Fox

[Verinda]

How brave, hats off to you!

[Bill HH]

My hens are shut into a good solid shed at night so the fox would have to go to an awful lot of effort to get them! Dear me what an terrible thought!

How cruel to trap foxes like that. I remember reading about a survey done in France, I think. They discovered that hunting and killing foxes was a waste of time because foxes are perfectly able to keep their numbers steady.

Yes it is a barbaric way to catch foxes, I say catch rather than kill because most times the fox just is still alive and the more he pulls the tighter the noose gets, often round his waist. The other thing is it doesnt discriminate between fox and badgers.
I once found a large badger caught in a wire on our boundary hedge, he had dug a pit easily the size of a wheel barrow. He was very P....d off and in the end I had to return with an armful of sacks to bury him under then fish round for the wire with cutters. Those things can bite through steel not to mention my hand. He shot off at tremendous speed so probably had no permanent injury. I had a major row with my neighbour who just could not see the problem saying that badgers carried TB and should all be wiped out.

[Verinda]

My hens are shut into a good solid shed at night so the fox would have to go to an awful lot of effort to get them! Dear me what an terrible thought!

How cruel to trap foxes like that. I remember reading about a survey done in France, I think. They discovered that hunting and killing foxes was a waste of time because foxes are perfectly able to keep their numbers steady.

[Bill HH]

When I was quite young me and my friends decided to have a communal piddle onto my dads electric fence. It was not my best day.

[Scarlet]

I am intrigued by these electric fences, if a fox got through because it was unplugged that must mean he tries it every night, brave little fox I would say.

I wonder whether they can "hear" it! Where the (I've not got a clue about electrics!) big clip that sends the current through the fence is attached I can hear a clicking noise...my dog got buzzed when we first had it and he's never attempted to touch it since and nether has my Mums Jack Russel! It's puzzling..

[Bill HH]

Relying on the run to protect them is risky at night, its ok in the day, unless your wire is heavy guage or welded mesh and there is no possibility of the fox tunneling under. Despite wire runs foxes used to get into most of ours, usualy by squeezing through the run gate. The only sure way is to pen your chickens in at night. In the day any attack on the run causes a lot of noise from the chickens so the fox rarely tries it in the day. also keeping nettles and grass short is a good idea, the fox will use them as cover and rush out to grab a chicken in the day. A piece of chicken wire about 18" laid flat around the outside of the run and pegged down well is also a good idea, it stops the fox even trying to dig under your netting because he digs by scratching the soil. If your netting is say 6ft, you can add a 3ft piece around the bottom thus doubling the strength.

I am intrigued by these electric fences, if a fox got through because it was unplugged that must mean he tries it every night, brave little fox I would say.

Regarding trapping foxes, one of our neighbours used wires (Illegal), and removed the skins with a compressed air line, he covered them with some preservative (salt petre?) and every few months took them to somewhere in essex where they paid him £25 per pelt The amzing thing was, as fast as he caught them, others would move onto his farm from other areas and in 12 months he trapped over 500 foxes on a 200 acre farm.
It became a very useful income for him.

[Verinda]

They are free in the mornings usually, I put them back in the afternoons. But I think I'll leave them in their run a lot more during the spring!

[Scarlet]

they do have a large run and the wire is buried .

Sorry if I scared you Verinda! A wires run should be more than adequate. Read it as though they were out roaming free......

[Verinda]

You can fence them behind an electric fence. Come Spring when the fox have young to feed a chicken not penned in will likely end up as food. Its not a pretty sight.

Oh dear I can't afford an electric fence, they do have a large run and the wire is buried in the hopes it will stop a fox, I'll probably have to keep them penned in for a while.

[Scarlet]

We went away for the weekend when the kids were younger. I told them to check that all the electric we're turned off and they pulled the plug on the electric fence! One night we were away and all I had left on our return was a young cockerel and a hen. Feathers and chicken bodies everywhere

[Bill HH]

When we had over Two hundred pens with runs I could see fox tracks in the snow and they visited every pen every night just in case we forgot to close a pop hole. I did miss one once and they killed 26 hens out of 100. We found bodies buried all over the place, under stones, under planks etc, presumably to come back for later. If that happens the only person to blame is yourself, foxes were there long before we ever were.

[Scarlet]

Our country foxes are so timid and secretive we hardly ever see one, I know they are there and we hear them screaming at mating time. I'd be so upset if my hens were killed, but then they are free range and it's one of the worries I have to live with.

You can fence them behind an electric fence. Come Spring when the fox have young to feed a chicken not penned in will likely end up as food. Its not a pretty sight.

[Stu8706]

Thanks for all the input. I like the idea of wild life being around my plot. I like the idea of foxes eating slugs and bugs, so so much the strawberries!!! I have seen some foxes in town with no hair they look really sad 😥

I saw 2 rats while I was down the allotment today running along my fence. Hopefully the rats will become foxes dinner.




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[mothhawk]

I don't think it is a case of being good or bad they are just doing what comes naturally.

I agree, Veggielot. They have an ecological niche that is slowly being eroded as we build on more and more greenfield sites. I remember when the Co-operative Society banned hunting on their land, (our fields at the time were pretty much surrounded by Co-op dairy farms), and started shooting them instead. The local fox population was wiped out and the rabbit population exploded.

The rabbits undermined and eventually killed loads of hedgerows with their burrowing, and the edges of cropped fields of wheat/barley etc were eaten down to the ground every year. Eventually men with ferrets were called in, but barely made a dent in the rabbit numbers.

I was so pleased when the Co-op banned hunting, but devastated that they still destroyed the foxes anyway.

[Madasafish]

We have had a den of foxes in the field behind us, living in holes on a small bank under the roots of a very large tree. They have been there for at least 40 years. In recent years their numbers have expanded and though wild, we do see them occasionally..

They eat anything they can eat in our garden including strawberries (which they appear to love) and I have stopped growing them ( strawberries - not foxes) as a result.

They also use parts of our garden as a toilet.

To my knowledge, they have also killed and eaten at least two cats... missing at night.

My next door neighbour traps and shoots them but they are clever and he has only caught two in four years...

The ones I have seen looked sleek and healthy - including the cubs peeping out of the holes two summers ago. (but we are on the edge of fields and woods so semi urban)