buffs: beware.

One day this spring, a friend and seasoned chicken owner mentioned that our wooded property would be heaven for chickens. "They're really foragers, like pheasants," he told us. We could raise something (other than white pine) on this mountaintop, after all.

On his advice, we bought four Buff Orphingtons and four Rhode Island Reds. These blond beauties (that's "little buff" with Owen) are winter hardy up in these parts because of their downy parkas of fluffy feathers. They're also billed as being winningly docile and calm, so they're great with kids. A cuddly chicken? Perhaps.

After we'd picked up the chicks from the farm store and incubated them under a heat lamp in our basement for weeks, our friend stopped by and observed something else: The four-acre pond we overlook attracts every wild hunter—from bald eagles and osprey to foxes and badgers—that has ever migrated through Maine. On second thought, maybe letting tasty chickens roam free here wasn't such a good idea, after all. Foraging in the woodlands, it seemed, was out.

I'd describe our two fair-feathered chicks as skittish. I can't really blame them, since two of the four got carried off in broad daylight and silence while we worked in the garden nearby a month or so back. (As we searched for feathery evidence, Owen comforted me by saying, "foxes have got to eat, too, mama.") My theory: These blondes are easy to pick out and pick off by predators soaring above or prowling on foot. Meantime, our four lovely auburn Rhode Island Reds practically disappear in the pine straw forest floor all around them. Naturally, they are all roosting happily in their coop right now.

After more than a year of peaceful poultry ownership and a constant surplus of fresh eggs, our friend's family has lost six of their 12 chickens while vacationing this summer. (It seems that foxes who find an easy meal keep coming back for more.) And nearly all of the chickens they've lost to the wild were beautiful, blond Buffs.

Comments

[winter parka]

So great. Thanks for the post.

[Victoria Stefanakos]

Thanks so much for reading, and for your encouraging words.