All my fault. Some days….

I just buried a wheelbarrow full of dead chickens…30+. A fox dug into their compound and killed them all. A couple escaped, one of them died of perhaps delayed shock later in the morning.

(Night-time camera set up the next night. Fox came and inspected the scene then cleared out.)

The tally included four nesting hens. Two mothers with chicks. One chick escaped, and is running loose in the backyard. It hides if it sees me. I don't think I am going to be able to catch it before it runs out of puff, and its too small to survive by itself.

I am doing a short-term IT contract, so I'm at my desk for most of the day. After I clock off I run around and do what must be done. Longer term tasks that can wait are queuing up, but animals have to be fed and water checked every day.

The normal routine is : afternoon feed, herd the chooks into their compound, cook dinner, feed the dogs, then take the dogs on a final walk around the farm...and lock the doors on the various chicken cages. Because I finished late last night, dinner was late. I cut a corner, and walked the dogs before dinner.

This meant the chickens weren't ready to roost, so I left them….and forgot to go back and lock up their cages.

That's probably the first time for months. A fox chose last night to dig into the compound. With the cage doors all open it was able to work its way through every cage and killed every one it could get. I found one corpse partially buried in the corner. I expect the fox took a few away…..there's ten or so unaccounted for.

The chicken compound is 50 metres from the house. Why didn't the dogs bark? Why didn't I hear anything?

The dogs have been carrying on for the last few days. Almost on a timer, at 12:30 am they have been rushing out the dog door and run off barking. It's obvious now they were chasing off a fox, but I thought they were just entertaining themselves. I worry about them making a nuisance of themselves at night. None of my neighbours would take kindly to trespassing dogs in the middle of the night.

So last night I locked them in.

And finally…why didn't I hear the ruckus?

I wince when I write this…..I did.

I heard one solitary squawk in the early hours. I didn't think anything of it. My dogs wanted to go outside. I told them to go back to bed.

At 5:30 they were besides themselves, so I let them out. They came back half an hour later, soaked (long grass, heavy dew) and very agitated. It was clear I was required for something. From the back door I could see color in the chook yard that was new…and as I walked over realized it was clumps of feathers and chicken corpses.

How depressing.

I've filled the hole, buried the bodies. I have no doubt our friend will be back. Some sleepless nights ahead.