Whiteley Creek Homestead

This painting titled Enemy in Camp (printed at the bottom of the picture just above the frame) hangs in our “cabin in the pines”. It depicts perfectly the battle we are waging, except we have chickens instead of ducks and a fox that is stalking our hens rather than a dog. We originally blamed skunks for Phoebe’s demise but, even though skunks do kill chickens, it turns out it was a fox. Last night a second hen had a brush with death. We were heading out the door at 9:00 p.m to close the coop door for the night and go skunk hunting. Dick was ahead of me with his gun, as I lagged behind a bit to put my shoes on. As quickly as the screen door closed behind Dick, I heard a gunshot. Scrambling to my feet, I saw a stunned hen standing frozen in the middle of our dirt driveway and a fox running into the nearby woods. Replaying the scenerio, Dick had hit the fox knocking it to the ground causing it to roll. It simultaneously dropped Opal from the grip of its jaws. Apparently the bullet had only grazed it because it quickly got to its feet. It was a miracle that Dick hadn’t hit Opal. He said he didn’t give it a second thought because she would have been the fox’s meal anyway. The fox returned to attempt to snag Opal before we could race over to her so Dick took aim again. He missed, but the fox hightailed it. Opal was in shock, but she is now functioning normally. The only sign to indicate her brush with death is a coffeecup-size clump of missing feathers on her back. The flock will need to remain locked within the confines of their fence for a couple weeks until the fox grows weary and moves to another area to find a meal. When our hens are allowed to roam freely once again, we will lure them into their coop earlier in the evening before the animals in the woods begin their evening stalking.