I was lying in bed this morning wondering if it was too early to get up when I heard a noise outside. So no, not too early and I get up, look for a torch, discard 2 that need new batteries, rummage under a pile of stuff and find another one and go out in the wet and cold.
Everything looks OK but I put on Hubby's old workboots and as I go clumping towards the chookpen I see some red eyes in there and I start shouting at the bloody things. I hear them go out through the fence and think that there were at least 2 of them. I go in the pen and see the chooks roosting, some in the fruit trees, some on the ground. They all would have been an easy target.
Hubby will be home sometime today but not up to doing much so I will put them, the chooks, in a lockup pen closer to the house tonight and borrow a foxtrap from a friend. I might even sacrifice my liver to the buggers. Well not my liver but the one in the fridge that I was planning on cooking for lunches.
Hubby will ask why I didn't get the gun out and shoot them but it was 4.30am. And dark. And son still has the gun. And I can't shoot animals anyway...
I hate foxes.
Hours later....I am back from a walk and can definitely smell fox outside the gate and front fence. I will ask son to bring his dogs out today and maybe get him and the daughters to save the dog poo for me. I have heard that is a deterrent and other years when we have put it out we haven't had the foxes back. Could be a coincidence but worth doing anyway.
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7 hours ago
Was the noise the chickens? Or, were the foxes making noise? When I was advised to open a can of tuna and shove it in the live trap to catch raccoons, I balked. A whole can of tuna? I emptied the tuna can in a bowl and shoved the tuna can in the cage. I caught raccoons with empty,smelly cans. Drain the liver on paper or cloth. Slice off a sliver just for the smell and add that to the smelly cloth or paper. Neither foxes nor raccoons are going to reckon that it's not worth getting caught for less than a full meal. The first raccoon was caught by me without advice. A tiny sliver of mango, an egg shell, and some tomato was all that it took. Maybe a strawberry cap with red left on it.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with tuna for catching a raccoon is that I caught cats and had to let them go. One bite of tuna in the old can was bait next time. The last raccoon was caught with one strawberry. Less liver will attract a fox just fine.
Good luck to you and the hens. A pox and trap on the foxes.
I add my good luck to catching the foxes too, the darn things.
ReplyDeleteSounds like some great advice from Practical.
We have to lock chooks up at night around here or the foxes would definately take them, even then you have to make sure the foxes can't access the roosting area
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the noise was but I think it was a fox, or something, going through/over the fence. Husband doubts it was anything mainly because he believes the pen is foxproof. I'm not so sure. He is building me a *definite* foxproof house for them but hasn't had time to get it finished.
ReplyDeleteYou're right Linda, I won't need to use the whole liver, not sure why I would have...lol.