Backyard chickens, take two. Minus the foxes.
This year’s flock: 2 Cinnamon Queens, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 White Rock, and 1 Production Red.
*We bought these chicks at local farm stores (well, as local as farm stores can be to St. Louis City), not directly from the hatchery, but these breed descriptions are good!
The last few weeks, heading out to work around 6:30 am, I’ve noticed a fox crossing the road, usually from our side to the opposing side. As foxes tend to be active at dawn and dusk, this wasn’t too surprising, though we didn’t see any foxes around last year. Having a fox around the property isn’t our first choice, as we have chickens now, but we kinda hoped that its home was across the street, rather than over here.
Well, I was getting ready to head out for church this morning when I looked out the window to see our friend, the fox, in our yard. This time, however, the fox was accompanied by two baby foxes. I quickly grabbed the DSLR, slapped on the zoom lens, and crept outside. The foxes were over by the outbuildings. The zoom lens did well, but didn’t get quite close enough for my taste, so I slowly crept further out. The mother fox saw me from the beginning, but as long as I didn’t make sudden movements, she wasn’t too bothered. I finally tried moving over to the concrete platform containing our well to sit down, but Momma Fox didn’t like me quite that close, so she moved further away. The young foxes stayed there, but moved out of my sight. I figured I’d gotten enough pictures by then, though, so I came inside.
We’ll have to decide what to do about this, I guess. The hen house is relatively well-protected, but it’s our understanding that, once a fox knows there are hens in the coop, then there’s little you can do to prevent it from getting in…aside from trapping and removing the fox(es) by force. As this is Brooke’s “project,” though, I’ll be letting her make the appropriate decisions.
Regardless, I posted some of the pictures I took up on Picasa. It’s probably the closest I’ve ever gotten to a fox – definitely a surprising and cool experience!
