Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the sunroom when suddenly a flurry of feathers screamed by the window, followed by a fox. I leaped out the door to find the fox with one of the chickens, aracauna, in its mouth. I surprised it enough to let the hapless chicken go and it retreated to the edge of the woods while I made a lot of noise.
After the imminent danger was over, we looked to find the other one of the chickens that the fox was chasing roosting in an impossibly high branch of a tree. Sure, chickens can fly, but they're not eagles. Except for our white one ("Whitey") who really does have some species confusion. With the adrenaline she had, I feel confident she could migrate at least 100 miles....
There was also a whole lot of feathers on the ground from aracauna, but no trace of the attack victim herself. I was positive that the fox had released her, and that she had gotten up, but she remained in a top secret hiding place all afternoon and didn't emerge till supper time.
The fox then slunk around to our coop and started harassing the chickens in the chicken yard. Of course, our chickens didn't have the sense to be herded inside the coop itself, so we were pretty sure we were going to lose one (or more) over the course of the afternoon.
Maybe Ben put off enough canine scent to make the fox think twice, but all hens were on deck when we put them to bed. I have a feeling, though, we haven't seen the last of this fox.
