Out in rural west Greene County, where I spend a lot of time, I’ve found a little family of foxes. They’re living either in my boyfriend’s barn or under the highway in a fox hole. These little guys are so cute and funny to watch. I’ll crest the hill in the evenings and see five or six little heads pop up, ears alert and intrigued, and eyes watching my car turn onto my boyfriend’s farm road. On several occasions we’ve come upon them in the barn lot at night, frolicking with each other or celebrating their successful hunting venture of late. They sure are cute, and we couldn’t help but celebrate them being back this season, after the highway killed most of them off last year. A celebration I fear is halfhearted now.
Sometime earlier this spring we acquired two chickens and two ducks, just to dabble in the poultry business. “Rudy, Judy and The Peeps,” provided us hours of entertainment. Their inquisitive eyes left us enchanted with the ducks but wondering if anything really does go on in the head of a chicken.
Well, time came for Rudy, Judy and The Peeps to graduate from a baby bird cage in the shop to an outdoor pen. We moved a dog pen, and put in it a small house.
This arrangement worked until one day we noticed Judy was missing. My boyfriend, seeing no holes dug around the base of the pen, and no feathers telling sign of struggle, determined Judy must have flown out, then been picked off once outside the safety of her pen. I was sad, we had nursed Judy back to health as a chick, so we felt a little more endeared to her.
The next day we went to check on The Peeps and Rudy, our remaining duck. But when we got there, the pen was bare. This time a hole had been dug into the pen. Still, there were no feathers or signs of struggle. I guess our fowl didn’t put up much of a fight.
Nearly done with the treacherous poultry business, we still have two turkeys that were brought home later than our initial flock. However, I do think we’ve learned our lesson for next time. First, you have to put your poultry up at night. Second, don’t trust a family of foxes in the neighborhood, no matter how cute and funny they seem.
