"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from David in Normandy contains these
words:

Christina Websell wrote:

You were lucky that you got them back, if any of mine were out
overnight
that would be the end of them, down the throat of Mr/Ms Fox. I
don't know
if foxes are such a nuisance in France as they are here though, they
didn't
seem to be in Germany.


I plan to keep some chickens here in Normandy sooner or later, but my
French neighbour thinks I will lose them. Seems he kept some at one time
but foxes broke into his barn and killed the lot. I get the impression
they were very clever and determined to get to them in what he thought
was a secure place. We are surrounded by miles and miles of open
countryside and forests here, so lots of wildlife.

We kept freerange unfenced chickens in a wild rural area swarming with
foxes and never lost any to foxes
(neither did my neighbours). Possibly because the foxes there had so
many rabbits frogs and small rodents available;
and because local farmers controlled them by snares and shooting so
they were wary of people.
(Unlike the urban foxes living in a den in the grounds of another
place, who
come to be fed every night, and play with my dog.)
.
We all lost chickens to mink raids though; mink will also kill the
entire flock in a night.
Where we live now, there are no foxes and the chicken killers are
badgers.


I'm not able to free-range my chickens now, even though the fields at the
back of my garden are full of rabbits it was so much easier for the foxes to
get a chicken.
I tried (after a mega daylight raid losing 22) to trap them in a catch alive
trap with a rifle shot from my Fox Man (very experienced vermin controller)
Caught 39. Still they come.
So my chickens are now in huts and runs with 2 inch weldmesh runs, concrete
slab floors and roof.
I don't have mink or badgers thank goodness. Foxes are quite enough.

Tina






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