Foxes and chickens don't mix

[Marigold]

Interesting link here to Tim's blog, about keeping chickens safe from foxes at this time of the year.

http://blog.poultrykeeper.com/tim-chicken-blog/foxes-and-chickens-dont-mix/

 

[Lucylou]

This is a co-incidence! I came onto the forum today to ask about this very subject - young foxes.

Last night (8.15) I looked up from my chair out of the sitting room window & was amazed to see a young, healthy fox standing on the low wall outside eating the birds food with his companion close by! I couldn't believe it, only about 10 ft from the house. I grabbed the dog as I knew she would bark, my idea was to scare them away maybe thinking twice before returning but although they didn't run immediately by the time I was at the window with dog, they'd scarpered.

I'm now paranoid about my chooks. I checked their run & no obvious entry points, it was made pretty well, the wire fence on 2 sides dug well down into the ground with hard core added, has a wire top, but one side is a wood fence which might be vulnerable although the bottom has wire too, this is on the far side from where I think the foxes are coming from. The end & part of the top of the run is covered with a tarpaulin which I think will add a little bit more protection but its been up a few years now & as we're soon moving its a toss up between over spending for another month & protecting the girls.

Anyone have any good suggestions as a deterrent? I know there are some old wives tales about this but anyone know if any of them work?

 

[dinosaw]

You say they were eating the birds food Lucylou, do you mean they were inside the chickens run?.

 

[chrismahon]

Forget the old wives tales Lucylou. Today's foxes don't frighten easily. You can only rely on good fencing preferably electrified.

 

[Lucylou]

You say they were eating the birds food Lucylou, do you mean they were inside the chickens run?.

No sorry dinosaw, I should have said its food for the wild birds!

We have quite a large garden but its a corner plot so its an all round access on 2 sides, the foxes disappeared through to my neighbours garden which is the opposite side of the garden to the chooks but we have a thick hedge which divides us so they could have gone anywhere once undercover.

Having lost my first little chook family to a fox I'm really worried now. Having said that the security is much tighter since then but no electric fence.

 

[dinosaw]

No sorry dinosaw, I should have said its food for the wild birds!

Thank goodness for that.

I would say that if your run wasn't secure you probably know it by now, given how close the foxes have been to the run they will have investigated it fully. All you can do is check as much as possible for any signs of digging around the edges of your run on a daily basis and make sure you have no rips in the tarp which sounds like your weak point (unless I have misunderstood and that has wire behind it), see if you can get a temporary barrier to put in front of it to shield it from the foxes having a go at it. If you did get the materials to do a double strand electric fence (one at the top, one at the bottom) you could of course always use them again at your new place so it wouldn't necessarily be a waste of money.

 

[Lucylou]

Thanks everyone for replies. I am now on constant fox alert, didn't allow the girls their usual evening roam around the garden. :evil: they think I'm very mean but they'd be glad if Mr Fox is around which he undoubtably is.