one less hen on jb patrol.....or the down side of free range....

15 years ago

Sigh. After going on at great length about how wonderful my hens are at controlling beetles - one is gone for good (probably the fox's good....)

They come in on their own at twilight - the chickens truly do "come home to roost". That's when I shut them into their yard - completely enclosed (roof wire too, cuz of hawks) with access to the coop in the barn, where they roost and where their laying boxes are (they go in and out all day at will).

Well some days I know I won't be home before dark, and those days I either don't let them out, or start calling them in with corn bribes. They all usually come, although one scrawny Golden Comet occasionally spends the night under the deck - she's small enough to squeeze under a space in the lattice.

But Tuesday - in marched both Golden Comets, both Black SexLinked, and only five Barred Rocks. The sixth BR just kept cackling at me, scampering from under the Polareis (a favorit dust bath spot) to under the forsythia. I could not catch her. So I just locked the other nine in, and left, hoping I would find her pacing in front of the henyard door when I returned at 10 from chorale practice.

10 pm no hen. And when I took the dog out early yesterday morning - lots and lots of gray and white feathers, all over the dooryard. I never heard a thing, and my dog slept through whatever excitement went on, which makes me think if was the fox we've all seen along our road.

Sad to think of what the old girl's last moments were like - I hope the fox was efficient.

And of course, my egg laying population just went down by 10%....

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Comments (10)

Terry Crawford
15 years ago
I'm sorry, Sunny. I've always loved chickens and geese, and I'm sorry you lost one of your flock. Did you raise yours from chicks?

When I was a girl, I had all kinds of chickens and a little gray goose named Daisy who would ride in the station wagon with us; she would run after the car squawking until Dad stopped and let her in. She must have thought she was a dog.
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
15 years ago
The people down the hill unfortunately have obtained a rooster. Free alarm--at 4 a.m every morning. Could I please borrow your fox?
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carla17
15 years ago
I hate to hear about the hen but wouldn't want Hoov's alarm either.
We have a fox hanging around our neighborhood, Hoov I'll try to catch him.

Carla
buford
15 years ago
LOL hoovb. I'm sorry sunny. I know how you must feel.
veilchen
15 years ago
Sorry Sunny. We raised hens for several years for the eggs (mine would never eat JBs). One year a fox broke into the chicken-wire and got one of them. We also raised two rabbits for the longest time (great rose manure). One day about a year ago they decided to yet again escape from their hutch. We were always able to round them up (they wouldn't go far) and get them back in their pen, but not this time. We did find tufts of white fur under the shed and the neighbors said they'd seen a fox in the yard previously.
AnneCecilia z5 MI
15 years ago
I know just how you feel - mad and sad. Many years ago, my MIL decided it would be good for my boys to raise chickens from her baby chicks...and guess whose chickens they ended up being? My problem wasn't fox or coyotes, but raccoons were the villains for me. One big old coon killed 3 chickens in my yard before I managed to dispatch him with my shotgun. I sometimes think about a flock for bug patrol, but I just don't feel up to fending off the wildlife - and we have much more of it here than we did where I lived at the time I had my last poultry. Chickens need a lot of babysitting.
melissa_thefarm
15 years ago
A feisty rooster couldn't protect them? It's his job, after all. Here some folks let their chickens run loose, and I know we have hawks, foxes, and something in the weasel family, having seen all of them: why don't all the chickens get eaten right away? My husband tells about once, when he was a child, watching a rooster fight off an attacking hawk. What do the poultry experts say?

Melissa
mexicanhat
15 years ago
Very sorry about your hen, Sunny.

Melissa, the Mediterranean breeds are known for being flighty (good flyers and more alarmist)... Maybe this gives them a good advantage?
duchesse_nalabama
15 years ago
We raised chicks in an incubator from fertilized eggs one year when my kids were young. One chick grew up to be a very protective rooster to his harem of about four hens and so tame that my son carried him around.

One afternoon a neighborhood dog attacked the harem and the rooster did his best but several of his ladies died. The rooster was never the same after that; it is like a fuse blew in his tiny little head and he attacked everything and everybody after that.
sunnysideuphill
Original Author
15 years ago
No rooster. When I got the first six hens, my older granddaughter was not quite 3, and I didn't want anything intimidating her as she became comfortable with egg gathering, etc. The ag teacher from whom I bought the hens advised against a rooster around small children.

one less hen on jb patrol.....or the down side of free range....

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Terry Crawford

hoovb zone 9 sunset 23

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sunnysideuphill
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one less hen on jb patrol.....or the down side of free range....

Comments (10)

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sunnysideuphillOriginal Author

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sunnysideuphill
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