I've come home from work today to find that the fox has been to visit. I suppose I should be really glad that it only took one hen. We have the hens in three little houses - the Warrens in one, the bantams in another with Mrs Speckledy and then poor old Ratbag in the third one. She has been so much happier and calmer living on her own and was starting to let me stroke her. When she lived with the other bantams, she was a vicious old thing but she seemed really happy on her own. She reliably laid me an egg every other day, too, which is rather more than can be said for the other bantams. Her little house was one that was cobbled together out of bits of wood that we had but was pretty strong. The fox must have knocked the door catch just right (or rather, just wrong) for it to have opened. What a horrible way to go!

I've lost a rabbit to a fox once, but this is my first hen. We do get a lot of foxes through the garden and I keep "very large hole" netting under the runs which has outwitted the foxes on more than one occasion. The holes in the wire netting are big enough for the hens to scratch away to their hearts' content but a fox digging under the run can't get through.

Ah, well.