what do i do??

[rarebreedbreeder]

recently i have had a bit of fox trouble, i have both electric and barb wire above a 7ft chicken mesh fence with the fire burried 2 foot under. yet the fox continues to get in i have checked for holes cant find one. The only things that are safe are my breeding pens

so what do i do?

 

[chrismahon]

Presume the fox gets in and out RBB. So the obvious questions are:-

Are you certain it is a fox -have you actually seen it?
Is the electric fence working -have you tested it along the whole length?
Have you any loose overlap sections in the chicken wire that it could squeeze through?
Has it tunnelled and is coming up under the coop?
Have you lost birds and if so how many and how were they actually killed?

I'm thinking bird of prey.

We like big old Buff Orpingtons as well. his name is Bottom.

 

[rarebreedbreeder]

definetly fox, my dogs nearly killed it the other day but my sister left the gate open and it ran away..... but didnt see were its getting in. previous kills bites round neck. fencing is nearly new and cant find anywere where it isnt working or slack 19

by buff orps are called borris and clive

 

[chrismahon]

OK RBB, kills are a fox. So it got in but you didn't see where and it got out of the gate. Was that the first time it got in? I'm now thinking it got in once and couldn't get back out, except through the door. Which would say the top barbed wire or electrical conductor is wrongly positioned -should be overhanging outwards. Is there anything on the outside it could climb up and then jump over the fence?

This is difficult without a photo of the fencing.

 

[rarebreedbreeder]

this isnt the first time it has come, i really need to get it because cubs are going to be born soon worrying

 

[karminski]

how about camping out and watching for it or i know its pricey and might be to late but what about a cctv camera if your run isnt to far from the house then you can rig it to play on the computer or the tv 05 worth thinking about i have at times though about doing it but i am just past the 150 metre raduis of doing it wi-fi or whatever it is ,thing is that might have to be a road that you may have to go down if you cant find any point of where its getting in or back out but foxes are so sly as anyone well knows so try looking in the most unlikely places you might just find what your looking for .

 

[chrismahon]

Karminski has covered all the options I can think of RBB. It's getting in because of something you are not seeing. How about a fresh pair of eyes? Anyone you know who could think it out with you on site?

 

[rarebreedbreeder]

bought 4 cctv cameras to video all activity on all fence lines, hopefully that will show the problem and we can sort it out. thanks for the help.

 

[karminski]

thats a good idea get someone esle to take a look someones who doesnt know the set up as well as you do ,without making sound offish but you can be surprised at waht can be missed even with an area you know very very well its worth trying i pray you sort this out i got my fingers crossed .

 

[chrismahon]

Foxes when startled leave by the easiest exit. But generally they leave the way they went in. The one you saw was startled but also left through the door. When you inspected all the fencing was the door open? I've just locked our birds up for the night. Three flocks have fixed runs. The gates latch at the top for convenience but the bottoms flex enough when forced to allow a fox entry. Is that where it gets in?

 

[foxy]

Without seeing your set up, if the 7 foot fence is rigid, it may be the fox is climbing over. I was wondering how you have earthed your fence? I don't actually think barbed wire is much of a deterrent having just seen a vixen scramble through what I would have imagined was impenetrable brambles in our field. Another point (from seeing Karminski's set up) is having the top of the fence designed to overhang outwards.

 

[Chuck]

Firstly, just because you haven't seen any or lost any hens, doesn't mean to say they are not around. They are everywhere.

I too don't think the barbed wire will be effective. It is difficult to give much more help without seeing the set up but I would have thought the top elctric would be hard for them to avoid. Presume you are sure it isn't shorting out on anything.
I have two strands of electric running around the pens at about 1' and 3' off floor level. The theory being that the lower one will stop them tearing at the wire or digging. The upper one is to catch them if they start to climb the wire. It is run off a mains unit. Biggest problem is keeping the greenery down around it.