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M. Reynard is a worry locally.
We live right out in the sticks and see foxes out and about all the time. In 8 years of chicken keeping with up to 15 hens at a time we've only ever lost two to one particularly bold fox who took them when I was actually in the garden. Our neighbours lose hens to foxes all the time. The reasons we don't? We have built a very secure run. We only let them out of it to free range if we are keeping a fairly close eye on them. A radio in their coop helps too - human voices act as a good deterrent. The hens particularly like woman's hour on R4!
Is it true they’ve got a real taste for slugs?
Yes but they are a mixed blessing in the garden. Great for eating slugs and other pests, but their scratting about in the flower beds can make a mess!
"For relatives of T. rex. We’d love to have them but it’s something else to look after and M. Reynard is a worry locally."
We lived for 5 years or so with a fox colony only about 20 yds from our girls. They were well protected though with the wire netting of their tennis court size run extending a couple of feet down and 6 feet up.
we didn't lose a single one! Though maybe the presence of a couple of terriers helped...
wire netting of their tennis court size run extending a couple of feet down and 6 feet up.
Our run fence is about 8 foot tall. Not just to keep foxes out, but to keep the chickens in. We have had a couple of able fliers who could clear the old 6 foot fence!
who it was though, what chain uses so many eggs?
it is / was Macdonalds
they bought pretty much all the white eggs as Uk buyers are oddly suspicious of them - even during lockdown when supermarkets stocks were low buyers would leave them on the shelf. There was someone on here who was doing home deliveries for a supermarket and apparently customers were refusing them if they were in the bag
there was a guy who revolutionised the egg industry when he discovered you can predict what colour eggs a hen will lay by looking at their earlobes - brown eggs sell for more so there’s no point nurturing hens that will lay cheap (but actually perfectly identical eggs)
oddly in the US it’s the other way round and people don’t want to buy brown eggs- presumably there Macdonalds buy all the brown ones
no point nurturing hens that will lay cheap (but actually perfectly identical eggs)
I thought you had to wait for them to hatch before they cheap?
For the op- you can do something called ‘egg pockets’ instead of fried eggs if you want runny yolk without the Boak
pour the egg through a slotted spoon into the pan so only the white goes in and the yolk is reserved - fry the white to your liking then add yoke and fold the egg white over it like a little burrito
also the older the eggs the flatter the white will lay on the frying pan. Fresher eggs white sit in a stiffer blob shape in the pan and heat doesn’t get through to the top easily but older ones spread out flatter and thinner and cook though better
Our run fence is about 8 foot tall. Not just to keep foxes out, but to keep the chickens in
Foxes will climb over 8ft fences if they're determined. Biggest issue with foxes is they'll kill for the sake of killing. When the parents had hens, if a fox got in, it wouldn't be unusual for them to kill a dozen and leave a single eaten carcus.
Trimming the hens flight feathers on one side will stop them getting over any fence more than a few feet high.
relatives of T. rex.
And they outnumber humans by an order of magnitude. I think they're just biding their time, watching, waiting....
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Foxes will climb over 8ft fences if they’re determined.
Not ours, it's got a big floppy overhang at the top!
Biggest issue with foxes is they’ll kill for the sake of killing.
Urban myth. Yes a fox in a coop will kill the hens in one go if it can, but it's not 'killing for the sake of killing'. It's just a wild animal instinctively taking advantage of an unexpected glut of food. It can only carry one away at a time. Given the opportunity it will keep coming back over a period of days to collect all the slain one by one to eat or feed to cubs. As a poultry keeper I have a love hate relationship with foxes. They are intelligent, adaptable and resourceful animals and I love to watch them. In some circumstances though I accept that a particular problem fox may have to be culled, but there's little point in doing that routinely as you just create a vacant territory which will rapidly be filled.
Ultimately however it's my responsibility to keep my hens secure, the fox is just a wild animal trying to stay alive. Saying it's doing it for fun or whatever is just anthropomorphisising.
I think they’re just biding their time, watching, waiting….
the moment chickens evolve arms we’re doomed. Arms, hands, thumbs. And that’s all chickens think about all day. The prospect of arms and the many and various ways they’ll use them to kill us all.
then once we’re all dead they’ll take all our PlayStations and XBoxes and reenact killing us all again, and again and again.
still. Eggs are nice though
the moment chickens evolve arms we’re doomed.
We joke that if one of us tripped and banged our head when cleaning out the chicken run, all the other would find the next day would be a pile of bones!
Two legged piranhas!
They joke about what message the bones will spell out to your partner
Never turn your back on them.
