Fox attack

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I'm sure I read that daytime fox attacks are rare,so why am I heartbroken :cry: to have encountered such an attack midday today. I was indoors & heard a racket, to find our white runner Pria in it's jaws.Didn't see where it went as I was running to catch Pria to see what dammage had been done,she had 3 puncture marks down one side & as I was cuddling her she took two breaths & passed away :cry: ,she was only 11 weeks old.So much for my dream of having more ducks. Our dilema now is what can we do for the 3 we have left?.The enclosure is too large to put netting overhead so advice desperatly needed.
 
Hello, sorry to hear about your loss- you need to keep them secure as it will be back soon- can you keep them locked up until you have a secure run? or electric fencing? It is better restricting their freedom for a few days than having them killed- the fox now knows where they are and it will be back so please think about keeping them locked up.
regards, David :)
 
They are locked in their house from 7 pm to 8 am. Can you explain how the electric fencing works? Is it some sort of cable that can run along the topline of the 6ft fence? as this is how the damb thing jumped in.What about the neighbours? their garden adjoins ours so obviously we don't want to electrocute anyone.Would it be best to let them out for say a couple of hrs while I'm in the garden with them,I realise they will be safer locked up but doubt we can do anything till the weekend.
 
I am so sorry to hear about your young runner, how very upsetting for you as well as a shock :cry: :cry: Although I think you may have been sadly misinformed regarding the behaviours of the fox, I often see them around
Electric fencing can be effective as strands going accross the top, middle and bottom of existing fencing, such as stock fencing. A portable energiser, will suffice, just hook it up to a leisure battery, connect to the strands and hey presto! If you explain this to your neighbours and just have one wire going across the dividing line may be fine with that, as long as it isn't in such a position they are continually shocking themselves!
Poultry netting is another option, you can buy the 25m or 50m. The best for "blending in" I feel is the green netting with black plastic posts. We have both Muscovies and runners enclosed in roughly 200m of electric netting, when we had all the heavy snow last year, it was reassuring to see the paw prints of Mr Fox stopping short at the fence!
 
Not sure what you meen by stock fencing. The enclosure has a 6ft concrete block wall at the rear,2 normal 6 ft garden side panels & the front is 3 ft poultry mesh.Is the electric fencing going to cost a fortune,if so I'm afraid it will be out of our budget & will have to move our girls to a new home :cry: .
 
http://www.smallholdershop.co.uk/fencing.html A full kit with 25 metres of netting is between £150 and £200 , a 100 metre kit is around £400 .
 
ribofilio said:
http://www.smallholdershop.co.uk/fencing.html A full kit with 25 metres of netting is between £150 and £200 , a 100 metre kit is around £400 .
Click to expand...


Just as I thought, phoned them yesterday & the 4ft high 25m fence kit is £195 then there is the lesiure battery on top[searching for a price,though husband said probably going to be around the £50 - £80], so if we can't find cheaper, this is a cost we simply can't afford.The safety of our girls is important but finance[or lack of] plays a huge part & we have a £1500 bill for our car to be fixed.

The other person mentioned strands along the top of the fence[although stock fencing was mentioned,ours is just garden fencing],is this the white tape used in paddock fencing :?: Do you think this could work :?:

We would be so sad :( if we have to to say goodbuy to the runners, today I sat with them while they had breakfast & a swim,they helped me weed the garden, then I sat in the concervatory grooming my dogs with the runners snoozing :D in front of the open door.Too cute for words.They are now back in their house while I sort a few thing out.
 
Since I'm from the States, our laws are a bit different here, but still... :( Country folks here have what they call the Three "S" solution to problems like yours - where there is a predator that is protected, but attacking/eating their livestock. At the risk of offending someone, I'll offer it anyway and hope the advice is taken in the spirit in which is given, that of someone who has been through something similar and was at the end of her rope.

The Three "S" solution stands for Shoot, Shovel, and Shut up. This was told to me by an Animal Control officer who I'd contacted about our ducks being attacked, as he tersely put it, these laws are all well and good if you're sitting behind a desk in the Capitol, but not so good if you're trying to keep your animals alive. It sounds like you're quite close to your neighbors, so perhaps Trap, Shovel and Shut up would be more appropriate. Harsh, but once the fox know where dinner is, they'll be back until you've none left at all. The only time I would not use this would be if the animal doing the killing was truly endangered, but thankfully, we've had no Bald Eagles try to take off with our birds.

