?
Two days later I go ack to find that mr bleedin' fox has tried to break in at three separate points. Two by going through the ire which held and one attempt at burrowing underneath....I said an honest fox!
I spent not her hour attempting to make these areas extra safe to deter the damned fox.
It's nice being at home during the day as I can spend time with all the girls out in the garden. They are always keen and supportive, especially if there's raking, scraping and bug finding to o. When on your hands and knees weeding its getting harder to do with a chicken between you and the weed just waiting to pounce.
Yesterday, I cut up a pile of wood and branches to start my stockpile for the winter firewood supply and the girls were all over it. Scraping through the leaves and pine needles to get at untouched earth.
Meanwhile Ginny had taken PINGU up into Sheena's little vegetable and fruit patch next to the studio. Now I had to go and put in extra support to protect the vegetables from the chickens.
Came back from the supermarket and tried to put the girls to bed. Head count showed three short.
I asked Gabi to come into the garden and play "Where's Wally."
We found the first one in the plant pot pergola. The second one was six feet off the ground and up a tree. Sadly we couldn't find yellow. These three had been in the blue run when the fox had come in and were now obviously concerned with their own safety and taken things into their own hands.
Sure enough, at six the next morning when I went down to make coffee, there she was sitting pecking at the back door. I scared Sheena by taking her up and showing her that Yellow was OK before putting her in the run. 6am. Still to early to let the girls out as I don't think that mr fox will have gone to bed yet.
also yesterday I watched Green have a go at another chicken, claw to the back of the neck and head on the ground. not bad for a girl who two weeks ago was given the last rites!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment