Fox raid,again

[valeriebutterley]

Alani,
my heart goes out to you.
I've lost three complete flocks over the years, and countless other chickens, much loved and cared for, the last one last Autumn, snatched a few yards, from me in the garden in daylight. A lovely blue Pekin.
Over the years, my son and I have made all the runs as fox proof as possible, by either digging in chicken wire to make a skirt, or engineering bricks as
deterrent, laid flat immediately outside and inside the run. For some reason they do not like engineering bricks. I used to go to my local Travis Perkins
and buy them 10 at a time, as they are very heavy and then go home and lay them lay them!. They are also very cheap.
Don't give up on chickens, I know how heartbreaking the discovery of bodies, feathers and general mayhem is.
Almost too much to bear.

 

[rick]

Sorry alini, I would be so upset if that happened to my flock. Completely on a different scale I have a bit of a growing mouse problem and I suspect there may be a resident rat now and the only answer is to strengthen and bolster the netting. I have considered fitting some cheap cctv so can at least see what is happening at night but while that might be interesting it won't fix the problem.
I am very aware that these things can quickly snowball once the local scavengers and preditors get in on a 'good' thing. In your position I think you will have to shrink the size of your run to a scale that you can make strongly secure (enough to withstand a concerted effort by whatever it is that's attacking) Then build back out again when you can, employing all the tricks.
It doesn't sound like it's humans to me, it will be possible to win but I can imagine how disheartening it must be.

 

[alani]

I appreciate very much your expressions of sympathy and encouragement,but who would have thought afox could go through a solid panel?

I,myself would be prepared to re double my security and continue with the hens,but my wife,daughter and mother are all against it.Seems Iam out numbered.
What to do-wait like a fox?

 

[Margaid]

It's devastating when this happens. I lost 4 hens and nearly lost the cock in a daylight mink attack.

Corrugated plastic is a lot tougher than you might think. Years ago we had a conservatory roofed with corrugated plastic. we were away from the house when we had a terrific hail storm - hail stones quite honestly the size of golf balls, which did hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage locally, particularly to cars. We got home to find the conservatory roof smashed. OH went to take the remaining bits of the panels down and as an experiment tried smashing them with the very large screwdriver he was using. Neither the blade nor the handle would break the plastic. The reason the golf ball hail stones smashed it was because the smaller hailstones that fell first formed a layer which chilled the plastic so it shattered easily.

Having said all that, what were the edges of the hole like? Are there any visible teeth marks? The fox would have to gnaw its way through. How cold was it - cold makes the plastic brittle which would make it easy for someone with a hammer or sledge hammer to break it.

The dead hen next door may have escaped then died from fright. Even if something/someone else broke in, if the hens escaped they could then have been caught by a fox. I think solving the mystery could depend on whether the plastic looked smashed or gnawed.

 

[alani]

Very difficult to say,but my first impression would be smashed,cant see knaw marks.

Edit-Close inspection could possibly suggest the plastic has split in a way that might indicate it had been attacked by teeth,but very difficult to say for sure?

 

[alani]

I visited a poultry keeper 10 miles away from my house.She said they had lost hens to Mink.They had seen the mink during the day.
I have lost hens during the day when there have been people about.Is this a likely if there are Mink 10 miles away,is it possible they are in my area?

 

[alani]

I did a superficial search for mink in my area,found this from local wildlife report-

"Mammals: A Mink was on the path by the boathouse reeds. A Weasel was seen ACP. "

This boathouse is a mile from my house,but the lake is maybe less than half a mile,will they travel far from water?

 

[Marigold]

Now that does sound more likely than a fox, Alani.

 

[alani]

Iam thinking it will be impossible to have free range hens if this is the case.
Even caged outside would be risky.

 

[3441sussex]

I have kept chicken for a number of years protected by an electric netting fence, don't shut them in at night and have never lost any to predators.

A couple of years ago I tried rearing ducks as we live beside a river. I shut them in night, but let them out during the day so they could swim on the river. I lost all but 2 to foxes, a dog and mink during the daytime. They were taken from our orchard and from around our farm buildings whilst we were close by. I gave the remaining 2 to a friend who had a large secure run. If you want to keep chicken and have a large enough garden I suggest you buy an electric fence to protect them.