After over a year of being “Momma Hen” I am officially crazy. The Husband might also be. Especially once The Fox began visiting.
The first time, The Fox was seen by The Husband and dismissed by me in my usual, “oh there he goes again, overreacting about what is probably just a large cat”. The second time The Fox was seen by me and chaos ensued. (Apparently The Husband wasn’t overreacting the first time.) The Husband and I were in the house, and had just finished a late dinner, when I looked out the window and saw The Fox, rudely standing on the edge of our bocce court. I yelled to The Husband “The Fox is on the bocce court!”, which led to The Husband bolting out of the house in his jammies and socks, down the porch steps, across the patio and down the backyard steps where his socks failed him and he landed on his arse at the bottom of the steps with an explosion of expletives. All the while, The Wife was behind him, eyeballing The Fox who was still rudely- and calmly -standing on the edge of the court, looking at us like we are a bit off. Three of our hens were off to our right, and we formed a cozy little triangle, with the fox obviously analyzing if he could grab a hen before the crazy people got to him. He decided against the chicken. This time.
The third time The Fox came back it led to yet more chaos and a bit of destruction. At least to my yard. We noticed him in the yard by the chicken run and The Husband ran outside (in solid shoes this time), and carting The Toddler’s red bouncy ball seat with him. The Husband yelled at The Fox and then hurled the red bouncy ball seat…which knocked out a patio light and a canvas overhang, and made quite a racket. But didn’t come near The Fox. The racket of things banging and crashing down were apparently enough for The Fox to run in the opposite direction of the crazy people chaos. And we still had four safe chickens. Scared, but safe.
The last time The Fox was seen I was on my way out to pick up The Toddler from school, and the crows (the two who sit on the edge of the fence by the coop and squawk until they drive me and the dogs crazy) were squawking on the fence – loudly and more continuously than usual. I went out to quiet the crows, and saw The Fox walking across the top of the fence along the chicken run, eyeing the fat little hens hovering in a corner. I started to run toward the coop as The Fox jumped down into the run where the chickens were locked in (our attempt at keeping our yard looking more like a yard than a feeding ground) – like sitting ducks for a hungry fox. I ran across the yard, yelling at the fox to get away from my chickens (like The Fox understands English?), hoping that I wasn’t going to find a chicken beheaded. When I got to the gate to unlock the hens, the crows flew off and I could hear The Fox scrambling through the fence and into the ivy in the neighbor’s yard. And I saw four safe but terrified hens, who were promptly calmed, corralled and locked in their coop – their safe locked home on a raised platform – and with their water and food until I got home from picking up The Toddler.
So, now I am in hyper vigilant mode, and the hens have music – or news- as well as lights. And Momma Hen has a nice little BB gun. Just in case. 🙂 Like I said, I may be officially crazy, all thanks to four chickens.
P.S. I am having fun firing BBs into potatoes though. 🙂
real-toro 