Solitary chicken - need advice

[bokbok87]

Hello all,

 

Yesterday night at around 2am I woke to a screaming noise, not sure what it was I went to my bathroom window to find that there was someone with a torch in my garden.

Unsure who it was I woke up my other half who went out to find our neighbour there trying to rescue our chooks from the fox.

Sadly Queen Victoria our light Sussex was dead already and one of our French Marans was also missing.

The other French Maran was still roosting and lastly, by some miracle, our chesnut brown had made it to our kitchen door. She knows where we go in and must have been looking for some sort of protection from the foxes. Sadly she has a lot of feathers missing and a large wound near to her vent.

Sleepily all I could think of was to put her in a cat carrier and leave her in the kitchen and this morning she is still alive (albeit not her normal self) I have now put her with the other french maran in the run.

 

On looking at out Eglu and talking to our next door neighbour - it seems that the foxes managed to get egg port door.

 

WAIT A MINUTE?! Foxes can somehow open egg port doors now?!

 

I asked my OH if he closed the door - having OCD I am pretty sure that he did which leaves us with the biggest concern.... WE HAVE A 'FRIENDLY NEIGHBOUR' somehow, for some reason someone has had to deliberately open the egg port door. Perhaps they didn't like the chickens roaming in our garden, perhaps someone drunk from London thought it would be a funny prank, perhaps they were trying to steal them - I don't know.

We have had them for 2 weeks with no issues with the egg port door, there are NO teeth marks and there are NO scratches anywhere on it.

 

My worst nightmares of having chickens in South London have come true. Now I have no choice but to put up cameras and somehow make my fences taller. I am an end of terrace and so we have an alley way which many can use to go round the back of our house. I did see a few curious people looking but thought nothing of it and I spoke to my neighbours who were happy for me to have the chickens.....where they lying?

 

I will put a photo of the garden so you can see what I'm dealing with. What I need help with is:

1. How do I keep our Chesnut brown alive? She made it through the night but is not looking good at all

2. Security - what can we do so it doesn't happen again

3. Could I have an egg port door which is somehow faulty?

 

You all have been amazing on this site so I hope you can be of some assistance again. It was a hard, sleepless night with lots of discussions.

 

 

 

[Olly]

Firstly, I'm so sorry to hear of this - it's a horrible experience and especially so when you have only recently got your hens.

 

Your injured hen will need to go to the vet urgently - the wound may be infected, and she's probably in shock, I'm afraid she is unlikely to recover if left without treatment. You did the right thing to bring her indoors, but she will need to see a vet today.

 

Regarding the Eglu, I have never heard of a report that a fox could open the eggport door and it's designed for this to be impossible. A fox can pull or push but it wouldn't be able to twist the handle in the way needed to open the door and an attempt to do so would have left teeth marks. If you can open it without twisting the handle, then it's faulty but otherwise I'm afraid the likely conclusion is either that it wasn't closed (and I'm not doubting you when you say that it was) or that someone opened it.

 

If your neighbours were involved I hardly think they would have got up in the night and alerted you to the problem. It's understandable to suspect everyone when something like this happens, but it sounds as if they are on your side.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear your story.

 

Ditto to everything Olly has said, especially about getting the hen to the vet.

 

I would also up the security to your garden.

[bokbok87]

Thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately our garden backs onto other houses so whilst I don't think it could be the neighbour that helped yesterday it could be the others. To give you an example of neighbourhood wars here - one person parked outside someone's driveway so the owner of the house slashed the tyres. You don't put your bins away like one young mother and someone called the council. Lastly someone hit someone's else's cat in the car and then refused to pay the bill - the house was egg bombed...

Not the greatest area but I like a few of my neighbours so thought all would be well. You never know these days eh?

I grew up in Surrey - didn't happen there!

 

The chicken that survived the fox attack has been eating meal worms so she may pull through?

She is definitely in shock and is scared to go back to her best box

[Purplemaniacs]

Sorry to hear about the fox. It sounds like an interesting neighbourhood that you live in. Like others I wouldn't have thought a fox could open the egg port without a little human help.

 

The hen that was injured needs to see the vet even if she has started to eat as the wound will need cleaning.

 

Chrissie

[bokbok87]

Thanks for the reply.

It sounds a bit silly but what security do you have in your garden? Can anyone recommend anything?

Will two chickens survive on their own or should I be looking for two replacements also? Don't really know what to do as I have only had them for 2 weeks

[Valkyrie]

My neighbours have cctv which apparently they can see my front door and all who visits. I'm good for that side at least! LOL! But sadly I have no idea what they have or how much it cost. It was to my neighbour's annoyance because there wasn't a need for it and she suspected it was a control thing re her hubby (or keeping up with the lads at work), so every time she went to sort out her guinea pig she rudely saluted the cameras so her husband would take a hint. But that was about 3 years ago now and he won't take them down. They are supposed to have a large notice to inform people that the premises have CCTV but they haven't. I'm not sure of the legal terms but maybe they won't be able to use the tapes as evidence.

[gavclojak]

what part of London are you in? gosh what an awful thing to happen...

 

I cant imagine anyone opening an egg port at night unless they knew about chooks, surely they would just let them out of the garden during the day?? but maybe I am wrong! i check and double check my cube door but one night must have forgotten because there they were, the next morning, out and about before me!!!

 

its a good sign she is eating meal worms but a trip to a chicken savvy vet is IMPERATIVE

There is a list on this website of such vets.

 

I would make sure you have a lockable gate, make the fence high enough to make it difficult for human/fox, with trellis if you cant replace the fence, foxes are not keen on trellis but foxes can scale 6 foot fences without a problem and the fact he has visited once, I guarantee you he will be back so you have to make sure your girls are secure during the day and night.

 

I would consider electric fencing for the top of the fence and around the girls if they are free ranging during the day, i would definitely not let them free range unsupervised.

[PickleHen]

I am sorry to hear of your dramas and have to say I am sure our neighbours won't all be happy when my girls arrive.

Having only just moved into NE London, I have spent the last two weeks prepping the garden for the hen arrivals. Most of which has been surveying the garden for foxes at different times if the day. I am transforming the garden into a true organic space and have taken the advice from the lovely people in this forum and using Scoot in an effort to build a seperate form of barrier and deterrent for foxes. We also have a motion security light fitted to the rear shed that will pick up foxes in the garden which we hope also will help. We have also some security spikes for the fencing surrounds which look horrible once fitted but once a vine grows around these they should not be visible to the naked eye, or potential intruders. Lastly, we are setting up the eglu horizontal to the boundary fence to provide any unsuspecting visitors less space and sides to approach the coop. Wishing you all the very best with you mission to move forward and for your shocked hen to make swift recovery.