The thread I never wanted to post; Fox

[Scarlet]

Are you certain it's a fox? Foxes don't usually " leap". They usually need a perch to jump up too and then jump down.

[Bill HH]

It seems to me the fault of your automatic pop hole opener, I have no experience of these but can it programed to open later, when its fully light? When I had 10,000 free range hens in pens and runs holding 120 birds we let them out and penned them up by hand. The only time we lost birds to foxes was when I penned a pen up but in my rush did not notice the pop hole had stuck half open. he killed about 20 out of 120. Then we lost a hen in broad daylight because it was a fresh run with very long grass, this gave the fox cover and he dashed out and made a kill.

[minskey]

No nothing wrong with my auto pop hole opener, it has never been stuck open, did freeze overnight once but it was minus 16! Its a dawn to dusk so doesn't need to be programmed. It has to be quite bright to open too.

Fox has not been back [yet] I have cut back all long grass now too so my paddock is much more open and hopefully un-inviting..............

[BertieFox]

In our experience, polecats and ferrets decapitate the birds and often leave the bodies or drag them away. We had the horrible experience of finding one of our geese with its head and shoulders eaten inside the goose house, while the other geese were ok on either side! Wire closely around and under the house stopped that.

When birds are removed completely it is almost always a fox. Trouble is, the fox will come back once it has found a good source of food.

I would either toughen up your electric fence by putting in many more strands and ensuring none of it is 'earthing' to ground or wet grass; this doesn't stop the shock but reduces it.

The best anti-fox measure in my experience is a dog close by. Would it be possible to put a yappy dog chained up in a kennel next to the 'girls'? This needn't be a permanent arrangement but would be effective in scaring off the fox if kept up for a week or two. While the weather is ok it needn't be cruel on the dog either.

Our hound has his 'bedroom' in an old privy, with built in kennel, right next to some of the geese and chickens. When we hear him barking at night we know something is around, but we have rarely had any of our birds attacked, just the polecat attack.

[The Nichols']

Sorry for your loss. Like many others here, I've experienced the dreaded attack. Defences were reinforced very quickly.

A number of people have questioned whether it really was a fox due to the usual carnage they cause. If you say you've tracked one then I'd have to throw the suggestion out there that on a trip out, they touched the fence, felt the jolt and didn't come back. Just a thought.

[frias]

Evidence of a fox visiting last night as footprints in mud beside the electric fence. Looks as if he got a shock as nails had left deep marks in the mud. Our next door neighbour has 2 dogs that chase the fox in their garden every night but he still comes back. Neighbours think the fox might live under their shed.