Kitchen Garden Forum

Thought we'd got away with it this year but nope...... had a visit from Mr Fox today, one bantam hen and one cockeral down. A lot of very frightened hens which are now probably off lay and one poor hen with some nice holes in her........ GRRRR.

Dear Myrkk, sorry to hear about your bantams, i take it your hens are free range, and this must make it so tempting for foxes with young ones to feed.
The only real defence is to keep them in a well built run.
The trouble when they know there are easy pickings they often return, so you will have to keep an eye out i'm afraid.

Yes, OH they are completely free range. It's frustrating when the fox calls but [and I'm touching wood as I type this] one visit a year is copeable with. We only every lose a couple of hens and normally the cockeral and it is pupping season so I don't mind too much. After all, it is nature and the benefit the hens get from roaming the rest of the year far outweighs the one attack [again touching wood] per year.

Dealing with the vets was more frustrating, it took a few phone calls to get anyone to do anything 'cause the large animal vet I normally deal with is on holiday and no-one else knew what the yellow cream he gave me was...... and it cost a tenner for a teeny pot of terramycin

We just mark out territory for a few months now and that seems to do the trick. We've been lax on marking recently.

The hen with the holes is still alive at the mo. and eating though not standing so fingers crossed she lives. Poor wee lass was covered in fly eggs by the time I got home tonight so have brought her indoors for a few days. The cats are looking nervous....... as long as they stay like that!

Hi Myrkk

Sorry to hear about your fox attack. Wednesday we had our second attack in ten days - and the first real trouble we've had in seven years.

Like you I prefer to have my hens and ducks free-range, but we have always made sure they are shut in safely at nights. How free-range are yours?

I am intrigued by your mention of marking out territory. Am I to assume that you do this in the same way as foxes do? Peeing along the boundary - or do you use something more hi-tech? Depending on your reply I might try something similar before letting my birds roam again.

Alan

That's not good Alan. Once they figure out where an easy meal is they can become a problem.

Yes, we mark in the same way as foxes do....... my hubbie goes out in the morning and last thing at night to mark our territory [I hope he doesn't read this lol] It's easier for men. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. It's worked well for us so far and he just goes around the top and side boundaries. We don't have neighbours as such so no-one's going to look out their bedroom window and see him weeing in the garden Of course you could just pee in a bottle and do it this way if you have neighbours.

As to how free range they are. They go as far as they want but never go out onto the road. They do go out the back fence into the bracken and woodland behind us though which is where they have been got the last couple of years. I may block the holes in the fence up this year but it will probably involve cutting some mature hedging back quite drastically which I'm loathe to do. At night the minute it goes dusky they put themselves away and we just need to lock the doors to their sheds. So they are secure at night.

I hope your fox stays away. The young ones can make a right old mess.

Thanks Myrkk - pee bottles out tonight, then.

More a case of piss off than fox off

Diolch yn fawr

Alan

Bore da Myrkk

Thanks for your advice.

I did the treatment and since then there has been no sight of foxes. I know there may be other explanations, but I've not heard or heard of any farmers shooting them recently.

The down side of the process is that if my wife hears me flushing the lavatory I'm in big trouble

Alan

ROFLMAO

glad it's worked

After more than three years, I think I've finally seen the method in action.

Saturday night, just before dark, I looked across the field and spotted the first fox I've seen recently. It looked like a young one and was not investigating the poultry houses (the birds were long since locked up for the night). It was actually eating a few left over layers pellets from a feeder (vegan fox?). As soon as I opened the back door it was off. Yesterday I gathered whatever used pee bottles I could find, diluted the contents and "marked" the likeliest access points along the river bank. Last night at dusk I watched through the window and just about made out a shadowy figure emerging from the bushes by the river. I assume it was the fox. The moment it reached the "P-line" it turned and was off.

I wish I could be sure, but I'll keep watching (and peeing )

That’s great to know Alan. Hope it is still working. We’ve just moved to a house where we can have chooks again… might have to be bottles this time though as the neighbours can see in our garden lol

I remember Hugh Fearlessly Eatsitall went to a hair dresser and got bags of human hair clippings, which were hung around his chooks, seems that deters old Reynard too.

I,m intrigued why it only seems to be male urine which seems to be effective at deterring foxes. Does anybody know why?

Could it bee that only the male fox sent so that deters them?

I think it’s probably to do with pheromones. For example male iguanas via their Jacobson organ can pick up female pheromones and get very aggressive towards menstruating females when it’s their mating season and men subconsciously can tell women are ovulating via the pheromones released.
Mostly people think of pheromones as being released in axillary sweat but they get released from varying other bodily secretions including in urine.