Fox Attacks Warning. It's that time of year again.

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joyfull

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #45 on: October 16, 2009, 10:09 »
Like TMG mine free range (I only have 1/2 acre but they also use the farmers field) and they have to take their chances as I have no wish to pen mine in. However this is a risk I will take (have lived here for 10 years and not seen a sign of a fox dead or alive within 5 miles neither have my dogs who will roll in fox poo if they find it  :tongue2: :tongue2: ). We do have badgers though and upto a couple of years ago there was a solitary mink about 1/2 mile away down the bridleway.
There are more foxes in urban areas (owing to greater amount of food around) and these have almost seperated into a seperate sub species of the fox (probably in a hundred years or so they will be completely seperate), also farmers now no longer provided copses for foxes to live and breed for the purpose of fox hunting (and before anybody tells me they never did that I can assure you some did although most will now deny it). Also around here (well 10 miles away) fox hunting still goes on as a sport but with a hawk taken along (I don't like fox hunting but it is a magnificent sight to see).
Staffies are softer than you think.

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Alison_T

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #46 on: October 16, 2009, 13:11 »
I was reading the Smallholding magazine today which told of a smallholder who used her dog's summer coat clippings stuffed into old tights. She said she couldn't claim this to be the total answer, but they were fox-free for three months. The article also went on to say that one of the safest measures is to ensure that your birds go to bed before dusk and up about an hour after sunrise.

These are only suggestions that I have read about, and I hope that they do not upset anybody.

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Foxy

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #47 on: October 16, 2009, 15:41 »
Have just been "dusting" over this thread, purely to maintain focus on the really useful information everyone has offered! :)

Please keep adding any useful tips or ideas, or posting any concerns you may have about protecting your chooks from Mr Raynaud ;) :)

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woodside farm

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #48 on: October 20, 2009, 23:19 »
Human hair stuffed in tights is supposed to work also.
As for the hens in the hedges you really need to get them sorted, I had a load of leghorns used to roost every night in a tree, they where not really a problem as the tree was quite young and if you shook it they all jumped out and went to bed, but I had two sablepoot cockerels that we couldn't get out of another tree, they slept there for about 6 weeks before the fox got them  :(

Michelle xx
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sam on lewis

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #49 on: November 17, 2009, 11:11 »
We are lucky where we live, there are NO foxes on the island, unfortunatley some twit decided that minks would be a good addition, so if you are near water you can loose birds to them, I have a burn at the bottom of our patch and have already lost a Musckovey to the minkies. Scottish Natural Heritage are trying to get shut of the minks by trapping but their success is not very good.
They also trap hedgehogs. The mink are killed but the hedgehogs are flown to the mainland for release.

I found a greylag goose the other day with a broken neck and two vampire like teeth marks in it's neck, poor thing was in agony, I had to cull it, WISH I COULD HAVE CULLED THE DAMNED MINK INSTEAD

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Aunt Sally

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #50 on: November 17, 2009, 11:14 »
Not the mink's fault Sam, they are just being minks.

It's the fault of the idiots who released them.  Non-native species can and do cause absolute havock and even extinction of native species.

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Sassy

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #51 on: November 17, 2009, 17:10 »
Human hair stuffed in tights is supposed to work also.
As for the hens in the hedges you really need to get them sorted, I had a load of leghorns used to roost every night in a tree, they where not really a problem as the tree was quite young and if you shook it they all jumped out and went to bed, but I had two sablepoot cockerels that we couldn't get out of another tree, they slept there for about 6 weeks before the fox got them  :(

Michelle xx

I read about using human hair so I put it round my pens in tights - I thought that if it didn't do any good it couldn't hurt!! There are loads of foxes around us and they will come into the village in the middle of the day and take chickens. My chooks are about a quarter of a mile outside the village and so far I have not had trouble in 5 years of keeping them. Of course I don't know if the hair helps! I may have just been lucky ::) ::)
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted!!

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Foxy

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #52 on: December 24, 2009, 20:08 »
Good idea to double check those fox defences, as it is quieter with peeps away fro Christmas, the fox will become bolder. Almost walked into one today he was so close.....so watch out everyone!!!!

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IMOmimey

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #53 on: December 25, 2009, 22:50 »
The recent snowfall has shown us the tracks of the foxes "regular" walk, through our garden. our choox still ok thankfully, but its still worrying.
Pets:if you don't love them like family, don't have them

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Foxy

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #54 on: December 25, 2009, 22:53 »
The recent snowfall has shown us the tracks of the foxes "regular" walk, through our garden. our choox still ok thankfully, but its still worrying.


Your not wrong :( Have spotted fox tracks. One of my cats keeps a cache, he hunts rabbits and squirrels and hides them. The fox raided it overnight, must've have been hungry.

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joyfull

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #55 on: December 26, 2009, 09:27 »
the only tracks in our snow have been flippin rat tracks (so guess that I am lucky).

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CWatters

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #56 on: December 28, 2009, 21:53 »
Do ultrasonic dog/cat scarers work on foxes? Do they annoy the chickens?

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Paul Plots

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #57 on: December 28, 2009, 22:16 »
Do ultrasonic dog/cat scarers work on foxes? Do they annoy the chickens?

My father-in-law has an ultrasonic device set up to deter foxes.... had it a few months and hasn't seen a fox in the immediate area since it went in...

... unlike my allotment plot.... found the remains of what was once a large grey pigeon... just feathers and a tiny peice of wing joint remaining.... a fox, I imagine... but may have been a cat (?)

I didn't feel too sorry at having one less pigeon in the area!!
Never keep your wish-bone where your back-bone ought to be.

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dicky614

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #58 on: January 03, 2010, 16:22 »
Last year a fox had one of mine. The girls were free ranging and I was in the garden renewing the fence. I had a fire going and the radio on, He must have been watching for some time and took his chance when i had my back turned! Since then I have sectioned off the garden and they only free range in there, but only when I'm in there with them,(which isn't often this weather) the rest of the time they are secure in their run.
I have heard about male urine being a deterent and actively encourage free range weeing when we have the odd barbeque!!
 I hav'nt seen a fox since, although that doesn't mean he aint there.

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webwahm

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Re: Fox Attacks Warning.
« Reply #59 on: January 10, 2010, 00:52 »
Blimey  :unsure:

Just read the whole thread, after reading others too, and I'm worried.

I've been letting my hens out in their makeshift run, while I get the mesh up (can't because of the snow!) - it's an old garden building/greenhouse thing on the allotment cobbled together with glass, plastic garden netting and even a fabric type net.  Because it's daytime, I presumed they'd be ok as long as I got them in the coop before the evening.  So I've been going back up about 5/6pm.

Now I know different.

Also, my rabbit at home 'free ranges' - he can't get out of our yard but now I'm paranoid about something getting in.  He's been wild like this for almost a year - I try catch him and he goes into all his hidey-holes.  Been keeping him in with the snow etc. but he got out earlier and right now, he's under the hutch and it's nearly 1am.  Even if he was in his hutch, I bet a fox could get him through the wire that's on it  :unsure: 

Feels like I've been watching Crimewatch..."don't have nightmares!"




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