Sally44 Report post Posted April 12, 2012 Blooming foxes. I am sick of them. Every time I manage to get a nice number of ducks, they always find some way of getting to them. We had 10. Now we have 5. And those remaining look like they have post traumatic stress disorder. I think I need to build a concrete underground bunker to protect them. I've had foxes scale 10ft fences - rip through a ceiling - get through a gap that a mouse would struggle with. And the most annoying thing is that it killed 5 ducks - but didn't take or eat them. NOOOOO, just killed them. Thankfully we had some eggs in the incubator, and have around 20 ducklings that look so cute. I've got one though [he maybe a special needs duck?!?!?]. He just isn't growing. He's all head and legs and now just a quarter of the size of the others. He isn't ill. He just isn't growing. Don't know what will happen to him, or what is wrong with him. He is just so tiny. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mandapanda Report post Posted April 13, 2012 That's sad. How does your son cope with this? My youngest used to absolutely love chicks (the feathered variety!). We went to Finkley Down Farm and the trainee nanny I had with me (on placement from college - I didn't pay her) held a chick out to him and he just grabbed it by the head! It was OK thankfully. I didn't anticipate that the trainee nanny wouldn't realise he might do that. I haven't heard of many people keeping ducks. Chickens, but not ducks. Do you have to have a big pond? My eldest used to love foxes and his grandma used to say about how cruel they were killing but not eating chickens. It must be worrying knowing you have to put those cute little ducklings out and at risk sometime. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sally44 Report post Posted April 13, 2012 I don't tell the kids. My son won't go to see them because the field contains animal poo that might contaminate him!! At his new school they tell me that "digging" is one of his favourite things. I was gobsmacked. I asked him why he liked digging and not the field with animals and that was when he said that the soil they dig is not covered with animal droppings [didn't want to inform him of microbes in the soil etc]. Yesterday he asked me about white blood cells. Apparently he had seen something on TV about them and how they fight infection. He seemed really pleased about that. So we had a discussion about different types of blood cells. He asked "are cells alive" - which they are, and "how does your body clean up cells that die?" So had to tell him about other cells that go around eating dead cells and cleaning them up. He catches me off guard with his questions sometimes. Do you remember that case last year of a fox going into someones house and attaching twin babies? they are wild animals. I would go so far as saying they are vermin. And I don't agree with fox hunting. But I would have no problem getting a gamekeeper in to shoot them. My son has held the chicks. But we needed to explain how gentle he had to be. And he had to have teatowels on his knees because he said their claws hurt him. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LancsLad Report post Posted April 13, 2012 Thats the nature of foxes, or some of them. I can remeber having a long conversation with a sheep farmer in Wales with a gun in his hand watching a fox running the top of the drystone walls a mile or so away from a hunt and asking him why he didn't shoot it as he had a very clear shot. He told me that particular fox was no problem, it was old and clever and the hounds didn't have a chance it was running them around in circles. He explained that the problem was always with younger foxes who have to extend their territories and killing lambs was often about defining pecking orders and terretorial behaviour. In that respect he was all for culling young foxes who behaved like this but could see no reason to go after some of the more established groups who lived deep in the woods for example. I think the answer Sally is to either get someone to try and kill these loose foxes or to have strength in numbers in relation to livestock. They are highly intelligent creatures and will get to almost anything. It might be a sign that since foot and mouth we have seen a massive decline in livestock numbers in our countryside and like any animal they are adapting and having to search out softer targets even if this means breaking and entry. I think this is a reality of rural living and I believe there are so many lessons to be learn't by engaging in your chosen lifestyle some like these are highly frustrating I guess, but valuable for a child nonetheless. Your special needs duck, I know what would have happened in a professional situation and so do you. I can remeber a friend of mine I used to climb a lot with having a farm on the Gower in South Wales very beautifull part of the world. His mum told me to go out and kill one of the chickens for a meal. I struggled with the first one and managed accidently to dislocate some vertabrae in its neck but it got away and ran knowing what was coming. I simply couldn't catch it so we killed another. Made a very good meal by the way. Every time I visited the farm I would see this chicken with the crick in its neck. My friends family had the joke, was I ever going to finish the job, but when it saw me it simply vanished even if i had food. The thing died of old age so possibly I did it a favour as they kept it as a running joke. For our sins we used to breed Border Collies and the last litter was delivered and then half an hour later this pathetic little pup was born which left me in two minds. It was too weak to sell so I kept it along with the pick of the group as I knew this would be our last litter. His sister had to be put down over Christmas, but her runt of a brother is still going strong at the age of 14 today, he has been hard work all the way and a unique dog amongst the many I have owned. Was it worth hand nursing him and keeping him going as a special project, of course it was. When we loose him it will be somewhat harder to take because we have put a bit more into getting him this far, guess that is how it is. just a few thoughts. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sally44 Report post Posted April 13, 2012 Yes we do eat some of the animals we raise - so I don't have a problem with that side of things. I can't kill them - my husband does that [or the abbatoire], but I have no problem plucking and gutting. Unfortunately our chicken coups are next to a small wood and next to that is a forest, and next to that an open park - so lots of wild foxes [and buzzards] around. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkshine Report post Posted April 13, 2012 (edited) Can't you get another animal to guard the pond to make it harder for the fox to get at them without you hearing? Like a dog or geese? :lol; sorry that just sounds funny... But geese are highly territorial - especially the big ones, and even more so when there's a gander with 'em, they're loud too... Been chased by geese a few times... they're quite vicious!! (of course they might not like the ducks so it might be a really bad idea) If you can't enclose the pond could you teach the ducks to go in at night like chickens? If a chicken can learn to do it then maybe a duck could learn too.... Edited April 13, 2012 by darkshine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tally Report post Posted April 13, 2012 Can you sprinkle some fox wee about? Might make a fox think a bigger fox has already adopted this as his territory and go elsewhere. But the temptation may be too strong. Much as I love foxes, I can see why not everyone feels this way. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkshine Report post Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) Where do you get hold of fox wee?!?! Or more importantly how?!?! Edited April 14, 2012 by darkshine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darkshine Report post Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) I'm still laughing imagining following a fox with an empty jam jar or searching on amazon or asking for it at a garden centre Just a selection of stupid images going through my head while I sit laughing like a nutter at my computer at 1 in the morning Edited April 14, 2012 by darkshine Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
