My best guess is that it is a red fox. It seems that every spring we are destined to have one unwanted foxy visitor. Unfortunately for us, this fellow has come earlier than usual so our perimeter fences are very short due to high snow drifts and some of our gates either do not close or do not open yet.
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| The tracks I found. |
The gate to the small chicken run is iced open, which means that the hens and ducks were stuck in the coop today on lock down in an abundance of caution. The hens and ducks did not seem to mind. It is better than being lunch, I suppose.
Lucky for us, the predator did not breach the fence line that Ava guards into the goats' paddock. While she could not look more nonthreatening, apparently she did her job and kept her herd protected. Maybe there is hope for her after all.
I took Ava on a perimeter walk to mark the back paddock as her territory. The gates to the far paddock are snowed shut so this involved catching a feisty Ava and heaving her over the gate while I climbed over after her. I would not want to have to do that everyday - she is huge and wiggly!
Needless to say, everyone outside is locked up tight tonight. There will be no fox snacks courtesy of Gael Glen Farm.
Sadly for us, our farm family are not the only ones currently under attack. As it turns out, the very hens I am so eager to protect from our foxy visitor are producing butt bombs that are highly toxic to Baby Alistair.
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| Does she look lethal or lovely to you? |
After several instances of itchy hives, Ali and I visited an allergist today to confirm that he is allergic to our delicious farm fresh eggs, both the yolks and the whites. This is sad news indeed, though he will hopefully outgrow it.
And so we conclude the day with foxes after our hens and hen eggs after our Alistair. I feel like we are living the Gael Glen version of "all around the mulberry bush" with foxes and hens circling our baby instead of monkeys and weasels running around a bush.
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