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A fox took one of my girls on Friday It's the first one I've lost. They were out in the garden at the time and it wasn't even late, still sunny. Since then the poor remaining girls have been locked up very early every evening as don't want to risk losing another.

They've all been very subdued since. Do you think they miss their sister?


Zoe

keep an eagle eye on them! - once the fox has been once, he'll be back!
I'd sit out and wait his return with something like a 12 bore!
They may well have been chased or grabbed by the fox, so will probably be a bit subdued - it may put them off lay a bit too! They should recover
Good luck, fox strikes are horrible (got the t-shirt!)

I lost one to a fox the other week.
The remaining four were certainly upset because they stopped laying for a couple of days, but they seem okay now.

Horrible isn't it?
but (at least in our case) mercifully quick

Think yourself lucky that he got only one. They don't usually bother us in the summer. I've suffered from Mr Fox and he only half killed a lot of them, not a pretty sight. The other chucks shrugged it off pretty well. I wouldn't worry about the remaining ones, just make sure he can't get in again.

Merdith.

yeh - be extra careful now.. once the fox knows where they are. anyway you can build them a run?

and in my experience, foxes come in daylight hours too (never did understand the chickenopolis thing of HFWs... how would that save them in the day?)

we found that electrified sheep netting works to some extent, but there's nothing to beat vigilance!

I'm sorry Thomzo.

Aaaaarg! Foxes are b*stards. Kill for the sake of it. We lost 7 two weeks ago and only one was actually taken from the run. I was pretty convinced this hen run was of the Rolls Royce variety and still don't really know how it got in.


Last week I strung leccy wire round the perimeter and hooked it up to my pig fence. I touched it with the toe of my left foot to check it. The bolt shot right up my leg, though my nether regions and down my right lg back into the ground. One hell of a kick! So come on Foxy, get yer wet nose on there and see if you like it!

ah sorry TG - depressing isn't it

Thanks Guys
I do realise that I was lucky he only took one and took it cleanly. He did come back and try to get another but we spotted him and chased him off.

The girls do have a run which is, hopefully, pretty secure. But when I'm home I let them out with the run of the garden. I was just about to shut them up for the night when we heard the commotion and ran out.

TG - I'm sorry you lost so many. That is tough

Zoe

One thing I did read was to pee (seems popular thing to discuss on this forum ) in an old washing up liquid bottle and then at the end of the day in the garden/lottie/field, squirt the pee wound the edge of the hen run. Apparently the scent puts them off.

We have, in the past, had donated hair which was shoved into my granny's old tights and hung at intervals on th run fence.

Difficult to say if either of these work, but they are sure worth a try!

just remember not to pee on the electric fence!
If you've ever seen a dog do it, you'll know what I mean!

Or if you are close to a zoo you could ask for some dung... I have heard of lion's poo working but I'd imagine another big mammals might work aswell

Thanks for the tips guys. More use for pee, but with this rain it'll just get washed away.

Zoe