She Had A Secret

Yesterday was a scary and mixed emotional day. While doing some dishes I looked out and saw Mr. Fox about 30 yards sitting and eying my chickens. I ran out the door yelling and screaming and he ran off. He was really quite a beautiful animal. A deep rich red with a beautiful thick bushy tail and the striking white tip. But the fact is that foxes and chickens don't mix unless you want the fox to have a fresh chicken dinner.

It was a rainy kind of day with the rain starting and stopping. My husband went out during one of the dry times and then came back in to get me. He couldn't find June anywhere. She was nowhere to be found. I went out with the special chickey bread that they all love and called. Only the guinea's and Ozzie came. No June. I looked and looked for her. No sign of her. I finally gave up knowing that the fox got his dinner. Poor June. What a horrible fate for her. My heart was very heavy.

I kept going out and looking for the fox to show up again. As I was looking out my back door watching Ozzie and the guinea's hunt and peck, from out of the garden area sauntered June. WHAT? She just waltzed over like nothing was wrong. I yelled and told my husband and he wanted to know if I was sure. Um, yes, I do know what June looks like. He came over to see her and asked where she came from. I told him I didn't know, just from the direction of the garden. I had looked over there but never saw her in the garden. I went out to give her some chickey bread that she had missed out on and then went to my sewing room to do some work.

I got to thinking...I bet she had started laying, after all, her waddles and comb are a deep red, indicating she is ready to lay and she has been giving me the "I'm going to have an egg" talk and then the "I've had an egg song". I kept telling her she was lying to me. After all I had looked for an egg and never found one. And when she didn't come for the call of a favorite treat, something was up.

I put on my muck boots and went to the garden. It is grown up now and is in desperate need of attention. What do you think I found? Not one egg, but 8. Yes, you read that right 8 eggs! I have the picture here to prove it.

You can see the one clean egg. That is the one she was laying while she went missing. The others are dirty from the rain and mud. I can't believe with all this rain, she lays there. I need to come up with a plan to get her in a better area if she will cooperate. I'm not sure if she is laying every day, every other day or what. For now, I took the fresh egg and put it in the fridge. The others are still there. I think I'll take an egg out and put a golf ball in it's place each day. Maybe that will trick her and the eggs don't go rotten and smell there. Hopefully she won't try to go broody on me this time of year.

At least for now, we still have our little June Bug. All is right in our world. Here is a picture of a young June.