Author Topic: Waiting for the inevitable :(  (Read 4109 times)

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Waiting for the inevitable :(
« on: June 25, 2014, 08:45:23 pm »
In the last week our neighbours on the farm have lost 3 ducks and 7 turkey poults in broad daylight a very hungry brazen fox  :( The ducks were a fair way away from a house but the turkeys were closer and the next stop is my chickens and ducks.

Not sure what we can do apart from a stake out with a gun, I can't coop up my hens. I could possibly leave them in until lunch time but that's no life for them is it? My hens are free range in a large fenced off area of the garden, my ducks are too. I have chicks, ducklings of various ages too. If a fox gets in there will be carnage! It's obviously hungry and got young as all the others have gone in broad daylight...  :-\  :rant: Just thought I'd share my frustration... trying to persuade OH to go out with the gun tonight with me when it's dark  :fc:

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2014, 11:50:51 pm »
Horrible playing the waiting game :o Can you not buy an electric fence/netting or create a fox proof run?

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2014, 06:43:47 am »
I have to be frank here Twizzel and say that you have been extremely lucky so far and you could have lost the lot at any time. All your birds should already be better protected. We were in a similar situation, relying on a 5' wall. Having been 'safe' for 5 years we lost 10 in 3 strikes and they all had to be kept in, which they hated. The best bet is to run electric lines around the enclosure. One near ground level and one at the top of what fencing you have. At least you have prior warning and perhaps a few days to react.

ellied

  • Joined Sep 2010
  • Fife
    • Facebook
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2014, 07:52:18 am »
I know the frustration having had 4 hens lost over a week or so from completely free ranging birds around a month ago now. 

The ones he took were those that roamed up the field behind my house but he was right in by the barn for 2 of them and the third was taken outside my neighbour's kitchen window, the 4th I never found the feather patch to show where she was taken but she did favour a particular patch of paddock and pen and was forever about the tractor route in winter so that's my guess.

In my case I found it hard to decide whether to pen and effectively put them all in one place where they couldn't escape if the fox did get in, or leave them to free range where they might wander closer to him but if he went for one he'd not have the lot as the rest would get away in all directions.  Under pressure from folk that demand doing something, regardless of the actual pros and cons, I opted for a compromise of penning from corn time 6pm to pellet time 6am on the basis that the one time I actually saw the fox it was 4am so there wouldn't be roaming hens up the field at that time.  So far so good, no more lost, but I am not convinced it is good management on my part at all, far from it, I think I've lined up for one big desperate killing frenzy and may regret it one morning.  And the ones that roamed furthest have gone so the homebodies are left and harder for him to spot in the jungle that is my garden compared to open pasture!

Most likely scenarios are that either the cubs are older and starting to demand less, or the farmers up the back have shot him - I mentioned my hen loss to one of them and he said another had had visits and did I know what time, so I told him.  Maybe my info got the job done and I am not entirely sure I am glad as I can't blame a fox for feeding its cubs, I can't hate only be sad for my girls that went, each one with a name and a story, probably the wrong approach to keeping them in the first place!

Anyway, whatever you can do, an elec wire around their area or some limitation of their free ranging, I tend to think it's better than doing nothing and waiting for the inevitable.  Not because he won't take them, he may, but because you won't feel quite so helpless while you have things to try and some sense of protecting them the best you can.  Whether it's good enough or not, whether folk agree with you or not, is less important than feeling you have options and choosing from what you can see available to you.  My personal opinion, no offence to anyone else's beliefs or practices intended.

Oh, I also have 3 determined broodys which come down for corn but 2 of them still manage to fly out and back to the hopeless last 2 eggs of a clutch with no hope of hatching now.  One is a tiny bantam that has learned to do vertical takeoff to a 2x1 inch wide 6 foot high post at the gate area, I see her do it and am in awe of her skills.  The other is the most determined commercial warren type broody ever and she has a squirrel like escape plan that evolves.  Some days they won't come out of the gap in the round bales at all so whatever I do with the rest, they're vulnerable. 

