Author Topic: Fox Attack (Read 1847 times)

Chrisnut · « **on:** April 20, 2014, 09:19:16 pm »

Hi all been a while since my last visit ..sad news ...we lost 17 hens and our beloved cockerel to a Fox....during a daylight attack, it climbed our 6 foot high perimeter fence, killed all hens but didnt take a single carcass as we disturbed him. Mindless killing as far as i can tell.

We feel awful for our hens who we believed were safe and the thought of them being chased around our enclosure until near exhaustion doesnt ease our sorrow.... fortunately we have borrowed an incubator and will hatch the next generation of our previous birds from the last lot of eggs collected.

damm you Mr Fox

HesterF · « **Reply #1 on:** April 20, 2014, 09:59:28 pm »

How awful

- it's just that that I dread. We've built fort knox too but I know the cats can get in so it's clearly not completely safe. I hope your hatch goes well

shygirl · « **Reply #2 on:** April 20, 2014, 09:59:45 pm »

thats awful

Ideation · « **Reply #3 on:** April 20, 2014, 11:40:13 pm »

Bad times.

Just for the record though, its never mindless killing. . . . if undisturbed the fox would have carried off every carcass and buried them. Most probably a litter of cubs holed up somewhere not too far away , . . . .

In the past, i've sat very quietly, not disturbed the fox and waited for it to return. . . .

chrismahon · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2014, 07:27:22 am »

That's bad news Chrisnut and I'm sorry to hear it. We were plagued by repeated daylight fox attacks in the UK -as soon as we blocked one entrance point it found another (here it is stray or hunting dogs). Whilst you are hatching you need to give a thought to keeping the fox out, because it will certainly be back. Tight chicken wire fencing can easily be climbed. Here ours is loosely strung onto tensile wires.

Stereo · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2014, 08:55:22 pm »

It's not mindless. The fox needs to eat and is doing what it does best. I doubt that any of the hens would have been wasted if left to it's own devices. You can ascribe human feelings to a vulpine. They just do. They don't plot and scheme and they are not out to get you.

Probably nothing much is foolproof other than a confinement house but we have found electricity to be the best deterrent. They certainly don't like it. I know there are foxes in our chicken field but so far so good. Problem is with nets is that it's hard work to keep them up to voltage. But it does work.

If you have chicken wire, consider a single strand of electric wire about a foot off the ground and a foot out from the fence. We used to have many pheasant pens in fox filled woods with nothing more than a 6ft chicken wire fence and a strand as above. Never had a fox in the pen. They can't get close enough to dig and the first thing they will do is sniff the wire. Then they will think that punishment has been handed down from the lord himself and likely avoid the whole area for the rest of their lives.