The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Badger on March 06, 2011, 08:11:11 pm
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Does anybody know if badgers are likely to pray on hens. We have seen several badgers around the garden area lately, and someone told us we had better keep an eye on the chooks. Could this be true ?.
Badger
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Yes, I think they would. You may have to improve the security do your hen enclosure
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big style. chicken wire will not be good enough.
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iv seen the damage when they ripped the back off a coop and ate the whole lot so if you got badgers get security
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Second Daddymatty, we lost 5 Welsummers and some Light Sussex last year with the back of the pens ripped out.
It couldn't be a Fox due to all the damage and none of that distinctive smell.
We're told that some locals have seen Badgers in our area, so pretty certain that they must have been the culprits,.
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Yep, foxes take the chickens away for supper, badgers actually savage them in situ. Very nasty and as people have said they rip the chicken house apart to get in. Not ours fortunately (electric netting) but our neighbours. Savaged all four, and left the carnage!
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we have a badger in our garden at the mo, not showed any interest in the chooks as of yet but was woken up last night when we heard the metal gate rattling, the gate is half covered with that green plastic coated wire to keep puppy in, shined a torch on him and he ran off, came down in the morning to find a great big hole and bite marks where he had chewed through the wire! never knew they could do so much damage, quite worrying really!! :-\
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Yes indeed! Badgers will predate hens and with those powerful claws can make short-work of a hen coop.
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what is the best way to stop a badger then?? i worried about my ladies after reading this thread, i didnt realise badgers were so destructive, and determined, :wave:
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a 3.5t van? a bullet? i have hit a badger once. i stopped got out walked to where i thought it was dead. nope it was alive only using front legs crawling towards me snarling and trying to get me so i jumped back in van and reversed over it job done
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badgers are highly protected. Check the law or keep your acts to yourself or you will be in deep trouble. You can hardly look at them these days without prosecution!
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stilts would work
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stilts would work
Our henhouse is on 12" stilts. In addition to the safety factor it also gives them somewhere to shelter under from the rain.
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badgers are highly protected. Check the law or keep your acts to yourself or you will be in deep trouble. You can hardly look at them these days without prosecution!
will do next time i hit one il leave it to suffer a horrible death on more than one occasion iv seen them be put down with a bullit or a truck so will let the animal suffer if its in pain i dont want to get prosacuted
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daddy don't do that. i think the poster got the impression that you would aim to run them down.
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daddy don't do that. i think the poster got the impression that you would aim to run them down.
yes i think they got that impression also just narked me off a little when i read the post. i gone offline and cooled down a bit and got narked off with something else now. so sorry for that post people
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so sorry for that post people
You can delete your own posts if it really worries you. ;)
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nothing worries me (much)
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we all have bad days matty :wave:
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We dont have badgers or foxes just polecats. My OH went to a badly sighted ladies house today and was shocked to see a large white creature asleep on her step. When asked what the hell was that doing there , no wonder she cant keep a chook alive more than a few days. When he explained it was a huge wild dog ferret/polecat x she replied she thought it was a stray cat and she had been feeing it.!!!!
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how sweet. unitll the eat your birds. but the are very cute in there winter coat.
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Badgers are protected around us, heavy fine if you hurt them. I hate the things as they dig holes all over my hill field looking for bumble bees who nest in the ground. I walk the field every morning filling in any holes that could cause the ponies a problem. I caught 2 in my fox trap and what a job I had setting them free, I was told years ago if you come accross one run over do not move it, if not dead they will fight until they are.
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well i think we have got rid of our badger now! read an article that one way of keeping Fox's and badgers away from the house is to urinate around the perimeter of the land the scent is supposed to keep them away! i did it for the last three nights and not seen or heard him since, could just be coincidence but was worth a try! sounds disgusting but would do anything to keep them away!!
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I wonder what the neighbours thought to that? :)
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Hanging a pair of tights filled with human hair supposed to have the same effect.
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only meant to be male urine that works, good on you, fingers crossed badger stays away for you :wave:
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well went out at night, so hopefully nobody in the old peoples home next door saw, might have been quite a shock!! ;D ;D i think anything with the smell of us on it could work??
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Think I saw something about human hair & male pee that HFW did to keep foxes away too ;D