RIP, Brave Rooster

With great sadness, I must report the death of Rooster. He came to the farm as part of our anti-fox measures, and he did his job. Roosters were put on earth to do two things (aside from scratching for feed)- make more chickens, and protect the hens. He protected every single one of his ladies, with the ultimate sacrifice. The very same fox, the original culprit, came back while we were out on a walk...as we came up the driveway, Chuck saw a flash of red. We knew right away that it was probably too late for someone. As Jezebel and Chuck raced after the fox, I took Winter inside to her crib and started the search. Last time, when the fox got five hens in about 45 minutes, there were puffs of feathers everywhere, strewn across the yard and some of the fields. This time, I only saw one drift of feathers, fluttering in the evening breeze. It was Rooster. The fox had dropped him as it ran. I will spare you the details, but I waited with him as he breathed his last, then managed to stroke his beautiful feathers for the first and last time. I am deeply sad that he was with us for a short time only, as he was a really wonderful rooster. He died the death of a hero...if he were human, his story would have been a blockbuster Mel Gibson movie, complete with slow motion montage and adagio in the background. But he was just one chicken, on one small farm, on one beautiful spring evening.

Every single chicken keeper who keeps chickens in an agricultural setting (instead of factory farming) has a fox story. Or, usually several stories. Along with dog, hawk, and coyote stories. The predators are doing what is in their nature, and chickens are pretty easy prey. You can't really blame them. But when your chickens get hit, you don't exactly feel warm and fuzzy, or terribly forgiving. We had already made quite a few changes, but fox truly are masters of cunning, and exploit every weakness, no matter how small. We will redouble our efforts, pay Jezebel in rawhide bones for her diligence up at the coop(she also performed well, coming within a few bounds of the fox), and learn to work as hard as we can to balance the cycle of life and death towards life. Rooster helped us make one more step in that direction.