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Author Topic: Pesky Foxes....  (Read 43907 times)

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #45 on: April 22, 2015, 03:20:38 pm »
Well, I'm not sure, I am open to suggestions. I lost lambs so it wasn't perfect!  :thinking:

My technique for next year is mainly going to be more of the same but sooner, if there are better ways/tips I would love to hear them. A lot of the trouble is my land is in little blocks bordered by slipper farmers, dairy farmers and hippies (a lot of unmanaged scrub, bracken, bramble land around) none of whom have an interest in controlling foxes.

Thyme

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • Machynlleth, Powys
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #46 on: April 22, 2015, 03:33:29 pm »
Well, I'm not sure, I am open to suggestions. I lost lambs so it wasn't perfect!  :thinking:

I still think you should get a llama :excited:
Shetland sheep, Copper Marans chickens, Miniature Silver Appleyard ducks, and ginger cats.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #47 on: April 22, 2015, 07:13:19 pm »
Are they good shots?

Thyme

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • Machynlleth, Powys
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #48 on: April 22, 2015, 09:18:38 pm »
Deadly with a one two punch, as I understand it.  http://britishllamasociety.org/Activities/page42/page42.html
Shetland sheep, Copper Marans chickens, Miniature Silver Appleyard ducks, and ginger cats.

Porterlauren

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #49 on: April 22, 2015, 10:13:12 pm »
ME - Get me permission to control the foxes in that scrub and i'll come down for a wee holiday before lambing lol.


Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #50 on: April 22, 2015, 10:19:39 pm »
I may take you up on that :dog: :dog:

Porterlauren

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #51 on: April 22, 2015, 11:02:14 pm »

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #52 on: April 22, 2015, 11:18:20 pm »
Only allowed two dogs to flush to the gun toting Llama for the protection of game birds isn't it Porter?

Porterlauren

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #53 on: April 23, 2015, 06:51:16 am »
Only two are ever used at one time to flush the fox, the black and tan hound and the white and black terrier, the rest just run around chasing their tails yapping like fools.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #54 on: April 23, 2015, 07:12:45 am »
Only two are ever used at one time to flush the fox, the black and tan hound and the white and black terrier, the rest just run around chasing their tails yapping like fools.

Excellent!

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #55 on: April 23, 2015, 02:40:48 pm »
Mmmmm  :thinking: ..... if only two dogs are allowed, why does a hound pack flush the woods around here?

Or is it different if using 'hounds'?

Womble

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • Stirlingshire, Central Scotland
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #56 on: April 23, 2015, 02:51:22 pm »
OH has put in for his gun licence in december still waiting to hear  :rant:

+1.  I called them to chase and they told me they're short staffed, and understandably have to prioritise renewals over new applications.
 
How on earth they'll cope with the forthcoming Scottish airgun licensing is beyond me!
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once." -Terry Pratchett

winkhound

  • Joined Sep 2014
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #57 on: April 23, 2015, 06:12:02 pm »
My suggestion would be try and come up with a plan and agreement with your neighboring farmers/landowners to form an effective cull plan of troublesome foxes over a larger area. You may well find that somebody is already culling all the wrong animals and therefore creating a problem or perhaps you just have a too higher population for the natural food sources. A good number of foxes will live on very little and are experts at finding their own food, however in some situations (high population/ close to towns/ tips/ large industrial areas) unessential killing of the wrong species can be learnt behavior.

In some places where a healthy population has been established,good animal husbandry has been adhered to and on the whole most of the farming year passes without any clashes we have used feeding methods. For the critical weeks where a vixen need to feed her young and young lambs seem to be presented to her as if by magic, creating another food source will often provide her with all that she requires. We ONLY feed natural food that the vixen could catch for herself if she wasn't tempted by an easier option.

On a similar vein i fully understand that loosing lambs is gut wrenching problem, but from the months of March through to June a vixen is trying to feed her young, and without her they will simply starve.

I attend a lot of lambing call and see many many foxes among lambs and ewes but a lamb killing fox is generally very obvious in its behavior. As are some lamb killing badgers which is far more common than some would have you believe.


waterbuffalofarmer

  • Joined Apr 2014
  • Mid Wales
  • Owner of 61 Mediterranean water buffaloes
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #58 on: April 23, 2015, 06:37:58 pm »
As I have heard llamas don't really do much, unless the fox is a threat to themselves. I really do not think it would make much difference, plus the dairy farmers may have something to say as llamas carry TB.
the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, loving concern.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Pesky Foxes....
« Reply #59 on: May 02, 2015, 01:46:39 pm »
So.... put six lambs out yesterday... I have two left this morning.  :gloomy:

How on earth do people lamb ewe lambs outside and have anything left to sell at the end of the year? Near this spot I have seen a three month old lamb being eaten alive by Gulls and crows (not mine thankfully, and I don't know how it ended up in that position). I have now lost 10 lambs in two years (and counting) some confirmed as fox kills most disappeared.

One carcass left on field eyes gone, guts out three day old lamb, I carried him to his mum before dark last night to make sure they were "mothered up". He now baits the fox trap (which has never yet caught a fox).

It is heart breaking.

 

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