Saturday, December 6, 2008

Damn Foxes

Well, foxes are mean!
I love poultry and had built up quite an array of them unfortunately due to a cunning a vicious fox I now only have 3 ducks, 3 turkeys and 7 chooks (3 of which are roosters!). First night it took a duck, managed to open a secured door on the duck run! Then it cleared a really high fence into the chook run. I thought the fence would have been high enough as to stop it but it appears not.
It took a turkey hen who was sitting on eggs and got her back over the fence and then left her (I imagine she would have been to heavy) right out side my laundry door! then came back that night and took about 15 chooks. I can't believe I didn't hear anything and not a feather in sight!
I did more fox proofing over the next two days but it managed to dig into the enclosure with a mummy chook with 11 chickens and take 8 of them leaving the mum and 3 chicks. Yesterday morning I woke to find he had come right up on the front verandah and broken into an enclosure there with the turkey poult and 4 chicks that I had hand reared from day old. That just topped it of, I was a wreak yesterday and I just feel so bad for them all as I wasn't able to protect them the way I should have. I'm angry at the fox but more angry with myself! Gobbler's Run is officially in mourning!

10 comments:

Lucky-1 said...

Foxes are such a bastard of an animal. So sorry to read of all your losses..... I too over the years have had poultry losses to foxes.

belinda said...

How sucky,

My thoughts are with you in your loss.

Kind Regards
Belinda

Lucy C said...

Oh no.
Such a massive loss.
You are right to be in mourning.
I HATE foxes.

Woody said...

A new coat with a fox collar would be top of my Christmas list...

I feel your pain. We haven't has the best of luck with poultry. Our predators have been more of the domestic variety in alliance with stupidity. Critter proof runs with open gates just don't work that well.

peace

Susan said...

Oh that really sucks :(
We have lost 2 chooks over the last year to a fox, I'd be devastated at a loss like yours.

Chris said...

Sorry to hear about the incessant raids on your poultry. If it's any consolation, it happens in the wild all the time. Animals eating other animals is the way of nature.

As poultry enthusiasts we do our best to protect our feathered friends, but we don't often know the lengths a hungry predator will go to until it's too late.

Your feathered friends were and still are loved. That was the best kind of life (however long or short) they could hope for. You're a good egg Kirsty - the fox was too determined.

I reckon an electric fence (capable of knocking a bull back) would do the trick. I was talking to a friend recently, and she told me how she ran a single electric wire around her 2.5 acres for $300. It keeps snakes, dogs, goannas and foxes out apparently.

Leisurely Lesley said...

Foxes are bastards. I recently lost my mother duck to a fox. We managed to keep her safe for so long. Now I have to contend with Frank, her partner, looking lonely and depressed, every time I look out the window.

I've lost count of the fox attacks I have had. Bastards.

meld said...

thanks for sharing kirst, i am still so devestated about losing all of ours in one night, and the same as you, didnt hear a thing, either did the dogs, so feel like i let them down : (
we will also be in mourning for awhile too...
mel

Anonymous said...

I wondered why you'd been so quiet :-(((((
So sorry Kirsty.

What about locking up all your critters and getting J to set some traps? Illegal probably but then so is a shootgun in a residential area.

~Tully~

Tania said...

Just thought I would add to this post what we did with our chook pen after losing a lot of our chooks.

Hubby ended up completely enclosing our chook pen.

He then dug a roughly 2-3ft hole all the way around the chookhouse. In this hole he put corrugated iron, so that if the foxes thought they could dig in they had another thing coming.

Since doing this we have had no trouble. It is a lot of work though. Hubby also put in a guillotine style trap door that we shut once the chooks have put themselves to bed and open in the morning.

I will take some photos today and post about it on my blog, sometimes pictures are better.

Best of luck with your remaining poultry, it is heartbreaking to go outside and find your beloved poultry eaten or mauled. We had a fox that went on a killing spree and just killed for fun. We found chooks scattered all over our paddock. Apparently a fox will return every second night for a feast.

Tania