[WhatCameFirst]

Thank you everyone for your replies and help.  I think in view of all your comments, I will sleep easier with properly dug in fox proofing that I can see!  Having said that, one of my misgivings was next door's dog and if dogs are unaffected then that is a point in its favour.  No harm in doing both I guess.

[too many girls]

how do you keep a fox out of a field full of ewes and lambs? how do you electric fence off a 15 acre field?  i take no prisoners, shoot the bu****s.

[Aunt Sally]

I saw an item on TV last night where a sheep keeper who had previously lost 70 lambs per year to foxes was running a pair of lamas with the ewe and it  had cut the losses by half.

The lamas look just like cockerels looking after their hens  :!:

[too many girls]

Ok aunty, 3 cockerals and a lama......... seriously tho, last week Pippa went to check on the lambs before she went to school, i saw her walking back down the hill from the quarry with one in her arms, as she got closer i could see it was dead,  most of the back end had been eaten, the fox had ripped it's belly open and it's guts were hanging down past pippa's knees, she was sobbing, really sobbing, Mum it's Primrose..... pip is an avid animal lover, she understands that things like this happen, but if she could get her hands on a gun she would  have shot the fox herself................

[WhatCameFirst]

My garden's too small for a llama.... :cry:

[Aunt Sally]

Nature is cruel  :sad:   An animals instincts including the fox are only geared for self preservation.  That often goes for the human animal too !

It must be horrific for your daughter  :cry:

[blossom1044]

The damage is horrid on your lovely birds and I agree keeping the fox away is better than killing any animal what ever it may have done.  

I've been reading a blog which covers the ups and downs of one mans chicken obession.  He is 7 years experienced and has all corners covered, so he thinks, but he still looses his girls to the fox oocasionally.  It's life I suppose.

I just get so angry at them because we live on the edge of town against the woodland and fields.  Our local Farmer has a bad time with foxes as we have woodland nearby.  He has only a few chickens which are free ranged in his farm yard near the house.  The hens have become the kids pets.  The yard is surrounded by sheds occupied by cats, cows, sheep, dogs, horse, geese, ducks and an asortment of other animals - its a rare breed - a good proper old fashioned farm. I think they are called smallholding these days!  Most of the time the fox stays away as too many other animals around, but when a hen strays from the yard into the field - she'll get attacked.  He shots them if he sees them, but they are clever animals.

I'm just upset at my foolishness as I didn't make it more secure & the pen was too far from my back door to see them. I paid the ultimate price for naivity.  It isn't the foxes fault as it is their nature.  still doesn't mena I like them!  He took 2 and left 2 for me to deal with.  It was just an awful site to see in the morning.

[poultrygeist]

I was thinking the other day. This is not as unusual as it may seem.

I know I will be laughed at for this and I accept this as I suspect I'm completely stupid for thinking it, however, here goes.

If you were to feed the fox, maybe dog food, would it then come for that and leave the chooks/livestock alone ?
Has anyone ever tried it ?
Just thought that if it has a full belly and soemthing to take back to its young, would it bother risking life and limb to kill anything ?

You may now ridicule me as a towny southerner !!  :oops:

Rob  

[Aunt Sally]

No Rob you daft towny southerner.  It wouldn't work.  How's it going to take it home for it's cubs and how will it teach them how to deal  with a whole animal.  Fox sees chooks, fox kills chooks, all of them preferably.  By all means carry out some experiments and let us know Rob    

Only my opinion of fox behaviour of cause  

[poultrygeist]

  :cry:

I said it was a daft idea  

[poultrygeist]

I feel if you hang on to these ideas you may never know.

Now I have it confirmed that I have silly ideas I can me more selective.

I thought foxes fed by regurgitation anyway ? Or is that just very early on ?
take your point about learning to hunt though. Although that would solve the future problem of them coming after livestock.

You could put out a load of frozen chickens and drag them across the lawn so they think they're hunting real ones.

No. I'm not taking photos of me doing it  :?

rob  

[too many girls]

Rob, i'm speechless, ADVERTISMENT,  ATTENTION ALL FOXES, come to T*******S  farm, free food, tell all your mates............... your having a giggle surely?

[poultrygeist]

Don't knock til you try it  

My reasoning was that, assuming you know a fox is coming in your garden/field, it may offer it an easy alternative to taking a risk trying to get at your chickens.

In effect you'd be tryign to tame it. But I have no knowledge of the fox's behaviour other than what I've seen on the TV or read on here.

I'm just trying to come up with any idea which might work. All i've read so far says that sonic deterrants don't work and shooting is a waste of time.

That's from people who've studied them and tested lots of methods.

If I have any more strange ideas, be sure I'll post them up !  

Rob  

[poultrygeist]

This site which offers advice on deterrants along with other interesting ideas.

http://www.foxproject.org.uk/

[too many girls]

I don't think shooting them is a waste of time Rob, if they're dead they don't come back for seconds, keep up the ideas anyway. did you find your duckling?