The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Roxy on March 05, 2013, 12:37:32 pm
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There was one standing in the neighbours fox cage this morning. Must ask him what he baits them with cos he has caught a few since Xmas. To give him his due, he does not keep them longer than he has to - I heard a gunshot a few minutes after I noticed the fox peering out :)
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i dont understand why we think have a right to do this.. its so sad
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Having gone into a chicken coop after a fox has visited picking up all the heads and dispatching those chickens left that are beyond help. Then spending the rest of the week cleaning fixing and getting replacements oh and also picking up any other chicken that has died since due to stress.
But then again foxes do look cute unless they have mange which is such a happy disease
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There is nothing sad about getting a fox shot. Try expaining to your children why all your 17 ducks are in bits in the field because a vixen was teaching her cubs to kill. why a pet lamb has been killed an hour after the kids had just fed him, lamb was in the garden at lunch time. We have had foxes at all times of day and night and believe me once they start killing your chickens they just keep coming back until all are dead. Foxes are not cute.
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if you think that i live in a town and taking the townies view ,,, wrong,,i live in aberdeenshire surrounded by hills trees and loads of foxes,, i have never been bothered by them i have hens and ducks ,, i do everythiing the natuerel way,, all bird free range and a open leantoo ...i let my dogs pee everyplace,,, old wives tale that works ,,
i been doing it this for years
only bother i have had was a cat last week,, i put the dogs out ,, not seen since \and for cat lovers ,,, they didnt get the cat
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i have never been bothered by them
There's always a first time.
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yea i have been told that plenty times, but if you need to kill a fox why gloat,,
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OP didn't kill a fox and I didn't read any gloating in their post.
If you havent had fox issues you just haven't had them yet. Post again when you have been picking up the bits.
we hadn't had issues here until one bit the head off my gander a week or two back just to eat its brains out, left the body to go to waste and a goose pining.....Nice. And that was behind a 7 foot wire fence.
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You have been lucky. Hope you continue to be so.
Not a pretty site when he comes calling. :( He visited my neighbour recently and took her Marsh Daisy hens .... took her years to get them. :'(
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we were lucky for a while. Then my 8 year old found 10 hens in bits. She then started to lose hair due to the stress. I'm not gloating but we shot a dog fox last weekend. We baited the trap with pheasants Roxy if that's any help. Oh and I have a £200 vet bill after said fox left my goat wether with severe mange, fox was in awful pain, he's not now.
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Personally I think a trap and gunshot to end it's life quickly would be my method of preference. I don't like hunting to run an animal to exhaustion before being ripped to shreds by hounds an appealing end. But I am with the thought that foxes which develop the hunt option of farm stock over wildlife must be eliminated.
I'm no expert but the thought of a trap and shoot ASAP option seems a better option than stock being mauled by a fox family.
Glad somebody is eliminating your fox problem with some thought to welfare, roxy, and hope it helps your stock :hug:
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It upset me ever so much to find a fox had died twisting itself in my electric chicken netting trying to get out but glad it hadn't got my chooks. They are stunning creatures but they are dreadfully cruel in their habits. I've been fortunate in having mostly had random chickens picked off with the exception of all thirteen wee ones in broad daylight with us and dogs about who'd just started getting independant from their mum. I hope you never have to experience that kind of loss but sounds like it's just good luck so far. My dogs pee everywhere too and I thought that would deter Mr Fox. It didn't. You can never be too complacent on these things.
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I have a large flock of free range hens, and so does my neighbour. He and I have both lost hens in daylight. A fox broke into my bantam hut and took two bantams.
I love wildlife,and my view is if they leave my stock alone, then thats fine. Unfortunately, the fox population here is way out of control. Vixens have 6 cubs - these cubs are likely to contain three females, so they breed .......At this time of year, they are all very hungry -its unlikely there is enough food for them all. Some are old, and in poor condition. Surely, a live trap, and an instant death (and this fox was killed with a single shot) is preferable to any alternative. I certainly do not agree to hunting with dogs.
It was not a nice sight to see the fox in the cage, and the farmer told me he did not take pleasure in shooting it. But he could hardly take the cage and release it into someone else's field.
Anyone who has not had stock killed by a fox is very fortunate. When it does happen, you will understand the horror, and sick feeling when you see headless chickens just randomly killed,and left.
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Roxy - totally agree with you. I don't know any farmer around here that takes pleasure in killing foxes and most of the farmers that I know value and enjoy the wildlife that's around them ..... even the odd fox.
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I absolutely love to have wildlife around the place foxes included if there was no chance they might eat my poultry. The major part of my income comes from the poultry at the moment and I can't afford to let nature get in the way I'm afraid. The last chickens we lost were to a jack russell from a house a couple of fields away and I've had to tell the owners that if I catch it anywhere near my birds again they'll get it back in a bag.
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Bloody Glad someone is doing a good job! They are pointless killers half the time and kill for fun.... Just like a hunt really! We had been really lucky with the chickens and ducks untill they started taking in the daylight.
I had a terrier put down the whole and she killed the cubs and I'll welcome the hunt onto the land with open arms everytime!
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So how do people feel on skinning the fox once it's been dispatched? I skinned my first one last night. My oldest son, age 13, went out the previous night fox shooting with his grampy. There had been a fox taking new lambs so the chaps went out. They shot a big dog fox and gave it to me. A friend of mine tans the pelt but it needed skinning quickly as I'm not seeing my friend til monday. Apart from being pretty stinky, I found the process quite satisfying. The skin is now rolled up and in the freezer! Don't tell my OH or he'll have kittens!
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I think thats great, the fox was getting shot anyway so you might as well make use of the pelt rather than it just being disposed of. I would definately have done the same.
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This is why foxes need to be shot. This is the carnage we got upto this morning 7 hens and 1 cockerel killed.... Not taken for food just slaughtered and left decapitated.
Luckily we don't have kids that may have gone out to find this..
7 hens at £15 each one cockerel £7 thats £112 down and thats before loss of revenue from egg production, repairs and feed already supplied probably nearer £200 lost. So please dont tell me that foxes shouldnt be shot.
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:hug: :hug:
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Did it eat through the side of the shed?
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Lugs, that's awful. Really sorry to hear/see that.
That is the sight that my 8 year old found. Although its not nice shooting the foxes, we actually did feel better for doing so and reducing the chance of more needless slaughters. :censored: things.
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So sorry, Littlelugs . :bouquet: :hug:
Did the fox make that hole in the coop :o ..... thought it was badgers that got in that way ???
Not often we see foxes around here but I could smell them in several spots when walking the dogs today ....... stand no chance if they can eat through the sheds :o
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So sorry Littlelugs. I'm looking at that damage to the house and I'm also thinking badgers rather than foxes. That's significant damage, maybe more than a fox would do. :bouquet: :bouquet: :bouquet:
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Not nice :'(. :bouquet: :hug:
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so sorry about the loss but I have to agree the only time we had that sort of damage done to a she was when I Badger got into my call ducks
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Sorry for the delay, it was a fox it was seen running through the field next to ours with the cockerel in its mouth It was a big dog fox by all accounts. >:(
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Proof that foxes don't just take chickens when we take inadequate precautions to protect them too. A good one to show the cuddly-fox brigade!! If a fox is eating his way into a locked coop, how much more prevision can we take to protect them >:(
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I agree, i have now surrounded all the coops with corrugated metal hopefully that will be the end to it.. My chickens free range most of the time and are locked up at night, the run was only installed so that i could let them out when i went to work before the mornings get lighter. The chickens are locked in at night. I can understand when they are free ranging that the odd one might disappear now and again but the carnage of yesterday shocked the hell out of us!
I wouldn't kill any animal for fun, but that fox's days are numbered. :rant:
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So sorry you have had this, not nice. people who think foxes are cute and cuddly have no idea. :rant:
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At 1.30 today the fox came for lunch..took a call duck. Worry now is it will come back
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Sorry Mojocafa. It will be back every day looking for more. We had a nightmare in England with a fox. Too smart to go in the trap it entered from a different point every time. We lost some wonderful chickens which cost lots to replace. We had one survivor who was nursed back to health. She has a twisted neck and some nerve damage but is happy enough to lay again 6 months on.