Author Topic: Argh - Fox (Read 6934 times)

Barrett · « **Reply #15 on:** January 18, 2012, 11:11:54 am »

You don't want men with guns you want men with dogs ,a good sturdy Jack Russell will do the trick, I have 2 Jacks and a chihuahua who thinks she is a Jack Russell she will take on the pigs if they get out.

grumpsgarden · « **Reply #16 on:** January 18, 2012, 05:24:24 pm »

i have two dogs out side most of the time but they will only chase the fox , not seen foxy about these past days and no more birds gone so hopeful they have gone elsewhere

Barrett · « **Reply #17 on:** January 19, 2012, 10:29:22 am »

I think just the presents of the dogs and the smell makes Mr Fox think twice, though in the really cold weather they are very hungry and do push there luck.

MAK · « **Reply #18 on:** January 22, 2012, 11:37:13 pm »

Dog very ill and can not get out of dog flap for a few nights. On night 2 or 3 a fox took 2 ducks. Our first visit in the 9 months that we have had birds.
Maybe anecdotal but some more evidence that dogs keep the fox away.

jaykay · « **Reply #19 on:** January 23, 2012, 07:16:02 am »

Oh no! Hope the dog recovers soon

Greenerlife · « **Reply #20 on:** January 25, 2012, 08:04:01 am »

So many foxes around this year. Not bloody cold enough! My neighbours dog got a bit of mange which the vet says was probably from foxes. Yuk! hate them. Spoke to a local gamekeeper and he says they have shot over 200 foxes on his estate!

MAK · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2012, 08:21:11 am »

one of our dogs died yesterday and the other westie is unlikely to go out in the dark. so best i lock the birds up every night now. s_d it

tizaala · « **Reply #22 on:** January 25, 2012, 09:38:53 am »

I have a friend who loads up a few mackerell with large trebble fish hooks when he has a fox problem, this works for him as it wraps them up nicely.
He lost a half grown pig to a big dog fox so I dont condem him for his methods

norfolk newbies · « **Reply #23 on:** January 25, 2012, 06:58:54 pm »

Hi Ben
Sorry not been in touch re cockeral. We too were visited by fox, he took 3 chickens (left a dead fatso) and my 3 khakis and 2 saxony girls ( just one saxony drake on his lonesome recovering). Rest of chooks must have flown up into rafters of the barn.
The light sussex are all OK, but for other reasons the trip to DM was cancelled.
I saw the fox heading for the yard yesterday, during daylight, and rushed out, but he disappeared. I never thought it would happen to us, but it is awful when it does. My thoughts are with you.
We have an unneutered dog and he tends to pee around the edges, on the night of the attack he had not been at the smallholding for a day and a half, so there probably is something to the dog thing.

NormandyMary · « **Reply #24 on:** January 25, 2012, 08:13:34 pm »

For about 4 years, we had chooks free-ranging over our land. It was such a treat to watch them pecking away at the lawn, pulling up a juicy worm, then running hell for leather with it in its beak being chased by the others. However, new of the plumpness of my birds quickly reached the Foxy Daily News, consequently we lost loads of our girls and 2 boys.
We re-stocked again a few months ago after months without, but we made the sad choice that to keep them alive they would have to be kept in a run. I hate seeing them enclosed, I would much rather let them roam in and out of the plants and trees, even if they were partial to my blackcurrants and raspberries! However its that, or certain death as Im sure news of our new arrivals has made the front page by now!!

MAK · « **Reply #25 on:** January 26, 2012, 09:38:23 am »

Mary - can they not free range and return to their coop of an evening.
We built a coop in the barn behind a small wooden door. The coop has a frame of 4x4 inch oak beams then 12 feet long oak pannels ( 17" wide and about 3/4 inch thick). Roof or corragated iron.
it slaughtered me moving the wood and building it so If the fox gets thru that lot then I may as well pack up!
We kept the chooks in there for just 2 days then let them out into a pen. When I open the gate to the pen they free range just as you described. Every evening at dusk they make their way home.