Wild, Wild New England

So how does a week in which you lose two chickens to the wild fox living right under your nose end? With a visit from the local black bear of course!

Ross got a call from our neighbor who said that he went to his window and saw the bear eating from his bird feeders. He was calling to let us know that the bear was now heading towards our property. Ross promptly got off the phone and called me at work to ask if he should go out and make some noise in hopes of scaring the bear away to which I said NO (use of capitals to stress how emphatic my "no" was). I can just imagine the sight now of Ross versus the bear, especially if the bear started to go after the beehive. Knowing how determined that boy can be when it comes to his animals he might have had a chance against the big beast.

Instead of terrorizing us, the bear decided to take a turn to our neighbor's property across the street, and Ross and our neighbor, like two crazy adolescents who have yet to discover that immortality is not a part of the human condition, decided to go out and watch it leave. In typical Shannon fashion, after having Ross relate all this to me, I asked "did you take a picture?" No, of course not! He was too excited.

Oh, my boy...

So instead of a picture of a bear here's a picture of our hive. Who knows, at this rate maybe I'll wake up to a moose looking in our windows. Hopefully, I'll be awake enough to snap a pic.

Goodbye Dear Scar

Alas, we have lost another chicken to the ravages of a wild creature. This time Ross was able to recover the body, which we buried after I got home from work. I am quite sad because she was the only Golden Comet that I was able to discern from the flock. We named her Scar because when we got her as a chick she had an area on her head where there was no fuzz. As her feathers grew in the spot remained bare but took on the same red as her comb. The feathers around the spot had a callick effect (as you can see in the picture). She was a good little girl who thought of Ross as the mama hen. She followed him around and would let him easily pick her up. He also fed her blackberries which she greedily pecked up. I am really sad to lose her so soon. This has been a hard week emotionally. A special thanks goes out to Ross' sister-in-law Teri for another great picture.

Happy Bittersweet Birthday Ross

Ross' Birthday was this past Saturday. Usually I let the chickens out on the weekend mornings, but I was preoccupied on this one. Ross went out and came back with the chickens' first eggs. He was so excited. We ended up calling family members to tell them the good news. Everything was on the up and up until shortly before Ross' sister-in-law, Teri (who took this picture), and nephews arrived. We ended up with a missing hen. All signs point to the local fox. This was a big downer for us. I did collect the feathers I found so that Ross could have something to remember our fallen girl. Needless to say, Ross now has a huge grudge against the fox. On the plus side, it makes owning our fox fur blanket a little easier on the conscience!