I don't know, but I tend tothink if they're that determined then whatever life they have they'll be happy doing it their own way even if it's objectively bl**dy minded and ridiculous to everyone else.  I tend to be that way myself so can hardly criticise.  You do what you think right, cos you're the one that may have to live with that being wrong, or enjoy it being right, or worry because it's still unresolved.  All you can do really.  Protect the best you can and accept the world isn't perfect, nor is anyone.
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gracy

  • Joined Jun 2014
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2014, 08:22:09 am »
Male urine. I did some conservation work at sherwood forest moving a badger set that had burrowed to close to the visitor center when we ran out of fox scat the rangers pissed down the holes it smelt close enough to fox scent to have the juvinile badgers shoot out the other end of the burrow. For some reason it only works with strong male urine we have a fox literaly the other side of the fence. my husband marks the outer boundrey of the chicken run every week and in 8 years we have not had a single incursion into the chicken run. and i know the fox can get in to the garden because he regularly sets off our security lights wandering to close to the house.
Our chicken wire is only 4 foot high it keeps the chickens in but not a problem for the fox.
They do get locked in for the night come mating season just incase we attract a female ...

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2014, 08:58:33 am »
You need to distinguish between rural and urban foxes here Gracy. We have 10 dead chickens that proves male urine doesn't work on urban foxes. They are effectively two different species, that have now begun to interbreed.

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2014, 09:12:25 am »
After losing all but one of my hens, including 5 I'd rescued from being caged, as well as all my ducks, I no longer totally free range any of mine.  My ducks have the front paddock from 10 am till gloaming except if I'm out for the evening (provided I can find them  :innocent:) when they are shut in their pen.(45 square metres - a decent size for 5 ducks)  The hens are in my old kennels - 6 of them in about 80 square metres, plus a run inside my brick garage.  They are as safe as I can make them and that is more important to me than supposed free range.  To me, alive and happy, well fed with tree branches to climb over, rough ground to scrape around in,  and dogs to hassle them and peck the noses of through the fence is worth more than the risk of dying horribly from a fox killing for fun.
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

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2014, 10:34:01 am »
Mine are not free range but have a large enclosure in the garden. To fox proof it would be impossible it's too large an area and the fox could just go up the hedge on one side and jump over the fence/wire. I could probably electrify 2 sides of the pen but the other 2 are Cornish bank type hedges with trees growing into them, you could never run an electric fence round them it would short out everywhere.

I have heard about the urine theory before so will get my OH to try that later, these are rural foxes we are on a farm with a lot of active fox and badger sets.

Again can't buy a fox proof run I've got 25 laying hens, 3 roosters, 3 ducks and several chicks/ducklings they would need a hell of a pen to contain them all and give them enough space. The youngstock are penned up anyway. The laying hens and ducks are free ranging in their enclosure. We lose quite a few owing to them not coming home at night after flying out of the pen, they are ex commercial layers and not filled with much common sense! I lost a few back in the winter when I forgot to shut the house and a fox came at dusk, which was my own fault but it came once and that was it. This fox is repeatedly coming back in broad daylight so the most obvious option is to go on fox watch- so will ring a couple of friends tonight and see if they can help for the sake of my poultry and what our neighbours have left :fc:
« Last Edit: June 26, 2014, 10:41:16 am by twizzel »

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2014, 11:30:59 pm »
I've got 12 geese, 29 ducks and 46 chickens. They have an average of 34 sqm each and it's all as fox proofed as we can make it. 18 inch buried fence with an outward bend at the bottom, seven foot high fence with an overhang of barbed wire at the top. The only thing we haven't done is put electric fencing around it. Nothing is impossible. There's no reason why your bank has to be where you put the electric fence - you bring it inside your boundary. It's just expensive and it's a call you have to make. The value of my stock is over £2000 and I would also be devastated if they were killed. To me it was worth the set-up to make them that secure. If you choose not to put in that level of security, you have to accept that you will lose birds - maybe the whole lot. If you could cope with that and would be happy to just restock (which may well be cheaper than putting in the full fox proof security), by all means let them run free. Just don't find excuses about why you can't protect them - understand that you do have the choice and you have made the choice that works for you.

gracy

  • Joined Jun 2014
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2014, 09:46:13 am »
I'd definatly say ours were rural foxes. I know its gross but the more concentrated it is the longer the scent seems to last if we are going to be away for a week we collocet OH piss in an old watering can and sit it in the sun. stinks awfull. and of course no amount of 'processing' will prevent it being washed away with the rain.  Be warned if there is a few active fox sets neer you there are going to be females around not a problem generaly but come mating season they may come looking for the male they can smell.
 
I have heard of sonic devices but i dont know how well they work any one tried them?

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Waiting for the inevitable :(
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2014, 03:38:32 pm »
Best fox deterrent is a 12-bore.  Don't forget that mink, badgers, buzzards and weasels will also take hens.

 

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