Disaster in the orchard

We have just lost all our hens to a fox - there was a powercut shortly after midnight (which we didn't discover till morning) and so the electric fence was off for most of the night. I have heard that foxes can be very persistent, and will check a hen house every night for months, just waiting for that one occasion when they haven't been shut in, and that seems to have been proved in this case. I'm just glad that I didn't send Kate and Charlie out to get the eggs today, as the fox only took one hen away, and left the other corpses scattered around the paddock (and one dead in the nestbox).

Cold snap

The cold snap has made life a bit more difficult at Mere House Farm, providing extra food and water for the poultry and animals. However it has brought some more unusual birds to our feeders, and we've been really delighted to receive regular visits from a flock of long-tailed tits over the past few days, never before seen within the boundaries of the garden. Now they know we're here, we hope they keep coming when it warms up.