Foxes getting brave -anyone had problems ?

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fusaberry

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I have had quite a scare this morning when doing my babies about 8 am .
we have always had a couple of foxes on the field but they have always been shy --as they should be
This morning however I had a bit if a scare , had fed ,turned out , mucked out etc and was putting away wheelbarrows etc
Just walked into a stable with a barrow and there were 3 foxes 1 just sat there and 2 mooching around, the one who was sat there just looked at me and started snarling.obviously I had cornered them so slowly got hold of the pitchfork and
backpeddled slowly out and shut myself in another stable.made loads of noise banging and shouting etc .2 ran out the stable and sat about 10 ft from the door and the other one just wandered out and stood looking at me , so I thought I would ignore them and see what happens, It took 20 minutes for them to decide to wander off. just after I had locked everything up the 3 came back with another 2 in tow and just ran around by the gate and on the field.no more than 20 ft from me.
Has anyone else got brazen foxes ?, I am a country girl born and bred but It gave me a bit of a scare this morning .
Bring back some form of control
 
oh how scary for you......they are becoming very brave yes..
Whilst at my parents last year...I was looking out of my bedroom window and saw a fox mooching around the front...my cats were out and they never ventured far from the house so my thoughts were for their safety....so I went outside to try and shoo it off...yeah right the damn thing just stood there looking at me as if to say 'yeah what'...I couldn't scare it at all so I went and got my dad and we both threw small stones at it......nothing still stood there looking at us even my dad said bl**** hell it's not scared at all....anyway eventually it went off.....;phew I got my cats in in this time thank god.....

I looked out of window about 5mins later and low and behold the bugger came running back through the houses in daylight with what appeared to be a bunny in it's mouth..... :(

very worryingly!!
 
Yes I thought it was just me!! The other day I went to fill my boys haynets and in the hay barn were sat 2 foxes one a big dog fox and the other a vixen. The vixen looked uncertain and ran off however the dog fox stood up and started snarling at me. It was about 9am and I was being cornered by a fox. He started to move closer and closer and was massive I mean really big! I like you grabbed the first thing that came to hand a ragwort fork and backed out and he didnt move. I went away came back with the dog and he was still there the dog chased him off eventually but even then it looked to have a set to with the dog.

Something needs to be done about foxes otherwise there is going to be a repeat of those two poor little children being mauled and I like you am a country girl and normally they dont bother me but they are moving closer to people and growing in confidence BRING BACK HUNTING i say!!
 
It makes me cringe, a friend has literally just told me that her childrens rabbit was taken from the garden run on sunday by a fox, she had just let it out, cleaned its hutch and was on her way in to the house get clean water , heard a noise ,turned round and the fox was in the run, she said there was nothing she could do, she threw the water container at it as its all she had in her hands, ran back but the fox was gone , bunny in mouth.she is just thankful that the kids had gone to stay their grandparents .
 
It's unusual for a fox to go into a building unless they are after eating the inhabitants i.e. pet rabbits or the like. I wonder if these bold foxes are originally town foxes, either pushed out for lack of territory or relocated by people?
 
cooliorulz said:
Yes I thought it was just me!! The other day I went to fill my boys haynets and in the hay barn were sat 2 foxes one a big dog fox and the other a vixen. The vixen looked uncertain and ran off however the dog fox stood up and started snarling at me. It was about 9am and I was being cornered by a fox. He started to move closer and closer and was massive I mean really big! I like you grabbed the first thing that came to hand a ragwort fork and backed out and he didnt move. I went away came back with the dog and he was still there the dog chased him off eventually but even then it looked to have a set to with the dog.

Something needs to be done about foxes otherwise there is going to be a repeat of those two poor little children being mauled and I like you am a country girl and normally they dont bother me but they are moving closer to people and growing in confidence BRING BACK HUNTING i say!!
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Yep these blighters were big as well, but so brazen, and another thing I noticed they were really healthy looking
I vaguely remember reading in the sun or news of the world recently, that a woman cornered one in her house it had come in through the cat flap chasing her cat and it bit her finger .if I remember rightly.
I agree
Bring back Hunting
we have a gamekeeper locally who does rabbit and deer control , I might ask him if he is adverse to the odd fox, I know you cannot hunt with 2 or more dogs, but I suppose he will know the laws on this
 
At the cost of being politically incorrect what the law doesnt know and doesnt see wont hurt it!! He could always trap them? A friend of mine has taken to doing this as the cats were going missing or they were finding them mutilated and having watched a fox in the act they were promptly caught and disposed of! The little men in suits sat in the middle of london will have as much knowledge of the countryside and foxes and their behaviour as you could fill a stamp in with!! If something isnt done soon something big is going to happen.
 
hunting isnt the only way to control a fox you know...

trapping foxes is very legal actually, as is snaring and using a rifle.. the latter is my personal favourite. personally i dont see the joy of digging.

we had a very brazen dog fox strutting past the dog kennels, sending our terriers ballistic, across our lawn and into the bins after dirty nappies. this happened on a nightly basis until he got a bit cocky and came face to face with a .243 bullet.

