Solving Omlet Smart Auto Door Timing Issues with Alexa Routines

[Jane&Lorenz]

last week, in the early hours of the morning, a fox attacked one of our chooks through the bars of the eglu run!

How it managed to get it's nose through goodnes knows but as a result chook lost the lower half of one wing There was quite a tussle as you can imagine and we thought she might die but she has pulled through and is eating and drinking normally again. She has stopped laying eggs but we are hopng she'll start again eventually. We have put chicken wireall around the bottom of the run now.

Have we got an extremely clever fox or has this happened to anyone else?

[Egluntyne]

Strange feeling of deja vu here.

 

Isn't there a thread about this somewhere else?

 

Gallina had a hen attacked through the bars of her run a couple of years ago.

[Matthew]

no deja vu...

 

This is also posted in the chicken clinic dated Sunday 13th

[Gallina]

I think this is the fourth hen which has been attacked through the bars of the Eglu run: you are relatively lucky, as the other three (including mine) either died instantly or had to be put down.

 

I made a bit of a fuss with Omlet, because I really thought it would be impossible with a foxproof run for a fox to kill my hens. This is the reason why Omlet now advertise the run as "fox-resistant" rather than "fox-proof".

 

All four instances were in the early hours of the morning -- a good argument for keeping the Eglu door closed until you are up, unless you have other anti-fox protection.

[MaxBaz]

Probably sounds a silly question - but is the run in an Eglu made from the same wire/mesh as the run in a Cube?

 

Did the attacks happen in a Cube run?

[FruitandNutCake]

I've had guinea pigs attacked through the weld mesh wire on my old home built walk in run. Which is why I have build my new run with an extra layer of weld mesh- small hole size weld mesh on the inside of the frame and thicker guage weld mesh with slightly larger holes on the out side of the frame. That way there is about 3/4 - 1 inch gap between the two layers of mesh.

 

I'm not sure if it would make much difference just overlaying one layer with a second layer without a gap in between.

 

You would think that animals/chickens would not go near the fox, and would run and hide, but they don't.

[MedusA]

When I built my walk-in run, I put 16 gauge weldmesh on the inside of the frame and an extra layer on the outside for the bottom 36 inches. I figured a fox wouldn't be able to bite and jump at the same time. The more you can make your run into Chicken Fort Knox, the better.

[Gallina]

The mesh is exactly the same for the Cube run as for the Eglu run, but the Cube set-up seems much safer to me. There is much more width, so the hens can get away from the sides; and the all-round visibility is much better, as only the top is covered.

 

The fox can lie on top of the Eglu run and swipe on either side. It is possible that if the run cover is opaque, the hens even forget the fox is there.

[Jane&Lorenz]

Thank you everyone for your help and concern. I'm afraid I posted the same issue twice because I didn't realise it had gone up the first time (der!).

Clover is doing fine now. She was pecked very badly by her sister at first and we had to separate them for a week but now the wound is healing well we have been able to put them together again. Now Clover is eating and scratching around as normal and we are hoping that she will lay eggs again. We are lucky that she survived.

On the night in question we had left the coup door open and so they were out in their run at dawn and now we close the door at night and open it when we get up in the morning. Also my male partner had stopped urinating in the garden for a while and he has resumed that again now. However there are loads of foxes around and we regularly see them walking up the street as bold as brass.

[Jenny Smedley]

Re door closing at night - I have just posted a thread ( warning re foxes) today as, in good weather, I used to leave my cube door ajar to let my girs get out as early as poss . I was confident that my set up was safe & secure ( I didn't get the cube run as I wanted a bigger run for my girls) & as my fence was not only dug well into the ground , it was 5 ft high. WRONG! Last nite a fox has scaled the 5ft fence & killed all six of my girls . PLEASE ,PLEASE, LOCK THE DOOR AT NIGHT. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Jenny

[Troy]

Hi everyone!

I'm totally knew to the forum and chickens in general but we are getting a lovely lilac cube and chickens in May. Can't wait!

 

But forgive me for being green as I need to ask -

 

How big are the squares of the weld mesh on the Omlet run?

 

We've got a guy, Tony from Aviaries4u, building our run at the moment and because foxes will poke their noses/legs through mesh if they can, he will only use 1"x1" squares.

From the pics the Omlet runs look bigger than this but I may be wrong. If they are however, would they not consider making them with smaller squares rather than go from fox-proof to foxresistant??

[Pudding hill]

Jenny - very sorry to hear that.

 

Troy - yes the mesh is about an inch.

 

I use an electric fence which seems to keep dogs and foxes at bay. There are literally hundreds of foxes around here and at this time of year the cubs need feeding. My neighbour, who is a gamekeeper, has shot six in the last week within the immediate vicinity. He claims that the problem stems from urban foxes being 'rescued' by animal charities and 'rehomed' in the countryside. Incidentally, I have lost seven lambs to foxes in the last three nights. However, foxes hate electric fences which are considered to be the best deterrent.