PoultryTalk.com

It's all over the news at the moment following the attack on the twin baby girls, and the feelings are mixed as to the solution. We normally battle the fox population in the countryside, but now they are getting a problem in our towns and cities, but what is the solution?
From a poultry keepers point of veiw, what should we do?
Do you as poultry keepers agree with a cull?
Or, do you think there are other ways in which we can protect our flocks?

I came so close to losing our girls from one of the local foxes recently when I left the kitchen, where I can see them, for no more than five minutes to get a cookbook and came back to find hubby in the garden with the garden fork watching to see if the fox really had gone after he had chased it.
If he hadn't have been there I would have lost our 9 gorgeous girls. We no longer let them out of the electric fence area during the day unless one of us is actually in the garden.
I feel really aggrieved that I can't let the girls out because of these damn menaces.
I am for shooting the damn things. Something would be done if it were someones dogs trespassing on your property. I don't see why we should have to put up with them.

I agree there should be a cull in foxes, we live in the countryside and would not think twice abouting shooting them. Our probelm is that peolpe from the town are catching them and losing them out in the countryside. The problem with this is that they are not scared of man because people in towns feed them, but i also feel since all the recylining has come in there is a lot more waste hanging around that encourage foxes to raid the bins.

if people weren't so dirty, there wouldn't be such a big urban fox population.

I live in semi rural - the 'rural' bit decreasing rapidly :(, and get a lot of vists from foxes. I've not only seen them, but often find the evidence in my garden in the form of rabbit heads and several tin foil wrappings of food waste, which I aim to find before my dog does. The street adjacent to mine is for the most part made up of council flats and they are exempt from the wheelie bin scheme, so rubbish gets put out in plastic bags to be torn open by foxes in the night.

Personally, as a dog lover, I have nothing but admiration for the canid kind. Recently reading If dogs could talk by Wimos Csanyi, it brings to mind that much of the behaviour urban foxes display now is similar to that which our dog's early ancestors did - hanging around to 'tidy up' waste and food left by earlier human settlements. (Tho' the benefits then were greater for humans as they had yet to keep livestock and the wolf-dogs alerted humans to dangers).

Knowing I have foxes means my coup and run is built to be fox proof. It took a lot of digging but its a comfort to know that short of bringing a bulldozer out, my chooks are safe in there. They only free range in the busy part of the day when neighbours are milling around their gardens and I would never wing clip. There are plenty of high places for my birds to get to - inc a high perch in the run, so that they are in the habit of flying up to perch.

The fox is a critter of opportunity. A clever and masterful one at that... but as a human, I feel itrs my perogative to be that little bit more clever, rather than that little bit more aggressive.

[IMG]http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g31/emarelle/Modules004.jpg[/IMG]

Fox attack earlier this year, a new fox proof coop and run bitten and clawed but he didn't get in. So it went to one of my old coops, clawed and chewed the fasteners at the back and got the door open - I lost mum and dad Pekin bantam and their 4 babies. We found 5 of them half buried in different parts of the garden, all with their necks broken. Local farmer knew where the den was and sent a couple of his guys out, they got him after 2 nights - no further problems but all my coops are being changed over to the new ones.

Sorry, the pic didn't work.

Hi Meg. Sorry it did not work above for you. Here is the image.
Very sorry to hear of your loss!

Regards,
Jamie.

My maran bantam (Phyllis in the photo)got attacked last year, when I had been gardening. She put up so much of a fight the fox ran straight towards me, with her flapping & screaming like mad- I had a glass of water in my hand which I threw in his face, startled he dropped her & ran off, she ran bleeding from her back into the house, luckily she healed well & is all the more feisty for it. We have 6 foxes who play in the field at the back of our house at all times of the day,so another fox attack is always a possibility. The eglu I have (bought 4 yrs ago off ebay) has been fantastic- completely foxproof, so to give the girls a bit more freedom when I can't be around I am excitedly waiting for my cube- it is also an excuse to get a few more hens !!!

I don't believe culling foxes will work. Foxes are terratorial and they will fill any gaps we create. A vixen will have more litters of cubs if the environment can support them and new foxes will move in from adjoining territories if there is a gap.

In Bristol, there was a study and cull of urban foxes that went on for a number of years. The numbers of urban foxes by the end of the cull did not change. New foxes moved in and more cubs were counted that were there to 'fill the gap'.

Shooting 'problem' foxes works well (foxes that have learnt how to get in to a run for example and keep coming back to try to do it again) but if you use an electric fence, it is better to leave the local population of foxes alone because they will have touched the fence and learnt they cannot get in. A new fox to the area will try to get in and may be lucky...

As for the eglu being foxproof - not totally unfortunately - Beth Caroll, a blogger I know had all of her chickens taken from her Eglu. She said the fox tore the latch off to get in.

we should try to keep our hens safe, we don't own the planet and killing wildanimals in the hope we can controlnature is arrogant. I have heard that the smell of human urine scares off foxes.

How effective are electric fences at keeping foxes and other predators at bay? A couple of weeks ago a fox took one of my chickens when she was free-ranging on the compost heap, while I sat about 15 ft/3m away! It's not an urban fox - we're in a very rural location - and there lots of foxes around, so we never let the girls out unless we're around, but now it seems that even us being there isn't enough to put them off.

To my knowledge a chicken farmer friend says he uses 7 strands of wire on his fencing and if a fox gets in they usually can't get out and then it normal practise to shot the fox.

A fox will keep coming back if you do not destroy them. A fox will kill evey bird and leave them dead.

From your comment on how close the fox was to you make me wonder if this fox as been dumped from town because foxes do not get that near if born in the country.

we should try to keep our hens safe, we don't own the planet and killing wildanimals in the hope we can controlnature is arrogant. I have heard that the smell of human urine scares off foxes.

Majority of people don't like killing wild animals and it is not arrogant to protect your domesticated animals and birds by killing a fox that trespasses into your hedged and fenced garden. A fox WILL keep returning and killing until its had all your stock - it's soul destroying to find your birds (especially the youngsters) all with theirs neck ripped and broken with a scrape of soil over them ready for when the fox returns again.

Thanks Rooster and Meg, your comments are much appreciated. About electric fences, though, does anyone know if they are effective against foxes and other predators? Are they worth the investment? From your comments, Rooster, it sounds as though they don't always keep foxes at bay! But if anyone has any experience of using an electric fence, or tips about which to buy or what to look out for, I'd be very grateful.

We use electric netting, good quality and 1.22m high. We have a high powered mains energiser, I would advise always using a good quality energiser and robust netting. We have never lost a chook to a fox and live in a very rural area. We do have foxes and have actually seen them in the garden, however, the existing fox population are "trained" so to speak to the fence, by that I mean they have experienced quite a shock.

As Foxy says, strong electric netting and an energiser (if you can't use mains a good quality leisure battery will work, but make sure you check regularly to ensure the battery is still charged). I've used this when I used to keep chooks down the stables with great success. A neighbour lost 2 sitting geese to a fox - it killed one and left it and tried to drag the other through the sheep wire at the bottom of her garden adjoining one of my paddocks. It couldn't get her through so bit her head off and left the body tangled in the wire. But my chickens weren't touched.

Thanks! Electric fencing does sound like it might be the way forward, then, as long as I make sure it's a good quality product. And 1.22m sounds quite high - but also quite sensible! I really appreciate you passing on your knowledge about this - it's so expensive and I didn't want to spend out if it didn't work well. Thank you.