Warm boot recommendations please

[Trucking Girl]

Dear all, the girls have been out and about in the garden now for a good couple of weeks, garden secure, but always "under supervision" they are certainly entertaining and a pleasurable waste of time but i'm not getting anything done! as long as i'm in the house/office is it a wise move to leave them unsupervised/ Daft question i know but i'm new to all this, any advice experiences would be greatfully received.

Thanks,

Trucking Girl.

[Laura & CTB]

I let my two out from their run when I get home from work. After spending a bit of time with them I have to get on with the boring housework stuff etc so I do leave them to it for short periods of time.

 

Saying that - I have had them since September and have only just felt comfortable to leave them for a bit - also I would never leave the house while they were out ( if they had a problem I can still hear them), my garden is VERY secure with 6ft walls all the way round and no gaps for them to get through.

[Hen Watch]

HI Trucking Girl,

 

Ours have been with us 4 weeks. They are out in the garden now whilst I'm doing important web surfing (not housework or anything that actually needs doing.....!!)

 

For the last week I've felt confident enough to leave them unsupervised and free ranging. But I always lock them away in the run if I go out even for the 30 min school run. And they are back in the run as it gets dusky maybe an hour before their bed time just in case Mr Fox is lurking.

[Martin B]

I let them out in the garden if I am around, I just leave the window open so that I can hear the sqwaurking etc. It's pretty secure round here! TOUCH WOOD!

[Gallina]

Please, please, all of you, remember that foxes (especially in towns) roam around gardens just as much during the day as at night.

 

All of you seem to think that you need only worry about foxes at night. Everyone on this forum who has lost hens to foxes (and there are an awful lot of us now) have lost them during daylight hours.

 

I would say never leave your hens alone outside their safe Omlet run if you know that you have foxes in your area. You can't just wait until the first fox comes before deciding whether it is safe: you will already have lost your hens.

 

This this will immediately divide everyone into two camps, with those who have lost hens to a fox agreeing with me, and those who haven't disagreeing.

[xScrunchee]

I personally would never leave mine out in the garden even if I am in the house.

The way I see it-the hens can happily stay in the Eglu run full time, so the fact that I let them out every day is a bonus for them. If something came up and I didn't have time to be out there with them-they would have to stay in the run.

Even if I kept my window open so that I could hear them-it would be too late-I don't want to hear my hen squarking-rush outside and watch the fox carrying her away. Foxes are faster than us and 6 foot fences will not keep them out if they are hungry enough! It is also a fact that foxes are out and about all day as well as at night.

 

It all comes down to personal choice but from stories I have read on here about foxes killing peoples hens during the day there is NO WAY I will ever leave my girls out alone. Better to be safe than sorry surely??

[Laura & CTB]

I agree Gallina that you have to be sure that your girls are going to be safe.

 

I live in a very busy street with lots of comings and goings and to my knowledge no-one has ever seen a fox round here during the day and I've lived here for sixteen years. Other chickens have been around too.

 

My garden has very high walls that are also covered in ivy and bushes so it wouldnt be an easy climb.

 

Even so I have only just started to feel confident in letting them out by themselves -more because I worry about them getting stuck under a bush or something- I always have the windows open so I can hear them.

 

I think everyone has to assess their own situation very carefully.

[Chicken Licken]

I let mine roam around - usually for an hour or 2 in the morning and a bit longer in the evening. At other times they are confiend to their run area. They are absolutely fine in here - unless I pop out ot the allotment to do something - in which case they believe they MUST be allowed to roam for a bit and generally squawk until I think the neighbours may complain and let them out too!! It does lead to the occasional panic when they disappear - usually into someone elses garden althoug I did catch them begging for grapes at a neighbours back door last week end . Fortunately for me the dog free ranges with them and is a great fox deterrant.

[Gallina]

As you see, it's a matter of personal choice, and only you can decide. My decision was easy: this picture is taken from my garden in mid-afternoon: the fox has given himself a good high vantage point on a roof to watch my free-ranging chickens, and is hoping that I will need to run indoors for something.

 

Two families in our road allowed foxes to breed in their gardens this spring, and they have been hand-fed. They don't even run away when you go into the garden, as they hope you are bringing food for them.

 

This is an extreme situation: but other people have been taken by (nasty) surprise to find there are foxes living nearby.

[Tara.F]

my girls free range while I'm indoors and there are a lot of foxes round here.

 

However, I have I also have a big old staffordshire bull terrier who seems to be able to sense when a fox is anywhere nearby and goes charging outside.

 

poor thing often gets pecked for his trouble to boot

[xScrunchee]

Gallina I am 100% with you on this one.

People seem to be under the impression that foxes come out at night, they find it hard to get over 6 foot walls/fences, that they will hear their hens in time to rescue them-I still wouldn't take a risk!!

I have 6 foot fences right round my garden and have watched a vixen and her 2 cubs playing on my lawn during the afternoon!

They have no trouble getting over 6 foot fences with bushes etc there, some of my neighbours are surprised to hear that we have foxes as they have never seen them-yet they are definitely there!

I hope that people on this board who haven't seen foxes in their gardens are right and I also hope that if ever the day came (and I pray it doesn't) that they hear their hen screeching for it's life while they are somewhere in the house-they can run fast enough to wrestle the hen from the foxes jaws before it leaps over the 6 foot fence with its dinner in it's mouth!

 

Like I said before, it is very much a personal choice but I will NEVER take that risk with my girls. Foxes are faster and a hell of a lot more agile than me.

I don't want to be putting a post on here telling everyone that one of my girls (or all of them) has been killed by a fox, especially considering everyone warns us of the dangers and tells us their stories-I sort of feel that it would be down to my own stupidity if something bad did happen!

[Leicester_H]

I personally would never leave mine out in the garden even if I am in the house.

The way I see it-the hens can happily stay in the Eglu run full time, so the fact that I let them out every day is a bonus for them.

 

NO WAY I will ever leave my girls out alone. Better to be safe than sorry surely??

 

Thanks xscrunchee and Gallina - I thought that I might have been being overprotective in taking the same views as you.

 

I will continue only to let them out of the run (which as you say is perfectly suffient) when one of us is physically in the garden with them

 

H

[Snowy]

It does very much depend upon where you are doesn't it? I know there are foxes round here at night - we are in the countryside after all. But it is also the middle of a very active hunting area so the foxes have a very healthy fear of humans. I occasionally see them at night in the surrounding fields, only ever once at night in the village, but never during the day. It's a risk assessment at the end of the day, and it depends how much risk you are prepared to take.