Poorly chicken

[Steve.]

Set up my camcorder to record goings on after a visit the day-before yesterday.

 

Fox has now ripped off loads of the garden-edging used to hold the bedding in place, and ripped one of the covers to shreds. Cheeky fox even had a look at the decking.

 

Not happy.

 

And is seems there is little I can do to stop the visits

[Steve.]

Here is a link to the YouTube Video I took of the attack ...

... setting up the camcorder tonight to see what happens ...

[scarlettohara]

Scary - Ive just gone and put mine away

[Steve.]

we don't lock them away at night ... found a few feathers around the side of the run today ... must have been plucked through the bars.

[sandyhas3chucks]

don't you think you should now Stev?

[Sheilaz]

Amazing footage Steve. A Foxwatch really is worth trying.

 

My fox stopped his daily visits when I installed 2 Foxwatches (large walk in run) run on wiring not batteries, & also made an inner wall of chickenwire for the run so he couldn't snatch feathers (when they leant against the wire ). He did this a couple of times before the Foxwatches.

 

He likes the Eglu run roof, doesn't he, I wonder if you could devise, er, something to keep him off.

 

He might run past a Foxwatch if he saw an opportunity, but ours keeps his distance, it's worth a try, not to be terrorised.

I've seen our fox 3 times this week, but no nearer than 3 metres from the run, he just watched & ran off.

Wish I'd taken a film! He grins like the one in storybooks!

[Steve.]

Yesterday I saved up a day's wee and placed that around where the fox was coming in. There were no visits today. And I noted I need to cut down on the coffee.

 

Put some anti-burglar spikes down on the fence where the fox was walking. Probably won't have any effect but I felt better.

 

May have to lock them away if we get any more visits ... though not sure how that'll work as my day doesn't start till about 8am

[sandyhas3chucks]

fox rescue say spikes are good deterrant. Pee only 1 time like dogs you are just saying i was here. The mornings are beautiful and you will get extra day if you get up at 6. You can always go back 2 bed but you are missing a lovely time in the day-you wont want 2 when you see hear and smell it

Edited May 16, 2010 by Guest

[alex_m]

I'm absolutley devastated. Not as much as my surviving chook who of course is terrified of every moving thing.

I hope this will be a warning to people that no matter how safe you feel always and I mean always shut your run at night.

Mine have been fine being left with it open(I've had them almost a year now). Due to absent mindedness. sometimes sleeping in the garden which led me to a false sense of security.

 

If you've got this far then thank you and I ask, where do I go from here? do I stick with one? replace my lost one ( only in numbers, never in personality)? Or maybe get two so they bed in better?

 

Eggs really arent my priority. I'm absolutely gutted and feeling very guilty for being so complacent that ive lost my favourite girl. Just feel lost. I want to give up looking after them. Except for the bravery of my surviving girl. I cant give up as shes awesome bless her!!

 

I wont give her up as shes a fighter! Or let her down again.

 

R.I.P Tilly

[Chucky Mama]

What a shame, I am sorry to hear your news. You are quite right that getting a couple would be a good idea. She will be very lonely kept on her own.

[Sheilaz]

Sorry to hear the sad news, I've posted on your topic about this.

[WildeWoman]

That's a shame - it was effective. Try contacting either The Fox Project: Deterrence Advice Line, Phone: 01375 893893 or National Fox Welfare Society: Phone: 01933 411996 and they should be able to tell you what the recommended (legal) alternatives are.

[sadietoo]

Amazing footage Steve. A Foxwatch really is worth trying.

 

My fox stopped his daily visits when I installed 2 Foxwatches (large walk in run) run on wiring not batteries, & also made an inner wall of chickenwire for the run so he couldn't snatch feathers (when they leant against the wire ). He did this a couple of times before the Foxwatches.

 

 

Sorry just to say Foxwatch has made absolutely no difference to us.....

[sadietoo]

I'm absolutley devastated. Not as much as my surviving chook who of course is terrified of every moving thing.

I'm absolutely gutted and feeling very guilty for being so complacent that ive lost my favourite girl. Just feel lost. I want to give up looking after them. Except for the bravery of my surviving girl. I cant give up as shes awesome bless her!!

 

I wont give her up as shes a fighter! Or let her down again.

 

R.I.P Tilly

 

I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. You had had a very good run of luck with no foxes, but sadly they are always there waiting in the wings, as I also found out to my cost. I felt so awful I did not do more to protect my beautiful girl last December, but I thought I had made the garden impregnable, and the fox proved me wrong. I also thought I would not continue to keep chooks, but the lovely people on here encouraged me to carry on , and now I have added one other to the sad lonely girly I was left with after the fox took her sister. They are happy as larry together, and I would not be without them, but they don't have the freedom my previous girls had, I only free-range when I am actually in the same bit of garden as them even though we have subsequently installed 8ft (against regs but no-one has complained yet (keeps fingers crossed)) gates, and six foot fences and as many thorny bushes as we can muster all round the perimeter.

 

Don't feel you can't carry on keeping chickens..you can ...you just need to keep one step ahead of the fox..now he knows your girls are there he will be back..again and again and again and again and again and again and again.ad infinitim.until, in fact he gets lucky..you can never let your guard down.

 

don't let it put you off. At the end of the day, I felt like you that I had a duty to my remaining chicken to give her companionship, and not just to rehome her,...I'm so glad I did, they are always worth the effort.xxxxxx

[alex_m]

Thank you sandie. I'm going through the same feelings. I would be letting tallulah down if I gave her up after all she's been through. I'm going to carry on. Will sort out the right things for introducing some newbies. Their ranging activities will be limited now as I wrap them up in cotton wool.

Edited May 17, 2010 by Guest

[Steve.]

fox rescue say spikes are good deterrant. Pee only 1 time like dogs you are just saying i was here. The mornings are beautiful and you will get extra day if you get up at 6. You can always go back 2 bed but you are missing a lovely time in the day-you wont want 2 when you see hear and smell it

 

The bottom of my garden smells like a tramp's underpants, a tramp that has an unhealthy nescafe addiction.

 

No foxes since the video, and today replacing the torn plastic garden lawn edging with some gravel boards. Just off to search the forum on how other folks have attached them.

[hasnett]

Wwe have a new FAMILY of foxes moved in to a neighbours garden. mr & mrs fox take turns coming into our garden at all times of the day to catch us out regardless of whether we're there or not! I have just chased one off now at 1.10 in the afternoon, luckily Dotty was right beside me so he couldn't grab her. They are all playing in my neighbours garden 5 of them!!! AHHHH!!!! my poor chooks can never free range again!

[BocBoc]

We have had two fox attacks - the first was last September when we lost our darling first girls after OH left the eggport door on top of the Eglu after cleaning it out. Two birds gone and one left headless on the lawn - we were both devastated, especially as we knew it was our fault. We got a new flock straight away and have been vigiliant since....well that was until last Sunday. OH though I'd shut the run door and I thought he'd done it after the chooks bedtime. 10:30pm comes and we're (luckily) still in the back room picking over the remains of Sunday dinner and chatting merrily away to our guests when I hear a chicken noise. Without hesitation I fling my chair to the other side of the room and dart outside to see Mittens and Anna cowling behind the wheelie bin by the back door. A guest switched on the security light so I could see into the garden - Margot was flapping and squawking like mad but little Aggy was no-where to be seen. The end of the run had been bowed out and the grub bowl was on the lawn, miles from it's usual home at the end of the run. I gingerly opened the egg port expecting to see blood and feathers but there was Aggy hiding in the nesting box! She jumped up, flew straight out of the eggport and proceeded to follow Margot around, flapping and making noise. The roosting bars were all out of sorts so something (I strongly suspect Mr Fox) had been in there. Again, a fox attack that due to our lapsidasical attitudes could have had dire consequences. I felt so bad but at least none of our girls were taken.

The legacy we have been left with is that come bed time, the girls now try and settle behind the wheelie bin rather than returning to their Eglu. It's been almost two weeks and we are still coaxing them at bedtime to go to where is the safest place for them - they obviously don't think it is and who can blame them! Perserverance I'm hoping will re-train them and we'll be back to normal soon.

As for us - I'm still feeling guilty and now ensuring that the run is firmly closed, pegs are in place and wood chips are covering the anti-tunneling skirts. I am confident that the run is fox-resistant, well as long as we remember to close it at night!!

[Helly Welly]

I lost all my girls to a fox last Tuesday. All were left in the garden, headless. Poor Henrietta was still breathing so we had to take her to the vet to be put to sleep.

 

It was entirely our fault, we'd got complacent about leaving them out. The guilt still haunts me, it's hard to get over the image of them lying in my garden.

 

We're now going back to locking them in the eglu every night and only having them free range when we are in the house. We got new girls today, we won't let it put us off keeping chickens, but we will be much more careful.

 

And OH is going to be peeing around the garden a lot more.

[pollypocket34]

Just wanted to let you know what happened to our last hen in early hours this morning.

 

My hen was safely asleep in her eglu pod (although eglu door not locked, as they hate it being shut, the run was locked). A fox managed to tunnel under the eglu pod into the run and got to my hen that way. Our run and eglu sit on earth with bark chippings on top and a low wooden fence enclosing the bark.

 

We do have a resident fox in my neighbours garden in the house opposite me and I've been told that she has had cubs so I guess the fox was pretty determined to get our hen but I must admit that I thought she was safe as long as she was locked in the run.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Hi Pollypocket, what a sad first post ..RIP little one and {{hugs}} to you and your family

 

Unfortunately these attacks do occur occasionally, and as you say if she had cubs she would have been more determined than normal

 

Many of us now have our eglu runs on a base of concrete or slabs under the bark/bedding as an added deterrent.........no good to you now, but maybe in the future if you decided to get more girls

 

Take care

 

Sha x

[hilda-and-evadne]

My neighbour got her three hens a year ago, and for a year they have free-ranged without incident. But now there is, obviously, a new generation of young foxes and - after two or three near-misses in the past week - one has managed to attack the hens. My neighbour has a hen-house from PetsAtHome, not an eglu, and had left the coop door slightly ajar because she was planning to clean it out. All the fox had to do was put his nose round the door and get the hen that was sitting on the nestbox. My neighbour managed to intervene before the fox could carry away the hen, and the poor bird is now in a box indoors. There are white feathers all over the garden.

