Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: Ellex on July 04, 2011, 19:30
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Oh dear-I heard a right commotion about 5:30 this morning. I ran down to the pen & to my dismay there was a large pile of earth so I guessed Mr fox was to blame. I opened the door & he bolted. 1 hen died there and then & another ten mins later-they hadn't been bitten so I think it was more the shock.
The two survivors have been understandably very down in the dumps, tails down & off their food. I let them out but they both hid under a bush. I'm worried that they haven't been drinking.
I thought the run was fox proof as it is a rigid steel cage & there is wire mesh under the ground surrounding the outside-all except a tiny part that was behind a tree and inaccessible although there were stones piled there, that's where he'd got in!
I feel so stupid as I'd left the door to the eglu open as it was so warm last night-it's only the second time I've done this and It won't happen again.
So for anyone who thinks their run is fox proof don't make the same mistake as me :(
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sorry to read this Ellex and sadly you aren't the first and won't be the last to suffer this fate. Chances are the fox has been eying up the eglu for a while and just biding his time. I'm sure most of us have left our coops open either by forgetting or on purpose but really we should never take that risk.
Huge hugs and give your girls plenty of tlc xx
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Same thing happened here this morning.
Most of my lot are shut in but we have a few who roost out in the barns. They get up and going much earlier than the softies in the houses and sometimes fly out of the cattle yard into the gardens.
5.45 this morning, terrible commotion, I dash out naked, fox with Dorking hen in its mouth, fox makes a bolt for it taking hen, Jack Russell sets off after it and catches up with it at field gate, fox drops hen, she waddles back home, fox jumps gate, Jack Russell goes underneath and sets off on heels of fox across fields, comes home 5minutes later well pleased with herself and goes and gets back into her bed and falls asleep. :happy:
It could so easily have had not such a happy ending and he'll be back when he will probably win.
I'm sorry you lost your girls Ellex, they are so very good at choosing just the right moment.
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I'm so sorry Ellex, foxes are brazen and have no fear of humans, as Joyfull said, it's probably been skulking around waiting for it's chance >:( around 5am seems to be the time they're quite active. We were woken by Tinkers warning alarm the other week and there, with it's nose pressed against the run was a huge dog fox, your heart just sinks when you see that :(
We're just waiting for the badger to return :(
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Is it my imagination, or is it a particularly bad year for fox attacks? As one who has been hit at least 4 times this year, it seems that everyday one of our members suffers a catastrophic loss. It doesnt seem to matter if the hens are completely free range or enclosed, the brutes are getting more devious and devastating.
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It happened to my neighbor with his chickens, up to date the fox has taken 5 in the past 2 months, 4 in the evening and 1 in the morning the next day. Now,though, my neighbor and us always stay out on Fox Watching!