One phenomenon i hear more and more about these days is fox dumping. I knpw friends who on occasion have lamped a roadside feild only to be confronted by a huddle of terrified young foxes-all with certain vetinary treatments evident on their bodies. a headkeeper mate had 15 out of two neighboring fields and most of them were fat, clueless and had amputations.

Ive witnessed a fox with an recent amputation myself (the scars from the stitching were still evident) and a close friend did some work with a local wildlife 'rescue' organisiation and said they definitely did release foxes/badgers/deer etc etc back onto local land...

One would have to question just how ''caring'' these organisations are though, seeing as the land they were releasing on is owned and used by shoots...
 
suestowford said:
It's unusual for a fox to go into a building unless they are after eating the inhabitants i.e. pet rabbits or the like. I wonder if these bold foxes are originally town foxes, either pushed out for lack of territory or relocated by people?
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My exact thoughts, probably relocated by do'gooders. Most of the foxes i see will scarper as soon as they see you. I think id do what PerdixPerdix says & shoot them, if there that brazen then theres going to be trouble at some point, if it had been a child in any of those situations it could have been alot worse.
 
We have some lovely foxes here. They come up and taunt the huge dogs we have in the yard. I wish there were more TBO then maybe we wouldn't have so many rabbit holes to keep filling in in the paddocks. But the darn Game Keeper keeps shooting them. Foxes are fabulous animals.
 
I live in a town.We do have a lot of foxes near us but you don't often see them.We saw a few in the back garden when the weather was very bad but they seemed very timid and soon ran off.They help keep the rats down too.
 
Funny you should mention this, but I saw two foxes run across my field the other day and they were in absolutely superb condition, well covered with a fantastic coat and brush. Not what I would have expected after all that freezing weather.
 
Yep!!

Only last night the YO/farmer told me he and his dog (a whippet) had disturbed a faox in the ponies field shelter. This morning I was walking one of my dogs (a Labrador) and he had a confrontation with the same fox in the ponies field shleter - fox just stood there snarling and made no attempt to run off - luckily I managed to call my dog off and we carried on with our walk. When we got back I went round to my stables to muck out etc and the dog ran off again - I though he was chasing the yard cats but no he chased the same bloody fox out of my stables!!:eek::eek::eek:

I live at the yard/farm so guess the fox mooching around at night must be waht is driving my dogs mad as the spend hours at the hedge barking at night - have never done so before:rolleyes:

YO has been telling the gamekeeper all year about the foxes but as he has just been sacked there is no chance of him doing anything about it - might nip down and tell the hunt so they can lay a 'trail' past here......
 
Can't believe how many people have also noticed them becoming braver, we had an extremely healthy looking dog fox right outside the kitchen window back in the snow after the neighbour's guinea fowl, luckily they made a right racket and flew up on the roof, we went outside shouting but it didn't run off straight away. They are definitely becoming more confident - can't believe the OP I wouldn't know what to do if that happened to me! Also can't believe that people are re-releasing them!! Unbelievable.
 
cooliorulz said:
Something needs to be done about foxes otherwise there is going to be a repeat of those two poor little children being mauled and I like you am a country girl and normally they dont bother me but they are moving closer to people and growing in confidence BRING BACK HUNTING i say!!
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Here here!!

Where abouts in Northumberland are you? Would you say we had a problem with them? The farmer carries his gun around the land and WILL shoot them.

I am forever seeing them around the farm and surrounding areas...they recently got away with 12 DUCKS in one DAY, they weren't little duckies either! The foxes have wandered onto the stackyard and into the barn where they were being kept and killed them... plenty of people and noises about.

Thank god it isn't lambing season yet, if they are getting that proud, god knows what damage the fox could of done.
 
Up until last month I lived in the City (Glasgow) and when walking home one night - the path is brightly lit and busy - a huge fox sat on the path and didnt move an inch! I walked right passed and was terrified and usually the foxes back home (country) are half the size and scatter away instantly!
 
Also they will be being especially brave this time of year as they are seeking out mates.
And if you have any bitches in season then i wouldnt be surprised if you find a dog fox skulking in your garden/where you walk her or outside kennels.

you'll hear alot more barking dogs and calling vixens, and this is the most likely time you will catch a number of foxes together apart from when the cubs are emerging.

We watched three out lamping the other night, not on our land so we couldt do much about it other than snare the hedge. As much as i love watching them, theres always that underlying feeling of dread because i know the devastation that fox could wreak on a pen full of pheasant poults.
 
Well, my lambing is in full swing now and I have 5 large dogs roaming the yard and surrounding fields just to keep the foxes at bay. My free range chickens are grateful, too.
I've considered a shotgun, but TBH, I'm fairly useless with it, so short of clubbing a fox with it, it wouldn't make a difference :o
 
martlin said:
Well, my lambing is in full swing now and I have 5 large dogs roaming the yard and surrounding fields just to keep the foxes at bay. My free range chickens are grateful, too.
I've considered a shotgun, but TBH, I'm fairly useless with it, so short of clubbing a fox with it, it wouldn't make a difference :o
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Farmer tries to make sure lambing hits during the easter holidays - so his kids and wife can help out :D I only do the nice stuff, bottle feeding and the like.

The last of last years lambs left about 20mins ago
 
TheEquineOak said:
Farmer tries to make sure lambing hits during the easter holidays - so his kids and wife can help out :D I only do the nice stuff, bottle feeding and the like.

The last of last years lambs left about 20mins ago
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I try to lamb as many as I can in December/early January, so I have so lamb ready for Easter, when the prices are much better;)
 
We live on the edge of a suburban estate - loads of extremely healthy foxes round here - saw one going up and over our 6ft wall a few nights back :mad:, thankfully the cats are kept in at night.

At my parents which is much more rural the foxes taunt their GSD who lives in the barn so she goes crackers at not being able to get near it - in the summer they go round her run to annoy her :mad:
 
Crikey, if I came across foxes that close to the yard I'd be having them shot straight away, then they'd go to be tested for rabies.

Fortunately (I hope) rabies isn't something you have to consider in the UK.

I do see foxes regularly but they run away when they see anyone or hear the dogs, anything that should be wild and wary of humans but isn't (racoons, foxes, coyotes, even squirrels) is treated with great suspicion and is immediately shot or trapped.
 
martlin said:
Well, my lambing is in full swing now and I have 5 large dogs roaming the yard and surrounding fields just to keep the foxes at bay. My free range chickens are grateful, too.
I've considered a shotgun, but TBH, I'm fairly useless with it, so short of clubbing a fox with it, it wouldn't make a difference :o
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Would suggest a rifle rather than a shotgun, far more accurate and effective distance wise.

my friend shot a fox in his field attacking a ewe and when he got to it the fox still had hold of the lamb being born.

Part of me wants to get H to quit GK and become an urban fox controller, his mate is mates with one and he quotes £500 minimum per fox!!!!!!! we would have made about 10 grand this year lol!
 
Thanks for all the info.plenty of help there .
Will definately be acting on it.last thing I want is to be bitten by a fox.
my other worry is that I have 5 foals due in approx 6 weeks and I know mares can be protective but .....
We live between Cannock ,Lichfield and walsall, not exactly out in the wilds of the country but rural .
we have always had a fox or two, so I thing it is going to be a more final result for them, I don't see the point in giving the problem to someone else so I will deal with it myself.
 
PerdixPerdix said:
Part of me wants to get H to quit GK and become an urban fox controller, his mate is mates with one and he quotes £500 minimum per fox!!!!!!! we would have made about 10 grand this year lol!
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Your KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow. A box of rounds for our 20bore costs £6

I'm guessing he makes this money from urban areas not out in the country? And does this friend have to do the whole trap and sedate thing? shooting them in urban areas is illegal isn't it?
 
fusaberry said:
Thanks for all the info.plenty of help there .
Will definately be acting on it.last thing I want is to be bitten by a fox.
my other worry is that I have 5 foals due in approx 6 weeks and I know mares can be protective but .....
We live between Cannock ,Lichfield and walsall, not exactly out in the wilds of the country but rural .
we have always had a fox or two, so I thing it is going to be a more final result for them, I don't see the point in giving the problem to someone else so I will deal with it myself.
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if i lived nearer i would gladly come to help.
try getting in contact with the landowner and find out if he uses anyone, or local farmers, they may have people that come help them out. there are alot of people out there that would be chuffed to be given the chance to sit out for a fox and would most likely do it for free.
 
TheEquineOak said:
Your KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow. A box of rounds for our 20bore costs £6

I'm guessing he makes this money from urban areas not out in the country? And does this friend have to do the whole trap and sedate thing? shooting them in urban areas is illegal isn't it?
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as far as i know (from articles in shooting times and friends) it is legal to use a small calibre rifle in a private urban area like a garden, but im not sure of the legislation surrounding it and wether you need a particular liscence.

as for the friend of a friend, he works in london, he uses traps for most of it, i doubt many city dwellers would like the idea of mr fuzzy having his brains blown out in their garden even if he had just had their beloved kitty for dinner...

Did anyone watch that documentary last year following the pest controllers, the guys with that poor excuse for a terrier that couldnt even catch a rat in a living room-i think they were charging like £50 a rat...

im starting to think this is how i could make my millions lol!
 
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