would a fox go for a lamb?

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So on Tuesday we have a couple of orphaned lambs coming to the yard (eeee!) for hand rearing (about 1-2 weeks old) and they are going in one of the stables.

now i know there is definitely a fox around the area - I've seen it a couple of times running across the fields, but i was just wondering, would a fox be brave enough to come down to the yard (it is very small - 8 stables and 2 barns), over the half door and take them?
 
He would deffiantly have a good go, it is an easy dinner for old charlie.

Good luck with your lambs, I had a pet one afew years ago and just loved it, if anyone around lincoln has any cade lambs I would love some more :)
 
I don't know but when my friend got her lambs she put a grid on the top half of the door just in case. On the CCTV the fox came onto the yard and had a sniff around and then wondered off, did this every night I believe. (five stables, tack room). While this doesn't exactly help you the fox was interested and the grid didn't cost a lot to put up.
 
Daisydo said:
He would deffiantly have a good go, it is an easy dinner for old charlie.

Good luck with your lambs, I had a pet one afew years ago and just loved it, if anyone around lincoln has any cade lambs I would love some more :)
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mmm thats what i thought. will definitely have to get good old foxy proofing! haha. and thank you :) will be sure to add some photos when they arrive! first time we've done this so VERY excited!
 
They'll come back every night waiting for you to slip up, theyll try jumping anything & dig under, will try every avenue. Evil things!
 
I agree to be careful esp. while they are small; when my family had sheep we lost quite a lot of lambs, sometimes we found the remains tangled in the electric fence where the fox had failed to jump over with the lamb, a neighbour also found a vixen's earth in their haystack with the remains of about 20 of our lambs in it. One year a lamb was mauled around the neck but survived, it spent the rest of its life with its head nearly upside down but seemed OK about it! Badgers are a risk too.
 
Pictures are a must! I've got 2 of my handreared babies from last year, now 11 and 13 months, I'm just trying not to get attatched to any of this years bunch as I don't have any more room!
 
tasteofchaos said:
Pictures are a must! I've got 2 of my handreared babies from last year, now 11 and 13 months, I'm just trying not to get attatched to any of this years bunch as I don't have any more room!
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will deffo be posting photos :) although i already know in advance that im going to end up getting too attached and cry like a baby when they go :(

and thank you to everyone else for your advice! will most certainly be fox proofing over the next couple of days!
 
Have you got a dog that is safe with livestock?

if so then either put the lambs at the back and put a bit of fencing and then bed the dog down on the door side.

or if you are happy to, just bung the dog in with them, its what my uncle does. in the lambing season his collies would live in the barn and charlie isnt going to want a fight for his dinner.
 
People on here have answered your question about the fox. But thought id share some pics of our pet lambs from the lambing placement i have just done :)

Lenard!

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Lenard and his friend!

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And a few of the TINIEST lamb i have ever seen!!! Which I lambed :) We called her Lucy.

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Sorry just thought I would share :)
 
mmmmm yes a fox will - and to my total negligence our local fox took all my chickens - but we raised an orphan lamb - kept her safe in a stable a night but out with ponies and dogs ( when a few months old ) during day and she grew up thinking she was a pony/dog lol. Jesus meeting the sight of my hen house was horriic but alas the fox was doing what is natural so i dont blame him and yep they are cunning lol :) to my peril :)
 
We rent part of our farm to a local sheep farmer who tells me that foxes can and will attack lambs, mainly new-borns if they're outside, but also older lambs as well, particularly if they stray away from the mother and/or are a bit sickly.

He's had to stand guard over the flock with his shotgun before now to shoot any foxes he sees. Blimmin things.
 
Yes, Charlie will be there, every night, waiting patiently for someone to slip up!

Can you not contact your local gamekeeper or pest control?

Can't see the pics of the little squeakers as at work but my friend is lambing atm and they are lovely!! :D
 
You'll be fine once they get a bit bigger. My nextdoor neighbours only ever used to lose the lambs in the first few days really, and eventually the started putting the ewes in the barn to lamb and keeping them in for a few days so the lambs could get a bit stronger. After that they never lost any unless the ewe lambed early and was unlucky (tbh only a few of the lambs born outside were lost). They had a den right on the boundary of their land, so there were definitely foxes!
 
Scranny_Ann said:
Yes, Charlie will be there, every night, waiting patiently for someone to slip up!

Can you not contact your local gamekeeper or pest control?

Can't see the pics of the little squeakers as at work but my friend is lambing atm and they are lovely!! :D
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Charlie fox is a wild animal doing what his instinct tells him to do. The responsibility to keep the lambs safe is with the owner. Why should Mr Fox be destroyed? I have chickens, and if the fox gets them, it will be down to me not doing my job right!! But I wouldn't want the local foxes killed just to make my life easier. How difficult is it to make a stable foxproof? Not very hard.
And no, I'm not anti hunting before anyone says anything!!
 
Well, yes, everyone has said the same thing. A fox will go on patrol and hunting everynight, so he or she only has to be lucky once, you have to be careful all the time.
Obviously the bigger they get the less likely it is. Our neighbour who bred pedigree sheep was losing quite big lambs from the field and couldn't understand why, and they called the huntsman to have a look and he decided that they had a rogue badger that was taking them and it wasn't a fox. Don't know the end of the story ................................
 
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