Replacement Chickens! Pets or wildlife?

Its a menagerie! Thanks for sharing, shsme about the fox, one had next doors too....she has new one now but its such a worry

Very interesting Honey, I hope foxy doesn't get your new hens...

You do have quite a menagerie there! I'd love to see the guinea fowl lined up staring at the fox. The freed chickens must be so happy with their new life.

How nice to have chickens and other birds. I always think I'd like to keep hens but I don't think I could deal with finding half-dead ones. You can't blame a fox for doing what a fox does but I hope he doesn't pay you any more visits and your girls thrive.

Thank you all for your comments and Tuesdaybear I agree you can't blame the fox really for taking an easy meal to probably feed it's own family. Most of our chickens have been ex-battery and whether this is why they all pay no attention to a predator, or whether all chickens have now had the danger/predator/run! bred out of them, I don't know. I have seen the chickens just wandering about while a fox is running about the field and it's not because they are used to a dog, as we don't have one!
Snoopdog - They always take them during the day as the chickens go back into the run about 4pm and are shut in for the night.
It's lovely to watch the new chickens every time we get some, learning to venture out, discovering grass for the first time and being able to scrap in the ground, even ex-batteries who have never had room to scrap do that automatically, shame the run away bit isn't automatic too!

I think nature is very cruel sometimes. I see my cat terrorising a shrew and it makes me feel angry, but I love the cat !
Foxes are beautiful animals, but so cruel :( I am sorry to hear about your hens. I hope you can do something to deter the foxes.

I have a phobia of birds so I couldn't look at your photos ... sorry. I'm sure your hens are beautiful,

and I'm pleased to know you have rescued some battery ones. I hate the way humans treat animals !
They are just as cruel as cats and foxes ... and they know what they're doing ... which makes it worse :((

Snoopdog - there's a thought, an anorexic me in a frock waving my arms about, slightly frightening and reminds me of the films with mad old ladies with lots of animals!

For Hywel - I agree that nature is cruel, we have lots of Carrion Crows, Magpies and Jackdaws as well as a visiting Squirrel, all of which will take young birds if given the chance. We have lost several fledgling Blackbirds to one or the other and the distress calls from the parents get me running making a lot of noise to chase them away, sadly I can't be there all the time. I understand your bird phobia as my daughter is the same, though she can keep chickens, as long as she is not shut in with them or they don't 'flap'. But show her a low flying pigeon and that's it!

Uh! :( Pigeons are the worst of all. They don't fly away.
In fact they always come towards me :( and I'm always zig-zagging my way along, to try and avoid them :( lol ...
I sympathise with your daughter ...

I've been looking through your blogs Hs (seems odd calling you honey) all very interesting. It must be fun having all those lovely birds. At my old house I kept a couple of silkies, mother and daughter, such tame, friendly little things. Fox got them after a few years and all I found was 1 headless body. Also lost a young crow which I'd rescued, he was fantastic and wasn't bothered about my cat or dogs. Once he could fly a bit, it became more difficult to get him in for the night ... You guessed it ...another meal for Reynard:-(
It must be a wonderful feeling to watch the ex battery girls find freedom:-)

Hi Bornagain, My Mother always kept Silkies, they were the large size ones, my daughter kept the bantams sized ones. They are adorable, but do get in a state if it's muddy! Mind you, we have a little Bantam Cock with large feathers on his feet, who is a horror! He chases Boris the goose and thinks he is lord of the whole field. At the moment with all the rain and mud and him moulting/growing in new feathers, he doesn't look like the lord of anything!
We get loads of wild birds, the Rooks from up the road rookery bring all their young, every year, down to our chicken run to feed, just until they get a bit bigger and can fend for themselves. The Peacocks food tray gets cleared by Collared Doves, Wood pigeons, Jackdaws and Magpies and that's without the nightly forageing mice!

What a fantastic way of life:-)