Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Help - we have foxes  (Read 13069 times)

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Help - we have foxes
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2009, 12:03:33 am »
And a roof on the run?
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

pierre

  • Joined Feb 2009
  • Deep in The Trossachs....
Re: Help - we have foxes
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2009, 09:17:02 am »

.... I've lost 21 hens to both Foxes and Pine Martins..... in the last year....

.... shoot the Foxes... unfortunately shooting is not an option for the P/M's 

Good luck, any-way....

Pete

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Help - we have foxes
« Reply #17 on: February 11, 2009, 09:59:15 am »
Years ago I lost 17 ducks one morning, I went to work leaving the kids and my husband at home. When i came home at lunch time not a duck in sight so went looking, not a pretty site bits oh bodies all over the place. My neighbour kept watch one night as he said he would be back for the chickens and sure enough he was shot while digging his way under the chicken run.

Helen

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Help - we have foxes
« Reply #18 on: February 15, 2009, 07:04:43 pm »
Does an electric fence really work?  We keep our chickens in a mobile ark but they are let out within a 50m electric fence during the day.  We saw our first fox in the area for a few years just last week and are now concerned. 

Hardfeather

  • Guest
Re: Help - we have foxes
« Reply #19 on: February 16, 2009, 09:30:25 am »
Foxes are everywhere, even if you don't see them very often.

They will check out your poultry/duck pens most evenings/mornings on their way by, and if there is a chance to kill something they will take it.

Electric netting can be useful, but you must take care that it doesn't snag on other fencing or vegetation, as that will take the power down and allow the fox to raid. I had some beautiful laying ducks killed one Christmas night and, because the electric net had blown against the barbed wire stock fence, causing it to short, the fox was able to gnaw through a couple of strands and pull the headless drake through the net.........the ten ducks were killed, their heads removed, and left in the run

I keep quite a lot of poultry and have had some sad losses over the years.............I don't keep ducks or turkeys now as the foxes cleaned me out, even in broad daylight.

I used to try to live with the foxes and suffer the losses, but when you lose your best stock birds time after time it's hard to find anything endearing about them. I now operate a line of snares at various times of the year, for foxes, and finally have some respite from their predations. Having killed a pair just a couple of weeks ago, I will probably be fox free-ish for the best part of this summer................it's a bit late for another pair to move in, as most vixens will be settled in cubbing territories by now......until the neighbouring cubs start raking.

Foxes use the farm track past the house as a thoroughfare, and I've even had them in the garden, which is very small, scattering the hens. I would rather leave them alone but in the past eight years I've had to shoot them within yards of the house/outlying hen runs, at all times of the day and night.

My neighbouring farmer is very diligent, and there are some lampers about in the winter too, so the numbers are much more acceptable now.

If you do plan to keep hens in an electric fence run, I'd advise you to check the fence at least every morning, before you let the birds out, for power and freedom from entanglement.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS