4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[teri]

i live in a house which backs onto a farmers field. i let my broody and chicks out for their usual morning free range session and went back to the house. my kitchen window looks onto the garden so i can keep an eye on them also my staffie stays with them all the time (he's my four legged broody!)

after laoding the washing machine i glanced out to find a fox bold as brass sitting at my gate looking through at my girls it's half past 9 in the morning i didn't realise foxes would patrol this late?

it was quite a young looking fox but very bold as it did not scarper until i went into the garden and shouted at it at which point i was only a few meters away. neither the dog or my broody spotted him, although the fox had spotted the dog which i think helped on this occaision.

the farmer has planted a crop of maze which is now providing brilliant cover for foxes so they can get a couple of meters away without being seen. the chick pen is completely fox proof however my big girls are in an open run which is about 5 feet high. nothing to a fox i am worried that i will not be able to let my girls into their run unless i'm in the garden which means hardly ever. any ideas please?

[Olly]

Sorry to hear about your 'near miss'. Unfortunately it's a myth - which has led to a lot of tragic events - that foxes only come out at dawn or dusk, they are often seen in the middle of the day. And as you say, a 5' fence is no barrier to a fox.

 

You could get a Foxwatch, but I think supervised free-ranging or electric fencing may be your only solution.

[teri]

thanks i am now seriously concidering a new enclosed run perhaps a second hand if anyone knows of one going spare? it is like fox central around here as the farmers feild is surrounded by forest. i spotted three in the space of about ten minutes only two nights ago. i'm worried that i'ts just a matter of time. the only other alternative would be to re-home my bigger girls to a safer environment as this will give me time to establish a safer home for the chicks as they get bigger thanks for the advice

[madchick]

Hi there

 

We just got three ex batts last week. I just wondered how fox resistant the eglu run is?

We have to go on holiday shortly for 3 nights and have a pet sitter to feed the hens, cats and fish but he is coming in after work at 6pm. He cant make it later. The hens arnt going in their eglu until after 10 each night so its gonna be hard to shut them away.

We have a fenced garden with 6 foot fence and electric fence all around but know, living in a semi rural village there are foxes nearby. Our neighbours cant help us, neither can family as too far away so looks like its just the pet sitter. Has anyone ever had the eglu run invaded by a fox?

 

Any advise gratefully received

 

Madchick

[legend21]

My cube is based part on concrete and part grass, the grass part has slabs put on top of the skirting, this means the fox would have to dig pretty far in before he could get under the fence. I have just ordered 2 fox watch as my ex batts like to free range and although I work from home I cant see them all of the time. Like you mine dont go to bed until after 10pm and I dont settle until they are safe in the coop with the door closed and then the run door closed, when I have done this I feel pretty sure they are safe from the fox.

Jackie

[Olly]

Madchick, the Eglu run is fox resistant but there have been a few rare incidents where hens have been 'got at' through the run.

 

The skirt is intended to prevent a fox from digging under it, and unless you're on very light sandy soil it should be ok - if you're worried then you could weight the skirt down with slabs or plant pots or similar. It is rare, but not impossible, that a fox could manage to snatch part of a chicken through the run and cause an injury.

 

Most of us have to take a view on this, especially if you're going on holiday - it's asking a lot for someone to put the hens into the Eglu and let them out at convenient times. I have foxes around, and I never close the Cube door because I'm confident they are safe in the run - but it's a matter of personal choice. If you have electric fencing then I would have thought that's quite a good deterrent to foxes entering your garden.

[madchick]

Hi Olly

 

Thanks for your information. We wondered if it might be better to move the eglu onto the patio whilst away and weight the skirts down with slabs. We even considered whether to make a mesh base and cover with mulch for a few days but wondered if that would damage the girls claws. I suppose we could even make a temporary wooden tray to rest the whole thing in. I just want to do the best I can really but not sure what the best prevention is really.

I'm worried that if were not here the fox has got 3 nights to work on the run.

 

Madchick

[Olly]

I'd have thought that weighting the skirt down would be enough, but if in doubt you could move it on to the patio. A fox won't be able to bite through the mesh - there's no recorded incident of that as far as I know - and if it's on slabs, or weighed down with slabs, then it won't be able to tunnel under.

 

Foxes aren't natural diggers, they will tunnel into something if it's worth their while but generally they won't dig long tunnels, and they're not smart enough to start digging away from the run to avoid the skirt - their instinct is to go up close to the run and start digging, and that's why the skirt is effective.

 

Your pet-sitter will be able to check for any tunnelling or digging activity, but if you put slabs, sleepers or plant pots round the skirt it would take a pretty muscular fox to lift it up!

[Abbey Road Girl]

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that a fox will calculate the expenditure of his or her energy against the possible gain.

 

Most of us wouldn't even consider walking a hundred miles (ok, kilometres, if the EU insists) for a packet of crisps (though I may be wrong ).

 

On the other hand, a determined fox is a determined fox.

 

We do the best we can given our given resources of being able to be on site to let the chickens free range, being able to physically safeguard them by whatever means (dog, electrified fencing, the male wee, whatever).

 

The rest is probably up to fate. Good luck, Teri!

[esta]

Oh god thats lucky, that happened to me but I came down the garden to 18 chickens ripped up bodies Some advice would be to get a male to urinate on the outside of your pen, or even build a scarecrow out of your old clothes so the fox can smell you and thinks your really there. If you can't do that tie some tights full off hair from your local hairdressers around the outside of your pen, hope i have helped

 

Esta x

[Carol U]

To all of you who haven't yet tried one, I would highly recommend Foxwatch. We are surrounded by foxes and there is an earth in the garden behind us, but since Foxwatch, they no longer come in. I would advise having the mains connection as the batteries run out quickly and if you have a large area to cover, possibly two units, so that the beams cover any place that the foxes may enter. I'm not saying that Foxwatch is 100% safe - nothing is - and you may get a deaf fox, but for a suburban garden, they are as good as anything.