I'm loathe to take the life of anything, even my broiler chickens I raise for meat, but when it comes to my poultry, I've no compunction at all about taking out something that is intent on killing everything I own and hold dear. Having lived out in the country for 25 years now, I've learned the real law of the land is kill or be killed - you can't reason with a fox (or in our case, owl)
 
We may have a solution, Flight So Fancy do a kit for £99.50 & their mains kit is only a little bit dearer.We have contacted them to see if the kit can be used at the top[as theirs shows it at the bottom].

Thank you to everyone trying to help ;) ,I'm p..... off with myself for learning the hard way.

Blue Feather - my husband had said he would shoot if he saw a fox [need to check our laws on killing & obviously need a gun licence] I never thought about trapping, my neighbours garden is dence laurels so he might not mind if a trap is placed there.So my next question is where do I purchace fox traps from :?: By the way, I would have broken it's neck if I had caught it.
 
Hi Andrea, you can buy fox traps online- try Ascott.Biz, ebay or google :lol:
You are allowed to legally trap foxes in a humane trap- but they must be checked daily and any caught must be destroyed humanely. do you have a local gamekeeper you could talk to? He may be able to lend/rent you a trap and will also "do the deed"- might be worth checking around.
regards, David :)
 
:D :D :D Well the kit I mentiond previously wasn't quite right but the lady [Anne] from Flyte So Fancy was extremly helpful & put together a kit which came to just under £90 . Today it took us 3hrs to install the new wiring & we're up & running. While we sat in the concerveratory,we heard a kind of a thump, the ducks jumped out of the pond & were looking at the fence,so we think either fox/cat tried it's luck but the electrics did the trick :D :D :D can you tell how chuffed we are,the ducks are staying :-)08

A quick question, do we need to leave it on during the night, while they are tucked up in bed,or is it ok to turn it off? Would I be right in thinking it's too much of a temptation for something to want to return if it thinks it's safe?DSCF0001.JPG

From the pics you can see the top wire is the live & the lower wire is the earth.
 

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Looks good. Sorry to hear about your fox.

Personally, I would leave the fence on permanently. Foxes in the local area will 'learn' that they can't get in and won't touch it. If it is ever off and they try (which is far more likely at night) they may think they can get in and have a go during the day.

It is very unusual for me to see a fox around here in the daytime, except when they are young when I sometimes see cubs playing. There is however lots to eat and I dare say they are well fed at night.
 
hi andrea don't know if this is will help, in practical poultry mag there is a product called nite guard which is a solar powered product which gives off a flashing red light, looked on web site and price is £21+£2 pp website is http://www.countrysideproducts.biz it's worth a look
 
I lost most of my hens one afternoon in the summer when the fox went over the electric fence. The battery had been fully charged a few days earlier, so the fence should have been lively. But, I forgot to make sure that the soil was moist enough - it wasn't and the fence lost all its poke.

I found this useful in understanding what had gone wrong:
http://www.agrisellex.co.uk/trouble-shooting-1711-0.html
 
Hi Andrea and Gillian
Sorry to hear about the fox attacks, I am sure you were devastated about losing your ducks and hens.
I have had the same problem myself losing ducks. It seems most agree the electric fence is the only answer, most of the other things are probably a bit gimmicky. Did anyone see Countryfile on Sun the 3rd Oct? I agree with the gamekeeper and pest control that they have to be got rid of if they are killing our poultry.

Best Wishes
Lorna
 
we have to live with the wild life as they have a right to be on are planet, i know it's heart breaking to lose your ducks/chickens to a fox but we have to make sure the chickens/ducks are safe. they will always come back if they have gotten in once before and when there is one there will be more.
you might have to pay out to keep them safe but in the long run it will be worth every penny knowing that they are safe.
the fox still comes around but he can't get in any more..........
 
i live in the centre of brum and day time fox attacks are more common than night time ones, they sit in the allotment next to mine in the day time whilst i am there !!!!!!!!!

as for a 1800mm fence keeping foxes out, sorry no chance, how ever told you to only go to 6 foot wants to pay for your loses, 8 foot is a minium i have ever seen.

why cant you just extend the top by a couple of foot?

do as i have done which is to completeley encover the roof area with chicken wire mesh.
durring the snow we had foot prints all over it as foxy walks over the top of it, and thats day and night.

also please rember that ALL THE FOX BOOKS were writen by people either living in the countryside or in the 1800's. absolutly none were writen by a bloke/lady in Birmingham in the last few years.

foxes were i am see as one of there MAIN food groups is southern fried chicken wings not birds alive or feathered
 
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