[too many girls]

the fox came yesterday afternoon and had a killing spree on the cowshed girls , i can't believe this happened in broad daylight and while we were actually out and about on the farm,  (shearing some sheep ready for market today) the first i knew was when i went to put them away at about 7, when i found the first dead chicken on the track leading to the cow shed i thought it may have been kicked by a horse, but then i found another, then another, then another, i roused the kids and my dad , (they were having their tea) i couldn't bear to look in the cow shed to see how many i had left so my dad did,  5, just 5, we searched for hours but all i kept hearing was there's another one over here, out of the original 30  7  are dead 5 have been moved to the hen house and 18 are still missing, i can only hope they ran off either into next doors corn or into the woods and that when i go down again ( in about 10 minutes) i can entice any survivors back ( asuming there are any) it's now 4am dawn will be breaking soon, i feel gutted, to save them from slaughter and have this happen....................

[Kate and her Ducks]

Oh God TMG. I am so sorry. What an awful think to happen when they were just getting used to such a better quality of life. I would be heartbroken. I suppose every day away from life as a battery hen is a blessing but it seems like such cruel timing. Keeping my fingers crossed for the missing ones  :cry:

[violet]

So very sorry to hear of this terrible situation.... hope you do retrieve some survivors today!

[kimT]

So so sorry to hear about your girls. :cry:  :cry:

[Aunt Sally]

How horrific TMG.  I'm so sad for you  :cry:

[babe]

so so sorry to hear this. are you ok?

[GrannieAnnie]

So sad, b****d foxes!  I know they are only  doing what comes naturally, but that's not the point, your poor little chickens, just when you had given them a new life too!!!

thinking of you..

[Vember]

I don't know what to say TMG



So sorry

Sending huge Hugs to you  :cry:

[compostqueen]

that's rotten luck TMG.  I hope you manage to round some of the strays back up and that they're safe and well.

[too many girls]

no sign of survivors, not a single hen left, patches of feathers throughout the wood, out of the ones i found last night i left 3 in a bag but put 2 on a old trailer, he even came back for those twice once somewhere between 12 and 4 and again between 6 and 7.30  even the little cockerel has gone, the hen house  girls are under house arrest until the kid's get back from school ( they were supposed to be going to their dad's tonight, but now they don't want to ) then we will try and move them to the stables, the hen house is too small for them to be kept in indefinatley, how can i let them out again? if the fox had got into the cowshed i could understand, but to take them during the day beggers belief, and all of them?

[GrannieAnnie]

That's unbelievable!  Can't be the work of just one fox surely?  to takeall of them like that.  I so feel for you TMG, I know what I'd feel like if something killed our chicks.

[woodburner]

Killing 25 is not so surprising, but to have taken away 18 in the same day, does suggest more than one fox.
People are often shocked at the aparantly wanton killing, "Why did it kill so many when it only ate one?" but the fact is, that, given the opportunity, even a single fox will come back for the rest of the carcases, even if it takes days. I would imagine that a foxes version of 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' would be 'a dead bird can't get away'.

[too many girls]

Grannie, my dad thinks there must have been more than one fox, the wood runs alongside our farm but the gamekeeper breeds pheasant chicks in there, so it's normally fox free, however when i phoned Raby estsates to get permission to search the wood (so i wouldn't get my head blown off) i was told that due to shortage of funds they no longer have a gamekeeper, i searched in the woods anyway, they're very dense and not easy to walk through ( i got lost for an hour and got quite panicky when i couldn't find my way out) i really don't understand where they could all have gone, 7 i found last night and i found 1 in the wood today, and about 6 patches of feathers,  if you include the cockerel that's 17 simply disapeared.

[too many girls]

this fox isn't going to get away, when i get my hands on him i'm going to rip his head off.

[too many girls]

and, when i've ripped his head off, i'm going to nail it to the cow shed door to let other foxes that may think of dining here know, DON'T MESS WITH ME OR MINE.