I’ve been suffering from a cold today (yesterday’s curry didn’t manage to stave it off) and been feeling decidedly sorry for myself.

Despite wonderful weather, excellent for gardening, I’ve only ventured outside three times, the first time to feed and let out the animals, the second to put some kitchen waste onto the compost heap (waste not, want not) and the last time to chase Sherri to bed. This photo was taken when I took the compost up the garden. The hens have this lovely habit of jumping in the top of the heap to see what goodies have come from the kitchen!

You see, foxes love hens. They love them so much they will do almost anything to get their teeth round a hen’s neck so it’s really important to get them safely shut away each night out of harm’s way. I always thought our hens’ enclosure was completely fox-proof – I’d built it with lots of safety features – 6 foot high mesh fence, mesh across the roof so a fox couldn’t jump over the top, round each side there is a meter wide mesh base round the outside of the mesh wall so no tunnelling could be done. All in all I thought I’d done a pretty good job of giving them a place to live free from fear. Their coop has a door but given the fortress around them, I’d never felt it necessary to shut the coop door.

My next-door neighbour has hens too and hers have been taken by foxes 5-6 times in the ten years I’ve lived next door so again this has made me extra cautious.

One night, about three years ago, David and I were in bed and the classic sign of the fox woke us up at 4am. The rabbits thump their hind legs to warn of the danger and it sounds like drumming. It’s surprisingly loud – the sound really carries at night. That wasn’t unusual because we often have foxes in the garden, I’ve disturbed them at dawn many times.

On this occasion though, the fox found a weak spot in the mesh. Where the hens had been scratching around they’d exposed the buried mesh and the wily fox simply pushed its way underneath. The next thing we heard was pandemonium. Squawking and clucking, banging and more rabbit thumping. I leapt out of bed and threw on my dressing gown but in my panic was unable to find a torch. I ran down the garden to find the fox, having heard me, flinging itself against the side mesh of the enclosure to try to escape me. I opened the outer door and shut the coop door then left, leaving the door of the enclosure open so the fox could get out. It was so dark I couldn’t see if any of my lovely girls were alive.

I made my way back to bed with a heavy heart not knowing what the morning would reveal. All I hoped was that the girls were not left in any pain.

Half an hour later, we heard indignant clucking (not the panicked squawking of earlier) and so went back, this time more slowly having found a torch. The fox was gone and standing in the enclosure was Milly, clucking furiously because she couldn’t get back into the coop. I opened the door and could hear movement inside the coop so knew at least one of my other girls was still alive. Milly trotted inside and I shut the door behind her.

I shone the torch round the enclosure and saw feathers everywhere and Morland (the old speckled hen) dead in the corner. Nothing could be done for her so David helped me to secure the enclosure and we went back to bed.

The next morning we went back to the enclosure. I was dreading what we would find. Relief at finding two hens alive, one with minor injuries to her head and back and one seemingly untouched was short lived though when we realised Morland wasn’t dead.

She had a broken neck but was still alive. I was beside myself with misery for her plight but David was completely wonderful.

He turned me around and sent me back to the house, saying ‘this isn’t for you, I’ll deal with it’. He was incredibly brave and despatched her for me so she suffered no more pain. I know people like John must deal with this sort of thing all of the time but for us it was a major trauma. Neither of us had ever been in a situation before where something in our care had been so badly injured and David certainly had never experienced anything like what he had to go through that morning.

Anyway these days, Milly and Molly (Welsumers) have two new companions, Terri and Sherri (Light Sussexs) and these two youngsters have never known the terror of the fox coming in the night. Sherri in particular seems completely oblivious to danger and when the others take themselves off to bed at dusk, she carries on mooching around and we regularly have to chase her in to lock them up. So, that has been my day…..most of it spent on the sofa with only a brief bout of activity to make sure the providers of our eggs stay safe!