A few months ago here in the Midwest, we had a horrible storm... some say a tornado ( me being one of them, the trees on our property twisted...) some say straight line winds. Either way, we lost two huge pine trees that gave us shade. We lost some big old trees in the "forest" behind our home. Our trampoline landed on top of our shed and we had no electricity for nine long days.
During this time, one of the giant trees in the forest fell over, pulling up giant pieces of mud and earth. While the neighborhood worked together to clean up the debris, we all took turns walking down our back hill , covered in black raspberry bushes, and we dumped the branches on top of the massive tree, and the big mounds of dirt and earth.
A few days ago, we learned that we had created the most fabulous fox den. We learned this the hard way. We have now lost four chickens to the fantastic fox. One of them being our sweet little birchin cochin roo Elvis, known for his love of sitting on the eggs and protecting them. He had finally found his love. A brown leghorn named Brownie. They passed away together, we found the trails of feathers, and they led right down to the den. A big pile of feathers sat in front of the hold that leads in. My husband, so sad and hurt for his kids who are madly in love with all of our chickens, took a big branch and poked around in the den. Nothing happened, but for now we are setting live traps. Three hens that laid daily, and a sweet protective roo is quite a loss.
How do you deal with predators? And why in heavens name is there a fox den in the middle of town. Yes it is a perfect little patch of trees and flowers and berries and a beautiful creek that runs thru.. but we are seriously in the middle of town. Which is why we call our home a "little urban farm".
JL~
We just lost a Mama Hen to a hawk. It's sooooooooooo sad and hard. And we are smack in the middle of town too.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for your loss :(
I'm so sorry for your loss. He was gorgeous. RIP Elvis. ♥
ReplyDelete