 

My hens had a ring-side view of my neighbour's hen being chased by the fox and are very upset.

 

It looks as if there are two sorts of people: those who believe it won't happen until it does, and those who don't want to take the risk. I am upset, too, because months ago I warmly offered to lend my neighbour my spare eglu but she was so sure that (a) there were no foxes, (b) they would only come at night, © she would be quick enough to prevent an attack when she saw the fox appear from the kitchen window, etc etc. I am not making any more suggestions at the moment because she seems to be unable to think straight about what to do next. So sad because completely avoidable.

[zaniyah]

I was woken up around 4am this morning, and shuffled out to see what was going on, only to come face to face with an adolescent fox. I think I interrupted it, but I'm not sure what happened exactly.

 

The two chooks inside the eglu run were absolutely terrified. I'd left the eglu door open but the run was shut up and is pegged down as securely as I could manage. One hen, Florence, who is usually the boldest, had a little bit of blood on the top of her beak but no other obvious damage, although a few soft feathers had been lost. I suspect that the fox bit her on the beak but let go when I interrupted it, at which point the two hens both ran into the eglu and cowered at the back making themselves as small as possible.

 

The fox ran for it as soon as I started in its general direction, and I then spent the next hour and a bit cuddling and talking to my two hens trying to calm them down. Initially Flo' was breathing very strangely and was practically frozen in place, but with a little coaxing she cheered up. She still wasn't as vocal as normal when I came back out to check on them at around 7am, nor at 8am, but a few treats did get some noises from them both. Gerty seems pretty unaffected by what happened, and although she is also not as noisy as normal I suspect this is more because Flo' is unusually quiet.

 

I've just ordered some lion pooh pellets, and I'm going to ask my neighbour if he can bring his two large, very well-trained dogs around to visit so that they can scent mark the place. Hopefully that will help to deter the fox but I'm not hugely hopeful.

 

I did get a little bit of warning as a few months back, when driving home, I saw Mrs Fox with two cubs crossing the road nearby, so it was only a matter of time, but I believe this is the first time a fox has had a go at the eglu.

 

Previously there has been interest from a mink, but it was less successful. I suspect that the increased plant growth helped the fox this time, so I'm going to move the eglu on the weekend to a more open/exposed position rather than right next to the trees and bushes.

 

[squiggin]

I was woken up at 5am by the sound of one of my hens going mad outside the bedroom window, they had been shut in the eglu run so knew this wasn't right. By the time I got downstairs and outside the dog ran out with me and chased the fox over the gate. It was too late for my top hen Lulu, the fox had pulled the run apart from the front corner and nabbed her. He was just about to get the other two but luckily we got there just in time and they're physically ok but 2 weeks on still traumatised. I had a mark 1 run I'd bought 2nd hand with the eglu, I wasn't convinced the springs that were holding it together were that secure and clearly they weren't - cable ties all over it seem to have done the job and hoping the dog chasing him off will keep him away. Stupidly that was the one night I hadn't shut them in the house as it had been such a warm night they hadn't wanted to go to bed.

[beach chick]

Gutted today. Fox came last night and had 4 girls and 1 rabbit.

To explain: we have an electric fence which encloses cube, rablu and eglu and run with quail in. All except quail freerange together, the rabbits were uncatchable and since it has been so hot I have not been shutting the cube door at night (stupid me).

 

Fox had bitten through a repair in the fence. I found feathers from the Rhoda rhode island red and Beauty the sebright; Paris the bluebell lying dead with no head; Ditto the Buff Orp in the broody coop minus some feathers; Chardonnay the Sussex hiding in the rablu; Lavender the arucana wandering around; no sign of Muffin the silkie or Spot the speckledy, or Daisy the rabbit. Lily, the other rabbit was sitting and quivering in the middle.

 

Had to do school run and avoid youngest going out to say hello to the animals. on my return, I found Spot wandering up and down outside the fence, so got her back in. then checked round the field and found Muffin in some long grass - huge wound in her back, so off to the vet where she was put to sleep. Vet offered surgery, but I thought it was kinder not to, she was soaking wet having been out all night, and the wound was a really deep puncture, dont think she would have made it. Managed to catch Lily with the help of a fishing net, so she is now incarcerated in her rablu and run.

 

Absolutely totally gutted. I guess I will add some more girls in due course; and of course have to explain to my 11 year old why she now has 1 rabbit and not 2. I HATE foxes