Chicken bald back

[ChickenPoopGarden]

I posted in the fox attack section, although I know it wont be much help. Just a cautionary tale - The fox proof run isn't worth much if your chickens are free ranging outside and you forget to shut the door of the run at night. 7 chickens and two beautiful runner ducks slaughtered overnight. I am totally grief-stricken and I just don't know what to do. We aren't very well off and we have built up what we had over time. Now the children are desperate to replace their dead pets and I can't bear to do it until a bit of time has passed and I can assure myself the new poultry will be safe.

The violence and injustice of it is what gets me. They were so helpless! Poor, stupid Imelda always went to roost on the logpile instead of going in the coop, and I had to fetch her in every evening. So she was the first to go. I was clearing up the carnage with the children and I found a clump of feathers from the top of her head (she was a Polish) and I jsut couldnt stand it! Poor little Imelda! I've found not trace of Pompom at all, just a few feathers. The ducks were the saddest. They just lay stretched out as if they weren't touched. Just a tiny wound on their chests. i've only had them two months and they were giving an egg a day each.

My eyes are sore from crying

[Lewis]

I'm so sorry to hear it, we had a similar situation a few years ago so I know how you're feeling.

 

Where do you live? I wonder if there is a commercial hen rehoming point near you.

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Abergavenny, but I wont be restocking just yet. And I had such a mixture of breeds before. i miss them.

[Olly]

So very sorry to hear it.

 

Don't be hard on yourself, it could have happened at any time - I saw the fox strolling down my garden at 9.30 this morning in broad daylight.

[Luvachicken]

So sorry to hear about what has happened.

Sending you lots of hugs xxx

[mullethunter]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[Hippie Chick]

I'm so sorry xxx

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Thanks. I have been flooded with condolences all day from people who knew them. Funny how they had such an impact on so many people but everyone loved them. It's comforting.

Now trying to get hold of more Heras fencing so that we can build Fort Knox mark deux. Anyone know of a good supplier of anti-fox landmines?

[sarkymite]

I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say - there's isn't anything that can help - but I didn't want to read and run.

[Millie-Annie]

I replied to you on the fox attack board, but reading this breaks my heart all over ago again for you and for me. I still miss my girls so much and replacing them feels wrong.

 

Foxes are so cunning. I hate them with a vengeance

 

I am so sorry for you, your girls and your children

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Thanks, Millie-Anne. I read about your fox-attack too. You have ALL my sympathy. I've realised today that I am scared to go into the back garden. I've been out, cleaned out the coop, played with the children, but now I can't face it any more. There are feathers EVERYWHERE. I was supposed to be buying compost today to finish my no-dig veg patch, but it's in the chicken garden and I just can't do it.

The next door neighbour came over today with a bunch of tulips. She was devastated. She had heard the chickens making a racket on Wednesday morning, but hadn't put two and two together- it must have been the fox checking them out in the run, but of course they were locked up that time. Safe in their run. He came back that night and got the lot because I hadn't shut the door of the run.

My garden is eerily quiet now.

[ChickenPoopGarden]

Here is how I built my fox-proof run, which kept all my birds safe until I left the door open...

I bought four Heras fencing panels and one door from a guy who runs a temporary fencing company. The panels are 2meters high by 3.5meters long. We hammered them into the ground (they have short metal legs) until the bottom of the fence was level with the ground. We arranged the into a square with the door at one corner and fastened them all together with cable ties. Then we attached chicken wire all around the sides, bent out to form a dig-proof skirt about a foot or more around the run. This was also to prevent the stupid hens from popping their heads through the holes in the Heras fencing and getting their heads bitten off. We also made a roof of chicken wire which had sharp, pointy bits sticking out all around the top of the run. Inside the run, we laid concrete slabs over the whole floor and heavy rocks where the slabs didn't quite fit. Then we laid wood chip thickly over the top for the chickens to scratch in. This meant the fox couldn't dig his way in, or break through the fencing, or jump over the fencing. The panels were £15 each and the cable ties and chicken wire weren't much money either. The door was 45 but it was worth it and lockable, too.

I will be buying four more fence panels to make a run three times longer, but otherwise it will be the same design. I may add boards around the edge of the fencing to stop the chickens from kicking the wood chips out but that's it, really.

Hope that helps, Millie-Anne.

[Charlottechicken]

So sorry to read this. Don't blame yourself, modern foxes are so brazen they could have just as easily attacked in broad daylight with you in their sights.

 

We live next to a field and occasionally I have seen a fox on the other side of the field. He stops and just stares me out, they are not afraid at all.

 

Sending (((hugs))) to you.

[Grandmashazzie]

So sorry to hear this. Mine were out in their garden,not fox proof. I put them back in WIR.

[Millie-Annie]

It was actually of a big help to me to see the fox around in the day time, as to start with I blamed myself for not going over every inch of my run and making sure he couldn't get in. When I started to see him in the garden mid morning, I knew he would have taken my girls anyway as by then they would have been out enjoying the sunshine.

 

Thank you for posting your instructions CPG I have read them and will keep them in mind when (if) we rebuild and have more girls