Sallygarden Smallholding - The Forum For Sustainable Living

well I knew it was bound to happen... case of "when" rather than "if" but it doesn't make it any nicer to look out of the window and see a little pile of ginger feathers blowing across the field where one of your hens used to be.

I shut the others back in their run in case it came back - either a fox or a pine marten... can't decide which... but at 10am close to the house I was quite upset.

considering electric poultry netting to keep the rest safe... am I mad ? too sentimental ? should I just accept this ?

I only had 8 hens, so not really a flock as such...

I have heard from several people - none of them necessarily experts but all qualifying as chook owners - that if you put human hair around the chook house foxes won't come near it. They can smell the human element. I take the hair from my brush (I do have long hair though so there's always a good supply!). Other suggestions are leaving a radio on in the chook house. Again Mr Fox thinks there's a human in there.

Don't know about Martens though.

Good luck.

Thanks Jean
My daughter and I both have long hair so I'll harvest the hairbrushes.

I just daren't let them out of their run to free range now
They're twisting like mad as well - every time I walk past they run to the door in a "let us out... let us out..." way.

(on the plus side I've been able to leave the polytunnel doors open and plant loads of seeds without having to net everything for a couple of days !!

Oh poor chook. Hairdressers are only too happy to give you a sack of hair, pop a good handful into old tights or pop socks and hang them around the coop ... may cause funny looks from visitors!

I've heard that taking a pee around your property boundary can put off predators ... marking your territory! Perhaps thats an approach more subtly undertaken by any men/children in the family!

We've been lucky so far and not lost any yet (touch wood)

Just to clarify guys, peeing on the perimetre only works if it's male urine, something to do with the testosterone! Also the hair needs to be fresh and replaced regularly.

I don't think you are mad to consider an electrified perimetre at all. Unfortunately once the fox/marten knows your hens are there, they will be back to try their luck. Hope you resolve it.

No matter what you think, the most effective and final way of stopping predators is to kill it.
If it is a fox it will keep returning until all the chickens are gone, what is worse is finding all the chickens dead but not eaten.
If you know a responsible shooter I would suggest you ask them would they mind lamping the animal.
You can pen them with electric netting and it will help but foxes are very cunning and will quickly find any weakness in your system.
If you are boundary fencing at any time it is worth asking for fox wire, this is like sheep wire but has smaller holes that foxes and cats can't negotiate very easily.

I do agree with you and both we and the local farmers would happily shoot the fox and we do indeed have a permit to do so. However, we only ever see it when we are taking our son to school and as there are regular police checks at roundabouts I'm not sure carrying the gun in the car each morning would be very wise! (They can be very unreasonable these French gendarmes!)

Hi Carriganass

That fox proof fencing sounds interesting. I'm interested because normal sheep stock fencing isn't quite small enough to stop goats putting their heads through the holes, and thus getting stuck because of their horns. Do you get that fox fencing in Ireland? It might be good goat fencing (we are about to fence a goat field this weekend).

Yes the fox wire is available here in Ireland, I am sure that you could order it from the local Co-op.
Ours came from a local fencing contractor when he did a bit of fencing for us.
Jeanht
I am sure that le gendarmerie will be understanding when you explain that the fox is killing all your prizewinning poulet!
after all it is their national symbol!

Well we had a visit from an unknown predator this morning as well.
My wife said that we were down one hyline, and I did a quick perimeter sweep and found a couple of small feather patches.
I went for a lamp earlier but couldnt see anything but rabbits.
Whatever it was must have been attracted by the chicks cheeping away.
Oh well, I'll have to make an effort to find the bugger whatever it is..

Oh dear, very sorry to hear that.

Do you have any sort of fencing around the chicken area?

There is fox wire around the perimeter of the site, and inside that is chicken wire, but I think the chicken was taken as they roam freely on our land, they could be 100-150m away at times.
It is nice to see this foraging behaviour but we will have to start using the electrified chicken netting I think, or I have to find the predator and give it lead poisoning.
I kind of had an idea that this would happen sometime, our site is big and has lots of trees on the boundarys.

I had the same problem with a fox.How you will know if it is a fox, it will take the chickens away and eat them near a ditch whereas a marten will kill all the hens.
If it is a fox that is taking your hens you can buy a humane trap and bait it with some fish. This will attract any wild aminals around.
Hope this helps or that you have it sorted out allready.

There is an interesting article in this months Country Smallholder mag. about chickens and predators, may be of some help.

Morag

Have you also considerd Mink as your preditor? There's more Mink than Foul Mart these days. Mink are happy to kill anything as long as they are awake!
'Catch alive' traps (humane?) are usually used where there is a possibility of a non pest being caught. i.e. Grey/Red Squirel, Ferrel/Domestic Cat, etc. The pest would then be dispatched usualy with a rim fire rifle and the non pest released. I'm not sure what the legal implications are here in Ireland (not been here long), but to catch your problem, transport it elsewhere and release it for someone else to sort out is greatly frowned on in UK. If you catch a Badger, that opens a new can of worms. Common sense is short when Badgers are involved sadly. Problems also arise using bait in 'catch alive' traps, when you catch the wrong preditor. Fish will bring a fox, Mink or ferral cat from miles away! Therefore you could end up bringing a different problem in. So I would suggest that you observe, find the true culprit and get someone with a gun to permanantly solve the problem before re stocking the larder.