Hello from North Wales

[shirley in wales]

Having had my flock of delightful hens all killed by a Polecat two years ago I decided not to have hens anymore. The price of eggs these days and the quality has drawn me back to buy more and try again. My shed which was fox proof is certainly not polecat proof. I wondered if anyone had the same problem and I came across this site.
I was very interested in the thread about feeding pellets and mixed corn. I look forward to joining in.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Shirley, and a big welcome to the forum. Not many of us here in the UK have much trouble with polecats! It must be a lovely wild area of North Wales where you live. I'm sure some of the construction experts on here will be able to advise you.
Looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

 

[foxy]

Hello and welcome back to poultry keeping! 99 Have you seen any more evidence of polecats in your area?

 

[shirley in wales]

There is one lady who lives above our village who has one in her attic. She has had to get the council in, I ask her how she knew it was there and she said she could hear it walking about. She lives on the edge of a forest. They have no idea how it got in but having lost hens and ducks many years ago the hole does not have to be very big. What the p'cats do is bite the heads off and then try to drag the kill through the small hole and what happened to our ducks is that one got jammed in the hole but all the ducks were killed. They were Madarins and Carolina's.
Here, I used to keep sheep so the only way I can keep the hens safe is to have a hen shed in the big shed and make sure every night that they go into the smaller shed.
At the moment I am looking after someone three hens and the lady has told me that I not to buy any more should these get killed. A public footpath runs along our lane and there are always dogs off the lead which is another problem. Two already went missing and I found them in the wash house, I think they were just having a look but why they can't stick together I don't know.