I’ve kept hens now for about fifteen years and I’ve been so very lucky that I have never lost any to the fox. I’ve always been a very firm believer that if a fox gets my hens then it will be my fault for not keeping them safe. In fact I’ve often wondered how I would feel if I did lose my hens to Mr or Mrs Fox.
This week I’ve had to consider this much more. On Friday morning instead of the usual commotion outside the back door, all was quiet. Normally my hens are out there, warbling away waiting for breakfast, in fact they are so eager that unless I get through the door quickly they are soon in the kitchen checking out the dog’s bowl.
Friday morning all was quiet?
It was raining, so I thought that they might be sheltering in the garden like they normally do. So I called them using a familiar call that usually has them half running and half flying across the garden in eager anticipation of feeding time. Nothing. They didn’t appear when I rattled the food bin and I started to really worry. I’ve had a really good look round the garden and there is absolutely no sign of them.
I know they were around in the morning because there was an egg in the nest box. But that’s it! No feathers anywhere and not a single clue as to their whereabouts. I feel completely flat about it. I’ve had these girls for three years now and they have become my ‘friends’. They were rescued from a battery farm and I was determined that they would never again know the constraints of being cooped up and so they have pretty much had free reign within the fenced confines of the whole garden. They let themselves in and out at night and in the morning and have felt the sun on their backs and the wind through their feathers.
It’s been a good life and a total contrast to what they had before, but I still feel gutted. Of course they may yet turn up clucking around full of tales of their adventures, but I have a sinking feeling that that is not going to happen. I’ve been out to look for them further a field a few times now and have failed to discover even a feather of evidence. And so with a heavy heart I have to hope that their fate was quick and that the fox family were really in need of sustenance. If my hens sustain a litter of fox cubs through the spring then at least they will have died for a reason. I am really sad that they have gone but I feel no bitterness towards the fox or whatever it was that took them, it is part of the natural cycle and I know it was my fault for not keeping them safe.
