"TC" wrote in message
...
On 29 Mar, 13:01, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article
,TC
writes:

| On 29 Mar, 12:18, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
| "TC" wrote in message
|
| The idea of a chicken looking through mesh at a fox is, I'd say,
| so unlikely as to be laughable. If they see a fox or unfamiliar dog
| from a long way they'll try to get away.
|
| I doubt that a fox could bite through chicken wire too, they never
have
| here.
|
| Well I'm told it happens! Maybe it happens in a small %age of cases
| and you're not one of those. I get a fox every night sniffing about
| so it'll have plenty of opportunity to plan a form of attack....

And I am told that people have had rides in flying saucers, have
talked to Elvis and so on :-)

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Not sure if its more foolish to believe everything or to believe
nothing...but I suppose intelligence is shown in the deciding.

Argue here if you like:
http://forums.thepoultrykeeper.co.uk...ic.php?t=13478

"I obviously don't want 2" holes at the sides, as chooks could put their
heads out for Reynard to bite off! (Yes I have heard of this happening!)"

For centuries 'men say' has not been accepted as evidence, it's called
hearsay and is meaningless. It's been responsible for very many injustices.

My deciding is based on personal experience and the knowledge that chickens
are not stupid. Although, come to think of it, if a chicken DID stick out
its head and it was bitten off it would be a Good Thing, it would remove an
undesirable trait from progeny.

When my chickens and others I have known (a daughter is a free range chicken
farmer) if a fox is seen the birds run for cover. If mine see a ginger cat
they do the same (fox have more in common with cats in many ways than they
do with dogs).

I've thought of another possible solution to the problem - get a dog and
train it to leave the chickens alone. It is said that fox won't come near a
dog. I have other experience ...

A physical barrier is the only sure one. Renardine works for a time but it
time consuming, has to be repeated frequently and becomes expensive. Peeing
on the boundary is cheaper but has to be repeated frequently. A shotgun
would work for a while but a new generatio9n of fox would be lured to the
garden by the noise of chickens.

Mary

On 29 Mar, 15:42, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"TC" wrote in message

...
On 29 Mar, 13:01, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:





In article
,TC
writes:

| On 29 Mar, 12:18, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
| "TC" wrote in message
|
| The idea of a chicken looking through mesh at a fox is, I'd say,
| so unlikely as to be laughable. If they see a fox or unfamiliar dog
| from a long way they'll try to get away.
|
| I doubt that a fox could bite through chicken wire too, they never
have
| here.
|
| Well I'm told it happens! Maybe it happens in a small %age of cases
| and you're not one of those. I get a fox every night sniffing about
| so it'll have plenty of opportunity to plan a form of attack....

And I am told that people have had rides in flying saucers, have
talked to Elvis and so on :-)

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Not sure if its more foolish to believe everything or to believe
nothing...but I suppose intelligence is shown in the deciding.

Argue here if you like:http://forums.thepoultrykeeper.co.uk...ic.php?t=13478

"I obviously don't want 2" holes at the sides, as chooks could put their
heads out for Reynard to bite off! (Yes I have heard of this happening!)"

For centuries 'men say' has not been accepted as evidence, it's called
hearsay and is meaningless. It's been responsible for very many injustices.

My deciding is based on personal experience and the knowledge that chickens
are not stupid. Although, come to think of it, if a chicken DID stick out
its head and it was bitten off it would be a Good Thing, it would remove an
undesirable trait from progeny.

When my chickens and others I have known (a daughter is a free range chicken
farmer) if a fox is seen the birds run for cover. If mine see a ginger cat
they do the same (fox have more in common with cats in many ways than they
do with dogs).

I've thought of another possible solution to the problem - get a dog and
train it to leave the chickens alone. It is said that fox won't come near a
dog. I have other experience ...

A physical barrier is the only sure one. Renardine works for a time but it
time consuming, has to be repeated frequently and becomes expensive. Peeing
on the boundary is cheaper but has to be repeated frequently. A shotgun
would work for a while but a new generatio9n of fox would be lured to the
garden by the noise of chickens.

Mary- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

So this person in that thread is a liar? Tell her not me!

I have had chickens heads bitten off through wire. It's not nice
finding a headless body where it has finally collapsed..

"TC" wrote in message
...

I have had chickens heads bitten off through wire. It's not nice
finding a headless body where it has finally collapsed..

But you have a good meal :-)

Mary

"TC" wrote in message

I've been told that some animals can bite through chicken wire

Foxes round here will get through it. They must rake it repeatedly with
their claws till it breaks. they certainly have managed to break into my
outer pen on multiple occasions.

"TC" wrote in message
On 29 Mar, 12:18, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

I doubt that a fox could bite through chicken wire too, they never have
here.

Well I'm told it happens! Maybe it happens in a small %age of cases
and you're not one of those. I get a fox every night sniffing about
so it'll have plenty of opportunity to plan a form of attack....

I doubt whether they bite through it, but I can certainly vouch for them
getting through it repeatedly.

"TC" wrote in message

I have had chickens heads bitten off through wire. It's not nice
finding a headless body where it has finally collapsed..

I lived on a poultry farm for the first 18 years of my life and I have now
kept chooks for about 30 years of my adult life so I know that chooks can
have their heads bitten off through wire. I've seen it too.

If others haven't had the experieince of seeing that, then they are luckier
than your and I. It doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, just that they
don't know that it happens and can thus remain blissfully ignorant and
sceptical until they do see it.

"AriesVal" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:22:40 -0000, Mary Fisher wrote:

"AriesVal" wrote in message
...
[14 quoted lines suppressed]

And a lot of spam. Killfille Old Codger.

