SOMETIMES despite our best efforts we lose animals.
They die suddenly and it is just a sad fact.
The bottom line though is death of animals on a farm is simple a fact of life, as is the miracle of birth.
Some countries have coyotes to challenge them, some have bears, and but we have foxes and goannas as predators.
While goannas are potentially egg-eaters, they will take baby chicks too.
I’ve been raising free range chickens for some years now and fortunately have not lost a chicken to a fox.
It is this track record which got me into trouble last week and what caused me to become quite blasé about foxes.
A day in the life of our flock begins early in the morning where inside the coop they can eat and drink as they need until I arrive.
I am greeted with happy clucks. With wings spread and a combination of flying and running they charge through the two gates on the way out into their paddock.
While around the cows hay feeder there are many more delicacies of course, during winter I’m more alert and have a tendency to keep them from the cow’s paddock which is further away from safety.
This morning I arrived to find both gates open. It is with this oversight that my small and varied flock has been reduced to five with nothing more than a bunch of feathers left behind as evidence.
