Last night I woke up to hear Reed saying in a really deep voice, "Go away bear, go away".
I looked out the window to see my husband standing on the deck, sans clothing might I add, holding a flashlight beam into the eyes of a female bear.
Reed had woken up and gone outside to check on the noises in the backyard near the chicken coop. the mama bear and her cubs (3!) had smelled the compost I left out for the chickens and had come into the yard to investigate. The mama bear was not in with the chickens, she was on the outside telling her cubs to get out.
Reed and the dogs chased them away, but about 10 minutes later the smell of the old fish I cleaned out of the refrigerator called them back. Basil went after the mama bear, getting in between her and the babies, so Reed had to get really tough.
By now Sky had woken up and added his voice to the mix. His words sounded just like his dad's only in baby garble!
The four bears eventually wandered away after knocking over the chicken fence and our neighbor's fence. After the kids wake up from the afteroon nap, I am going to walk over to their house and apologize. Our chickens were totally silent during the whole incident. Two roosters and none of them wanted to take on a bear!
Lesson learned: no compost for the chickens until the bears move on. They looked very well-fed too. How common is it for a mama to have triplets? We had thought that a reason we haven't been seeing any bucks around our house this summer was because of all the poaching, but maybe the bear family living behind us in the woods caused the deer to move away.
Neighbors!