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Keeping a fox away from my hens
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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.
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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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