chrismahon
Well-known member
Yesterday we went out for some time in the garden and noticed Merlin, our new cockerel, finally being accepted by his three hens following the death of Arnold. He was behaving much more like a cockerel and far less like a hen. For the first time the previous night they had been all on the perch together, him in the middle. He was clearly happy at last. Today is a different picture.
At 8.50pm I went outside and could hear the alarm call in the Orchard. It's usually because Basil (big Buff Orpington) is on the hens perch but I went to check. I was greeted by the sound of three cockerels going mad and I approached Merlin's silent run. There were feathers everywhere and bodies! I ran to the fence to see a large fox looking back at me some 30 yards away which then ran off.
Cluck (our last Vernlass collection Blue Lace Wyandotte) was dead. Fe died in my arms. Merlin looked dead, stretched out with a mangled comb and no tail feathers but was breathing. I rolled him onto his legs and his eyes opened and he stood up! Bumble was on the floor on her side, eyes shut and no feathers on her neck gasping. I picked her up and she went wild, wings flapping and legs kicking.
We moved Merlin to another run and coop and subsequently moved Bumble with him, expecting her to be dead shortly. But an hour later she was still breathing and Merlin was close beside her, snuggled in the little coop. We thought it best to leave them, as him left on his own he may go into shock. He's had a rough two weeks. Taken from his birthplace of two year previous, put into a run on his own then introduced to hens that basically were not impressed by him. He has up to yesterday been a very lonely sad chap.
The fox trap we bought two weeks ago and have been using as a broody run, so it stinks of chicken, was baited with Fe under a Bay tree in their run.
We had incorrectly thought that the fox would not cross the open spaces of Orchard in daylight, jump an electric net, walk along a path and jump a 4 feet fence to get in with no means of escape. Wrong. It escaped by scaling a 4 foot wall with a two foot wire mesh on top to get out, having to jump near vertically because a coop and trees were in the way.
This morning Merlin was a lot better and crowing. Looks as though he was swung by his tail and knocked out on the fence, judging by the shape of the wire, causing the damage to his comb. Bumble was brought in suprisingly still alive. She is clearly in deep shock. The bruising in her neck now showing together with swelling and a few tooth puncture marks. All she wants to do is sleep, drifting in and out. Her beak rests on the floor but her neck is intact and working, just too painful without a raspberry to entice her, to move. Her swollen abdomen has gone down a bit after a lot of wind and a huge poo. She can stand but is uncomfortable. Occasionallly she has a panic and wakes up flapping her wings, so she isn't in a cage. Arnica is going on her neck to ease the bruising, she is getting water with electolytes and hopefully she will pull out of it and be well enough to travel in 6 weeks. Fortunately she is quite fat, so perhaps that will have cushioned blows to the abdomen. Her eyes are swollen and her head looks bruised so I think she was shaken vigorously. She now responds to my voice and opens her eye immediately. Her breathing is not so laboured now either.
The fox trap remains baited and has been dug in, on advice, to get the base mesh out of sight as foxes won't normally walk on it. Hopefull it will return soon and we'l be rid of the thing -5 precious chickens it has murdered so far and we don't want to lose any more. We have neither the money nor the time to fortify the Orchard further.
At 8.50pm I went outside and could hear the alarm call in the Orchard. It's usually because Basil (big Buff Orpington) is on the hens perch but I went to check. I was greeted by the sound of three cockerels going mad and I approached Merlin's silent run. There were feathers everywhere and bodies! I ran to the fence to see a large fox looking back at me some 30 yards away which then ran off.
Cluck (our last Vernlass collection Blue Lace Wyandotte) was dead. Fe died in my arms. Merlin looked dead, stretched out with a mangled comb and no tail feathers but was breathing. I rolled him onto his legs and his eyes opened and he stood up! Bumble was on the floor on her side, eyes shut and no feathers on her neck gasping. I picked her up and she went wild, wings flapping and legs kicking.
We moved Merlin to another run and coop and subsequently moved Bumble with him, expecting her to be dead shortly. But an hour later she was still breathing and Merlin was close beside her, snuggled in the little coop. We thought it best to leave them, as him left on his own he may go into shock. He's had a rough two weeks. Taken from his birthplace of two year previous, put into a run on his own then introduced to hens that basically were not impressed by him. He has up to yesterday been a very lonely sad chap.
The fox trap we bought two weeks ago and have been using as a broody run, so it stinks of chicken, was baited with Fe under a Bay tree in their run.
We had incorrectly thought that the fox would not cross the open spaces of Orchard in daylight, jump an electric net, walk along a path and jump a 4 feet fence to get in with no means of escape. Wrong. It escaped by scaling a 4 foot wall with a two foot wire mesh on top to get out, having to jump near vertically because a coop and trees were in the way.
This morning Merlin was a lot better and crowing. Looks as though he was swung by his tail and knocked out on the fence, judging by the shape of the wire, causing the damage to his comb. Bumble was brought in suprisingly still alive. She is clearly in deep shock. The bruising in her neck now showing together with swelling and a few tooth puncture marks. All she wants to do is sleep, drifting in and out. Her beak rests on the floor but her neck is intact and working, just too painful without a raspberry to entice her, to move. Her swollen abdomen has gone down a bit after a lot of wind and a huge poo. She can stand but is uncomfortable. Occasionallly she has a panic and wakes up flapping her wings, so she isn't in a cage. Arnica is going on her neck to ease the bruising, she is getting water with electolytes and hopefully she will pull out of it and be well enough to travel in 6 weeks. Fortunately she is quite fat, so perhaps that will have cushioned blows to the abdomen. Her eyes are swollen and her head looks bruised so I think she was shaken vigorously. She now responds to my voice and opens her eye immediately. Her breathing is not so laboured now either.
The fox trap remains baited and has been dug in, on advice, to get the base mesh out of sight as foxes won't normally walk on it. Hopefull it will return soon and we'l be rid of the thing -5 precious chickens it has murdered so far and we don't want to lose any more. We have neither the money nor the time to fortify the Orchard further.
05 . now i can see anything from 1 fox to 8 foxes per day or week at my stables and backing onto one of our fields is a very small peice of grass land that is used by people who live in the houses beyond the overflow stream of the thames and one family now have in the region of around 30 chocks , finches and ducks { kept locked in a tiny pen as they would bugger of down the stream }on the ground and the fencing is just a simple strand of knacked old sheep fencing thats probably been up donkeys years now these birds all free range across our fields and wander this grassland and yet they have never been attacked i cant undertsand how they get away with it .
. Since then we put up a new run and electric fence etc, He is back again so far taken 2 in last three weeks my husband have caught him out a few times, 
