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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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 Posted: Sat May 23, 15 7:54 am Post subject: |
 
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Trap is baited but it's not interested. No scratch marks in ground outside the trap - not trying to get to the bait.
I think it's been hand raised. Our local foxes are fed by a neighbour, but they still stay out of sight.
It's definitely got to 'go', but it's really rather sad, someone has spent a lot of time with this creature to make it so tame, and I know from my experience with the Harris hawk, how awesome a feeling it is to tame a wild creature, but they are predators and must be kept responsibly, not let loose again. (In fact, I could have got the owner of the hawk into a fair bit of trouble if I had been so inclined.)
Even when I kill a chicken it makes me sad because it's so trusting, and they're easy to tame. It's useful for chickens (and hawks) to be tame though, but what on Earth use is a tame fox?  |
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex
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Lorrainelovesplants
Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 6521
Location: Dordogne
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 15 9:06 am Post subject: |
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| tahir wrote: |
Did Jim pop over?
Ibthink people feeding foxes and badgers is quite an issue really. |
No, not yet. I had said not to bother, when the last one stopped coming, but, as there's more of them, he might as well come and see what the chances are that he can help when the next one comes.
The more I think about it the more I'm sure this is a new one.  I reckon I've just been lucky for the last few years, and that it's nothing to do with the leccy fence that I've not 'lost' any chickens since I set it up.
I don't think it's feeding per se that's the problem. A neighbour regularly puts food out for them, but makes no attempt to tame them. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even go outside to watch them, but just watches them from her dining room window. I'm 99% sure it's not 'her' foxes that are the problem. If they were, then I'd've been having constant problems, or at least regularly at cubbing time, right from the start of keeping chickens. I reckon it's townies trying to get the 'cute little b. . . easts' to come closer.
I'm wondering about getting the press to run a story on what happens to tamed urban foxes . . . just need to get a dead one first 
In the meantime, any suggestions on making 1/4 acre fox proof without breaking the bank? (That includes 6ft fences  ) Hawthorn looks like it will eventually be effective, but it's taken several years so far and looks like it needs another year to be thick enough to lay. I'm wondering about rosa rugosa, gooseberry, or properly trained brambles?
eta or hints and tips on making traps |
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46247
Location: yes
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Woodburner
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 15 5:26 pm Post subject: |
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| dpack wrote: |
as foxey is quite happy in sharp and spiney plants but dislikes open places a fence and low (or no) vegetation might be a cunning plan for a perimeter
low (kept between 20 to 50cm by clipping) but dense and tangled gorse in a broad strip is quite a barrier but it does need clipping quite a couple of times a year and how wide (ie effective) depends on the reach of the tools you have. |
These beasts are fearless. Perhaps a truly wide open space might give them agoraphobia, but even though the neighbouring gardens are predominantly mown grass, and only have skimpy wire fences, the general effect of the surrounding area is that of open woodland.
I think density and viciousness of the prickles is the key thing. They may be happy to make a lair underneath the shelter of a bramble thicket, but pushing through a netted mass would hopefully be a different matter. We spend quite a lot of time keeping the electric maintained/clear, so hedge maintenance would not be so different. Keeping brambles properly makes picking easier too.  The biggest problem will be accessing 'the other side' for good maintenence, without significantly reducing the area for the chooks, but then again, it's got to be better than keeping them in runs.
I'm wondering if clearing away a lot of the neighbours overgrown brambles, (so I could access the ditch and remains of overgrown hedge that is our responsibility) is giving too easy access . . . I think I'll move the remaining pile of cut stuff back to where it was cut from, and simply keep the (now vigourously regrowing) brambles from recolonising the ditch. I'll plant the long side with RR and gooseberries and the house end with brambles.
Man with a gun is here now, and agrees about where they're getting in and where they're coming from. Is there a 'kicking itself smiley' anywhere?  |
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tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex
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Mutton
Joined: 09 May 2009
Posts: 1508
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| Posted: Fri Jun 26, 15 9:34 am Post subject: |
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| Lorrainelovesplants wrote: |
I feel your pain. 10 days ago we had our first predator in 10 years. Took 2 Light Sussex and a Buff orp - big girls. method - pull through fence (sheep fencing - bottom space).
Now we didnt see anything and there wasnt a huge commotion, and we could see the feathers, so assumed mink or polecat as if it were a fiox wouldnt it just jump the 4 ft fence with the bird in its mouth?
So fox watch (with gun) for a week - nothing. Even had wildlife cams up - nothing.
So - happened again 3 days ago - big LS cockerel. This time I heard a bit of commotion. This was 8.30 3 nights back. ran to the field - cock half pulled through bottom space of sheep fence again, head and neck totally ripped off. You could see right into the cavity.
Still we havnt seen anything, but it MUst be a fox surely to take something this big and strong. |
We had that happen earlier in the year. I was told stoat. That they are incredibly strong for their size. Bird pulled to stocknetting, jammed in headfirst, then head chewed off. Our chicken are a bit smaller than light sussex though.
In terms of jumping fences with bird in its mouth, not necessarily. We had fox trouble some years back (definitely fox, we saw it) and on the first pass it pushed under the stocknetting with the duck in its mouth. We did a load of stone filling in of dips and made the bottom of the fence good. The fox came back a week later, killed a second duck, but dropped it at the fence where it could no longer go through.
Make really, really sure that something the size of a stoat can't get in your hen house. Ours are in an outbuilding and we had the head chewed off one in the nest box, in the night a while back. We then made really, really sure there was nothing anything could climb leaning against the walls inside or out and it hasn't happened again. |
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Lorrainelovesplants
Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 6521
Location: Dordogne
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misty07
Joined: 22 Jan 2010
Posts: 2223
Location: swindon wiltshire
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