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Keeping a fox away from my hens
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06-01-2010 9:03pm#1
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Poor fox, feed it, I had one around here for over two years and used to sit down and watch her eat, saucy monkey ran into the hall when I was not looking and ran away with her bag of dogfood:D
She used to eat out of my hand but would not allow me to touch her
A more gentle creature I have not seen, she used to shriek outside my house when she was hungry, loved chips, milk, sausages , dog food and of course chicken!!!
I know the purists will say that we should not encourage wild animals by doing what I have done but thats the way I am
Clever too, used to lead the local dogs on a merry chase0 -
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she used to shriek outside my house when she was hungry
Was it just for food/when she was hungry, or did the fox shriek during mating season, too? I remember the first time I heard a vixen shriek during mating season: I didn't know what it was. Very spine-chilling. Never heard them shriek when hungry, though.
Op, just to re-iterate what has been posted before: now that the fox has discovered your fowl and has managed to take a few birds, he's seen them as easy-pickings and will be back again. We had the same problem when I was a child, except the fox managed to take a dozen duck in the first 2 nights we had them
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lightening wrote: »It's a fox, not a Velociraptor. Was there a study done recently that found sheep consisted of 0.6% of foxes food? Calm down and stop panicking!!
Well said
Fear and superstition is a terrible thing
Farmers say the same about the White tailed eagle, several have been introduced to Ireland and a good few have been killed/poisoned largely by people ignorant of the facts, these pics were taken by a friend of mine
These beauties have a 6 foot wing span and will for sure take an injured lamb but look at what a pack of frenzied dogs would do to a flock of sheep0 -
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Well said
Fear and superstition is a terrible thing
look at what a pack of frenzied dogs would do to a flock of sheep
Ah, here we go again.
For a person with the name "bogman" you don't seem to have much knowledge of how foxes operate in bog areas like where I live.
Superstition didn't kill 18 lambs in one week on a farm in Cashel, two vixens not rearing cubs did. How do I know? I shot them in the course of a week, and no more lambs were lost.
Superstition also didn't kill 22 of my fathers lambs from one field. 13 foxes were shot over 7 nights. No more lamb losses.
Superstition also didn't kill 4 lambs on a farmer between Clifden and Recess. A fox that I shot in the lambing field did.
Superstition didn't kill a neighbours geese one night, a fox did.
Superstition didn't systematically kill one old man's hens who lives a couple of miles from me. The foxes that run along the river behind his house did.
All foxes are born with an instinct to take prey, you cannot deny that, it's in their nature. It doesn't make them bad, but it does give them an impressive ability to kill not only earthworms, rodents etc. but also hens, geese, ducks, pheasants and yes lambs.
On most if not all farms the only solution to fox predation is to remove the offender. Caging and releasing only makes that fox someone else's problem. Giving them a stern talking to certainly doesn't work either.
Probably the point I'll make which will be most disagreeable to a certain type of person reading this will be in this paragraph. Farming is a business, profit isn't the be all and end all of the industry but it is important. It allows farmers keep a roof over their head, feed and educate their kids. There are good and bad in all industries, but, most farmers do have an attachment to their animals. They will care as best they can for them through the year. It is utterly depressing to see your years work being systematically killed, ripped open, eaten and having the bodies left in the fields for you in the morning. That I will tell you from first hand experience.
As for the pack of dogs, yeah, they'll do a hell of a lot of damage to a flock. I know it first hand from three attacks on our flock. Dogs can escape where they're supposed to be, however a lot of the time packs are formed by two or more dogs owned by people who couldn't give a toss about where they are or what they're doing, yet they're the first up on the high horse if their dog get's shot.
Like the fox, it's not the dogs fault, they're both doing what they do. That's nature, it's not always happy families.
If you want to deny all that, OK, I won't argue with you, I've said my piece.
Nice eagle photos btw
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lightening wrote: »It was on a forum on this site that I got that info from.
"Fox predation as a cause of lamb mortality on hill farms"
It states that up to 0.6% of lambs are confirmed killed by foxes over a 4 year period
My apogoes Johngalway, I got that wrong. Fair enough, I WAS wrong, 0.6% was the percentage of killings found in the survey, not 0.6% of foxes food was sheep meat. Without a doubt, foxes are a threat to domestic foul.
Do you see this on sheep farms? I worked on a sheep farm in Wicklow, there were foxes and sheep, but we never came across this.
On lamb mortality, I can't speak for the majority of farms, only those I know. The ones in the examples I provided above are run by good farmers. They have quality stock which is something that's not derived by poor management.
I run my own hill sheep farm. As I control the foxes in my area I rarely suffer fox predation, I think I lost one young lamb to a fox last Spring.
My Dad's farm had one particular field, I think four years ago. We had expected between barren ewes/couples that 38-40 lambs would come out of that field, from 32 ewes (remember these are Scottish hill sheep, not lowland animals). 16 lambs left that field that year. Why? Foxes. Why? Because other fields had minimal problems. Also, the first night we lamped that field, at the one time, there were 5 or 6 foxes in among the ewes, I forget exactly which number.
The other farm that lost 18 in a week is run by a lady farmer. She has real good stock, manages grass well, doses correctly etc, feeds when feed is needed. When I got word about that problem I went for a look on a Friday afternoon. Carnage is all I can say, legs, heads, skins all over the shop. Once both, non rearing, vixens were removed, there were no further lamb losses.
The man who lost the four lambs. I went with my friend to his place one particularly stormy night. We spotted the fox running, not sniffing, smelling or hunting as they normally are, but running across the flat bog and into the lambing field. He wasn't there to sight see. And again, once removed there were no more problems.
Part of the reason foxes are such good survivors is they are so adaptable. They'll go tot he shore and mooch for crabs, fish, birds, whatever they can get down there. They head up the land and get worms, rodents, blackberries etc. They'll also take the handy grub when they can, and lambs aren't the brightest crayons in the box when they're young. My friend has seen two foxes circle a ewe that had twins. One fox noses the rear end of the ewe, up get's the ewe and while she's busy the second fox is in to nick a lamb.
I didn't have an interest in shooting before my Dads flock was severely affected in the example above. I have already put my money where my mouth is in proving this is a genuine problem to sheep farmers, in the thousands up on thousands of Euro's I've spent on the proper firearms and accessories to ensure am immediate and humane end for problem foxes.
I gain nothing nor do I lose anything by telling you any of that. 0 -
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johngalway wrote: »On lamb mortality, I can't speak for the majority of farms
Well, they are the stats, 0.6% of lambs are confirmed killed by foxes allegedly.johngalway wrote: »I run my own hill sheep farm.
I love lamb. 0 -
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