*&^( FOX!!

[elsielouise]

Just got into my hen pen and taken them all.


My OH just been down and says there's nothing but feathers, hoping one or two managed to escape.

Dogs barking again now, think he could have come back. OH gone to see.

First time we've ever had fox trouble, am really sad.


DEF taking my coblet hunting now.......

 

[*hic*]

I've had that happen a few times now.

We now have the netting dug 18" into the ground and 7' tall around the pen and so far have been fox-free. Our poor girls used to be free range from first thing until dusk but having lost birds as late as 11am we now don't let them out until mid-day.

*crosses fingers*

 

[Jericho]

You have my sympathy - we have had several attacks in broad daylight, usually in springtime and never actually got into the pen (although ours have a 6 x 4 shed and wire enclosure dug 18 inches under and 7 ft high)

Have you tried electrified chicken netting - you can wrap it round their coop and give a bit of extra grazing area outside? I bought 50m from ebay only about £90 and it does help to deter (although a determined fox will still try)

 

[SonnysHumanSlave]

i have seen lots of foxes about this year!! saw one this morning on the way to drop my OH off at work at 7am!!

 

[elsielouise]

They're all gone. OH found them at the bottom of the 5' fence that surrounds our garden. Inside there we had electric chicken wire but the electric hadn't been turned back on for some reason.



SO it's our fault..

Am really sad this morning..

My friend lost two at 6 in the evening the other day. Her daughter caught the fox and managed to get it to chase it away before it killed them all but it got two.

Will get some more and have learnt our lesson about the electric.

 

[kibob]

Really sorry to hear this. Bl**dy foxes, we have had to keep our girls penned in now, they used to be completely free range. Have kept chickens free range for years and only ever had the ocassional fox problem. However, we have a very cunning fox here at the moment, he always strikes in the middle of the day and we have only ever seen him once, he is so sly (it's almost as though he knows when we are out

).

After his first attack we kept the chickens in for 2 weeks, then decided that as there were so many young pheasants in the fields down the lane (game shoot area) he would have moved on. Let them out and that day he was back again and took two. Same thing happened recently, they had been in for weeks, OH shot a fox (who we thought was the culprit) much joy and we let them out the next day,,,, he was back again and took another two

We've given up now and have ordered a mobile ark/house. They won't have free roam of the fields anymore but we will be able to move them daily to prevent the ground becomming fowl-sick.

 

[Echo Bravo]

Lost over 400 hens in the past 20 years,started off starry eyed hens running loose during the day, after coming back within a hour my first flock of 10 hens just feathers here and there. Tried electric fencing they can jump you know after the first 200 I stopped naming them, did a large pen and house with concrete blocks as base dug in deep and they still got in. they come during the day and also at night. I've spotted at one time ten foxes in my paddock where the hens were kept.No longer keep them and my family will tell I loved my chucks.