Mary

LOL, I have him kill filed on other groups too ;-)

The sad thing is that I've met the original Old Codger, a very nice man with
an equally nice wife, we still correspond. Still, I suppose it's some kind
of flattery to have your name hi-jacked - the hi-jacker must think you're
important enough. My name was once - but not for long :-)

Mary

In article ,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given writes:
| "TC" wrote in message
|
| I've been told that some animals can bite through chicken wire
|
| Foxes round here will get through it. They must rake it repeatedly with
| their claws till it breaks. they certainly have managed to break into my
| outer pen on multiple occasions.

What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.

A mistake that people may be making is to use the very lightweight
stuff designs to keep part-grown chicks in as a fox barrier. I can
easily see that won't work.

And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given writes:
| "TC" wrote in message
|
| I've been told that some animals can bite through chicken wire
|
| Foxes round here will get through it. They must rake it repeatedly
with
| their claws till it breaks. they certainly have managed to break into
my
| outer pen on multiple occasions.

What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.

I wondered that too.

It would be a very hungry fox which would bite through our chicken wire, so
hungry it probably wouldn't have the strength. Not that I've ever known a
fox eat a chicken, here they've only killed them :-(


And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)

They will eat chickens too.

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
| gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.
|
| I wondered that too.

What I would do, were I making a chicken run, would be to use fairly
heavy 2-3" chicken wire to keep foxes, dogs and cats out, and run
1-2' of 1/2" chicken wire along the bottom, inside, to keep chicks in.
That's a LOT cheaper than using weldmesh.

If badgers were a problem, it would be necessary to use weldmesh (and
I don't mean the 1/2" stuff, either!), but it would ALSO be necessary
to continue it down at least 1' into the soil, probably 2'.

The design of a rat-proof run is left as an exercise for the reader :-)

| And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
| entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)
|
| They will eat chickens too.

And, of all of the UK wild and domestic predators, they are the only
one which can tear chicken wire open without difficulty. Dogs can do
it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third
leg or when starving.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
| gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.
|
| I wondered that too.

What I would do, were I making a chicken run, would be to use fairly
heavy 2-3" chicken wire to keep foxes, dogs and cats out, and run
1-2' of 1/2" chicken wire along the bottom, inside, to keep chicks in.
That's a LOT cheaper than using weldmesh.

Last year we found that chicks could get through small holes so Spouse
fastened a 6" high length of 1/2" mesh round the bottom. Same as you.

If badgers were a problem, it would be necessary to use weldmesh (and
I don't mean the 1/2" stuff, either!), but it would ALSO be necessary
to continue it down at least 1' into the soil, probably 2'.

And something underneath too.

The design of a rat-proof run is left as an exercise for the reader :-)

sigh Yes ...

| And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
| entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)
|
| They will eat chickens too.

And, of all of the UK wild and domestic predators, they are the only
one which can tear chicken wire open without difficulty.

Luckily they can't get into our garden - not that I think there are many
round here ...

Dogs can do
it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third
leg or when starving.

Third leg?

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| Dogs can do
| it, but my understanding is that they typically do only for the third
| leg or when starving.
|
| Third leg?

A dog has four thoughts, one for each leg: food, food, sex and food.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given writes:
| "TC" wrote in message
|
| I've been told that some animals can bite through chicken wire
|
| Foxes round here will get through it. They must rake it repeatedly
with
| their claws till it breaks. they certainly have managed to break into
my
| outer pen on multiple occasions.

What gauge? Chicken wire comes from gauges that I can tear with only
gloved hands up to stuff that I need wire-cutters for.

It is a lighter guage stuff that was used for the outer pen - the inner
night yard is a heavier guage but the sodding foxes broke the gate on one
occasion and knocked off 11 birds in one night. I left the bodies and slit
them open and stuffed snail bait into the carcase and the bodies
disappearred aver about 3 nights. That cleared out a den on the creek where
I knew there were at least 2 cubs.

The light guage stuff surrounds about a quarter of an acre (also serves as
the orchard) and I have gradually moved right round it putting a heavier
guage wire right round it to about waist height - that has worked (so far)
but it took me a year or more to do what with one thing and another.

As you can imagine with a fence of that area, I have been able to keep a
good eye out on the fox activity. They seem to spend days putting pressure
on one area. For a few days it will be an indentation and scumbled earth
near a site they are working on, then a single broken wire will appear and
then over a few days a gradual and increasing number of broken wires till it
is obvious that they have made an incursion. They can get through amazingly
small holes. It's at that stage that I've repaired the holes. I like to
let them waste a lot of time.

The other thing the bozos did when they built the fence was that they didn't
either bury about a ft of wire or lay the wire out on the ground for about a
ft on the foxward side. I've now done that as I went around, so far so
good.

A mistake that people may be making is to use the very lightweight
stuff designs to keep part-grown chicks in as a fox barrier. I can
easily see that won't work.

And are you sure that it is foxes and not badgers making the initial
entry? Badgers like eggs, after all :-)

Nope. It was foxes. We don't have badgers in Australia and there are no
dingos or uncontrolled pet dogs round here (they'd get shot).

In message , Nick Maclaren
writes

In article ,
Charlie Pridham writes:
| In article ,
| says...
| "Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
| ...
| In article
| ,
| TC writes:
| |
| | I am building a chicken pen and intend to use weld mesh for the sides
| | and chicken wire for the top as I don't think I need that to be so
| | substantial.
|
| That's some chickens you have!
|
| You certainly don't need weldmesh for any chickens. 1" chicken wire is
| substantial enough.
|
| Mary and Nick, we no longer have chickens because of local dogs and foxes
| so a substantial run is not such a silly idea if only to keep things out
| rather than things in.

That argues in favour of using heavy gauge chicken wire, such as 2".
You need weldmesh only to stop wolves, hyaenas and so on :-)

At 2" you get stoats getting in easily and they can do a lot of damage.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com