[meterman]

last year i saw a fox with a dead cat and thought it was road kill but later found out that the foxes were stalking and killing the cats. So it may have been your cat it was after 

[Bruced]

Not my cat - neighbours. Cat was sat on top of the coop with a vaguely smug look on its face - I suspect it was waiting for the fox to pounce before it legged it up the tree that the coop is next to!

[karlooben]

i hope you can find a way to scare of the fox even if its only for a while .

as for the rest of this post theres only one thing i can comment on and that's rob mention  of  a karate cat  how funny would that be .

[Kate and her Ducks]

I think that as has been said, protection is imperitive. I have lost 2 ducks to a fox in an urban environment. Luckally it didn't have the opertunity to take and eat either so it was a lot of energy wasted for no return so not too much encouragement to come back. I've upped my security and have not had a problem in the last 6 months. Even if I wanted to shoot it I've never seen a fox round here and I don't think it's a solution that would go down very well with my neighbours!

Then again it may have suffered a far worse fate as I told a few of the local kids what had happened and they assured me that they were going to try and find it and kill it for me. I'm not sure any animal deserves a pack of baying scouse kids after it, blood sports being banned and all!

[richyrich7]

We get a vixen that comes every now and again, she walks across the top of the run looks in through the window then goes for a look in the compost bins. Fortunately she seems resigned that she can't get in to the hens.
As for foxes and cats be warned the urban foxes we have seem to be quite friendly with the local cats but if one gets too near to the fox its dinner    personally I don't like them, they are vermin IMHO.
My best mate feeds them tho' so I never upset him with the idea of killing them and he never tells me he feeds them. Perhaps tho' because he feeds them they leave my girls alone for easier dinner.

[karlooben]

a farmer freind of mine who lives on the local common land now has birds an they are kept in a brick an concert block large stable with a proper door an deep thick wire mesh window { they get to free range the farm during the day his dogs keep the foxes away } but of a night time the foxes ripped out the window an killed most of his birds yet mine are in a run on the allotments an yet they have never been touched  .

he still cant work out why i dont worry about a fox  my run is more like fort knoxs , but then again they are only doing what comes naturally .

[Rubellite]

last year i saw a fox with a dead cat and thought it was road kill but later found out that the foxes were stalking and killing the cats. So it may have been your cat it was after 

My daughter came home this evening from a weekend away and told me that she had seen a fox carrying a small and very dead cat. She was quite upset about it 
That was a town fox. She had gone back to where we used to live. We used to see plenty of foxes dead on the roads down there. Don't see so many here, perhaps the local farmers deal with them as aforementioned...............

[leebou]

I can't see why the are "innappropriate" just this morning I inappropriatley removed a couple of rabbits, permanently from eating my veg patch!!!!

Sorry Briony, I certainly didn't mean to wind you up !  A shot gun is fine for rabbits but not best for foxes. 

There are no 'legal' minimum for the calibre of rifle to shoot foxes but it is recommended that you should use a .17 as minimum, which I'm sure you would rather than the 12 bore you mentioned  

The FoxWatch does work well to protect small flocks of chickens in the urban situation  !

PS. I'm from a shooting family too.

shotguns are fine for foxes auntie always a clean kill 32 g load of bb.nothing will do the job better up to 30 yds when there on the run.
Lee

[Aunt Sally]

Sorry leebou but using a shot gun against a fox goes against recommended practice and is not advice that these forums can support.

The original poster was not asking how to shoot foxes but just asking how long it would take for a fox to give up troubling chooks in a run.  So no more talk about shooting them on this topic please !

[leebou]

hi auntie,i dont want to change this thread nor give advise to shoot the fox with a 12 bore,however i would like to know when you say recommended practice...recommended by who certainly not the BASC or the countryside alliance of which i am members it is perfectly legal and the only way to shoot the moving target.
I may not know much bout my chickens but i do about my guns lol

[Foxy]

Can we  stick to the original thread please? Otherwise this will turn into a "non-topic" and not helpful to anyone!
whilst debating the pros and cons of different guns maybe enthralling to some, those discussions are best kept for the various gun forums available, thank you!!

[Aunt Sally]

As leebou obviously wants to keep taking this off topic I will unfortunatly have to lock it.

I think the original question has been completely answered.