Last Friday should've been a black Friday. I noticed the full moon rising as I made my way up the long dark driveway in the evening. S. and I went for a power walk around the block and it took a long time to warm up in the chilly night air. We went to bed refreshed and tired... only to be woken up just before midnight by an ungodly scream. I sat up in bed, my heart pounding, convinced it was the sound of a small child being beaten. I shook P. awake and told him I was ready to call the police on the neighbours. He calmly advised we take a look outside - he thought the noise was coming from down the back. So we wrapped up and took a torch down to the garden. I saw a possum scamper up a tree as we crept down to the chookhouse. All was quiet down there... until I heard a rustling in the trees at the side of the hen run - another possum perhaps?

The rustling continued and I called to P. but by the time he arrived on the scene with the torch, the creature had streaked through the grass near the back fence and disappeared. The chooks were locked up so I didn't think to check on them....

In the morning I wandered down to feed the chooks - with a tasty bucketful of treats - day old rice, some bread crusts from the kids, some forgotten sushi rolls. Feathers were strewn around the door to the hen run - that's odd, I thought. I opened the wire door to an eerie silence, no rustle of feathers, no squawks, nothing. In fact I couldn't see any chickens at all. At least not in the roosting house. I glanced down towards the bottom of the run and saw a few scattered bodies. They didn't move when I called out. I went closer and counted four of them - three black and one white. So where were the other two...? I had a quick look around the back yard but couldn't see them. I could only hope they were hiding out somewhere, still alive. I searched around and found the hole that the creature - I'm guessing a fox - got in. It must've found a weak spot where the chicken wire was nailed to the wood and pulled at it - maybe even over a few nights. I noticed the fence at the end of the hen run was sagging and quite low off the ground - that must've been where the rustling was coming from as it climbed the fence. We had heard there were foxes in the area, but thought the hens were safe at night once we locked them in. The screams I heard must have been the victory killing cry of the fox.

I went down about an hour later to have another look around - after ringing P. and my mum for moral support - I felt quite shaken after coming upon the grisly scene in the chookhouse. I'm glad the kids weren't around when I found the bodies. I tried to message S. but she didn't answer.

A black hen came tottering out of the roosting house - shaking like a leaf in a storm. Then it dawned on me - they must've been hiding behind the old water heater in the corner. Sure enough I could see the last white hen cowering behind it when I peered around the back. I reached out and shooed it out. Its neck feathers were stained a dark red and it had trouble holding its head up. Obviously the fox had got to it before it managed to run away. Scooping them up carefully, I took them up to the house and put them in our temporary broody hen cage. L. got quite upset when he saw the wounded white hen. I tried to explain to him about the fox. I then gathered L. up and took them all to the vet down the road. The vet gave the white hen stitches but couldn't do much for the black one which had various puncture wounds. It was touch and go with both of them, we would just have to wait and see. She agreed heartily with L. and me that we didn't want 'any more foxes'!

Well, I can now report that the white hen is still going strong, but sadly the black hen didn't make it through the night. I took the kids in to say goodbye to her this morning - her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping peacefully. We will bury her tonight with her other former feathered friends. S. is now busily planning a new super secure hen house to be situated by the infant fruit orchard in the front yard. Our friend M. is a handywoman and has already built a great chook shed for her own brood complete with stained glass windows!