New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[Olly]

Ah, it was you! I knew someone had said 11', and I don't doubt it for a moment. I know 6' is no barrier - it's so sad when people find this out the hard way.

 

I've had foxes around the house and garden for years, and I've watched them (before I got chickens) leap on and off shed roofs, over fences, etc. - they are more akin to cats than dogs in this respect. I don't take any chances.

[sheik]

Had a similar experience, it's absolutely awful - and the empty run looks so tragic in the garden

 

Like many on here, we had a secure walk-in run built and now only let them out when we're in the garden, or very close by. i.e. supervised free-ranging.

 

We still feel a bit guilty about leaving them penned up, but take comfort that they have a nice run, and we do actually let them out most days.

 

With an Eglu run only I'd feel worse, as they can't jump about in there. If you can build them a secure area with some vertical height that would be ideal.

 

Finally, I'd try and get some new chickens as soon as possible, it does help, honestly. We went for completely different breeds from a local poultry centre so they wouldn't be too similar to our first girls .

 

/\dam

[Suzie]

Thanks. Although after it happened I panicked and thought I'd never get anymore as the fox would always be on the prowl. After spending the weekend on this forum I've realised that lots of people live with foxes and just make sure their girls are well protected. The current plan is to get some ex-batts in our eglu and build a walk in run for them to have some extra space.

 

I went into the Kitchen when I got home and found a large quantity of welded wire mesh can't imagine what that might be for.

 

In the long term we might get another couple of non-rescue hens (spent all days looking at different breeds on the internet) and upgrade to a cube. A month ago I'd never kept chickens and now I'm planning on a whole flock!

 

It's quite addictive isn't it? Thanks to everyone for all their kind words.

[Olly]

Glad to hear you feel able to consider new hens. I'm sure it's the right thing to do.

[Suzie]

Thanks Olly - I hope so. I've just spoken to our local BHWT coordiantor and reserved 3 chickens for the end of May.

 

She said that they'd had 4 calls that morning from people who had lost their chicken to foxes and that they'd lost a few to a fox after it scaled an 8ft electric fence after a tree branch shorted out the electric fence.

 

It just goes to show that you really can never be too careful.

 

I'll be following my new girls round the garden when they are free-ranging - they won't be able to cluck without my knowing it!

[Louise]

Suzie you need to get a pest controller to come and deal with this one as it sounds like it is going to be persistent especially once it realises you have restocked

 

An experienced pest controller will dispatch a fox very quickly and humanely and hopefully that will be part of the problem solved

 

Sorry you lost your girls

[Treekeeper]

I keep mine in the run all the time now because the dreaded F word has been seen loping about. I don't know about 'em not being scared of anything they are frightened to death of my Border Collie She hates 'em which is unusual because she treats other dogs as if they don't exist but get a sight or whiff of a fox and she goes into terminator mode

[petite70]

I am devastated and its all my fault too - i didnt shut my hennys door last night - i have no idea why and when i woke this morning a fox had had all 4 of my hennys - i only had them last August and they were so lovely. I am so angry with myself and my 4 boys are gutted - i have had to move the eglu out of sight because i cant bear to see it empty. The fence surrounding the eglu that we built so that they could more roaming room was 6 ft tall too. I will get more hennys but its been a hard lesson to learn for me and i will Never forget to close the door again.

[Suzie]

petite, so sorry to hear about your loss. It seems to be a prime time for the foxes at the moment with many stories on here about fox attacks and I've only been a member for a few weeks.

 

Really am sorry to hear about your girls.

[Egluntyne]

What a shame.