I have a Badger!

[Graham K]

I have a badger in the garden and a squirrel, three chickens, a blue tit, doves, frogs, angry bees and...Sorry a bit off track, the Badger.

He or she turned up the first time a couple of months ago, thinking about it just about the same time the girls stopped laying?. He/she is a very large (? adult) badger about three feet long and a very good digger (as they are). So far it has only dug its way OUT of the garden so I think it's "passing through" on its way somewhere.

As yet it has not had a go at the chicken house but I have read that they have a bit of a taste for the feathered ones. I have googled badgers for some info and the DEFRA web site comes up with two main topics; TB (bovine) and protected animal.

Q; Are they safe to have around re' the TB issue

How do I "get rid" of a rather large predatory digging machine that just happens to be protected by law. For "get rid" of please read move on, re home, go dig somewhere else please etc.

I would imagine they are quite a handful when cornered so I don't want to do anything daft on my own, the angry bees put me off doing that, but he/she is becoming a bit of a pest.

Any advice welcome.

Thanks, Graham

[rustylady]

Some general info here http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator...31036&mode=prd and some more here http://www.badger.org.uk/_Attachment...rces/55_S4.pdf

[Graham K]

Very interesting reading. Doesn't mention anything about them having a taste for chicken but I'm sure I read it somewhere and the note about chicken wire being next to useless I have seen before!

Long story short, I guess if I leave him/her alone and maybe sort the hole under the fence so it does't have to dig when it visits they/it shouldn't realy be much of a pest at all???

If I get any more wildlife in the garden I'll open to the public.

[SMS6]

We had a badger that used to come visit our garden at night and steal all the wild bird food by upending the bird table. It also trampled thorugh my strawberry beds. It took us months to work out what it was that was doing it. We set up a night video to confirm. When I decided to get chickens I knew we might have a problem with the badger - we weren't exactly sure what route it took to enter the garden - like you we think it passes through on a set route.

Anyway we had to put gates up along the sides of the house and as we were chicken fencing all round to keep the girls in we decided taht maybe that would keep him/her out. We had quite a wide stretch of open space across the garden to fence so we used chicken wire - the badger just walked straight through. We've had to put up an electric fence along that stretch which seems to have worked, although having said that I had my suspicions that it was back the other night but it hadn't bothered with the bird food (or the girls) and there's been no evidence of it coming back

[OverWyreGrower]

There are quite a lot of posts on poultry forums where badgers have ripped coops apart and taken the chickens...

Apparantly they don't leave dead ones, like foxes do, they just take everything...

[RichmondHens]

Ooer, never had to deal with a badger fortunately although we do have them round here, but not actually on our land so sorry can't really advise but yes they do cause enormous damage to hen houses and do kill chickens so be on your guard.

[Aberdeenplotter]

they don't leave dead ones, like foxes do, they just take everything...

I'm sure I saw on a recent documentary that although it looks as though foxes kill more than they need that they will return and remove every carcase burying them for future use. Kind of knocked my earlier thought of just killing for the hell of it.

[Graham K]

OK, Fort Knox for the chickens coming up.

[petal]

badgers can cause even more damage than foxes- they can rip wooden coops apart! electric fencing is the only deterrent.

[marchogaeth]

IQ; Are they safe to have around re' the TB issue

How do I "get rid" of a rather large predatory digging machine that just happens to be protected by law. For "get rid" of please read move on, re home, go dig somewhere else please etc.

I would imagine they are quite a handful when cornered so I don't want to do anything daft on my own, the angry bees put me off doing that, but he/she is becoming a bit of a pest.

Badgers carry Bovine TB, they pass it on to cows. You would be very unlucky or very intimate to catch TB from a badger.

Doing anything that disturbs a badger set is illegal. Doing anything to interfere with a badger is a potentailly prosecutable offence.

Do not attempt to make any contact - they are 50% jaw. One of our neighbours had a ewe's back leg bitten completely off by a badger when it was grazing in a field with a badger set in it. I can only think the ewe was a very deep sleeper and right on a badger track.

If your badger is just going through your property then that's probably what it will keep doing as they tend to eat what they stumble upon a lot of the time. When they are hungry they will look for food. You could try feeding it - dog food or they really love peanuts and treacle, I'm told. Then maybe it will be too full to eat your chickens.

[Hilary B]

DON'T try to protect your livestock by feeding the badger, unless you are prepared to feed the whole sett-ful longterm. Once they know where the food can be found they will keep coming back, and bring the kids, and any other members of the extended family.
If you have a badger getting in the chicken-run, while he/she may never bother with the chickens, any uncollected eggs will almost certainly be taken (including a 'stolen away' nest) If you know where the path goes, best bet might be to fence so that the pathway is clear, but access to anywhere else from that path is closed. Make a sort of tunnel over the path. Could be a major PITA, but might prevent unwanted encounters...

[donnakebab]

Badgers carry Bovine TB, they pass it on to cows. You would be very unlucky or very intimate to catch TB from a badger.

Doing anything that disturbs a badger set is illegal. Doing anything to interfere with a badger is a potentailly prosecutable offence.

I know this is slightly out of context but I did a lot of research on this subject when at Uni.

The government went to a lot of expense to carry out research on whether culling of badgers would eradicate bovine TB. The top scientists involved concluded that it wouldn't and indeed a similar culling policy in Ireland a few years before proved ineffective against bovine TB.

I can't cite the papers I read here as I don't have access to Uni material anymore but I could have a furtle through my papers in the loft to find dates etcetera if necessary.

I find it a bit disconcerting that a government can do what it wants even when there is legislation in place that makes it illegal.

[marchogaeth]

I find it a bit disconcerting that a government can do what it wants even when there is legislation in place that makes it illegal.

Sometimes they can't, in the peoples' republic of Wales, there was such a back lash to the proposed culling that they had to back track to a vaccination policy instead. Still disturbs the badgers of course.

Part of the problem is that man is the badger's "natural" preditor. In Welsh it is called mochyn daear which means earth pig. Some of the old people still remember eating it. Apparently, it does taste like pork and there are records of the meat being smoked for use over Winter. (This is probably true in other places as well, I just know about the local history.)

I think they are wonderful animals but we have three badger setts on our land and the damage they do digging for "pig nut" grass roots in the Spring is unbeleivable. It makes the field look like it's been ploughed, spoiling the grass and making making hay really difficult. We lost a whole field one year. TB in cattle is only part of the problem but as there is no sensible approach to control on either side of the argument little progress is likely to be made until some MP or AM get their garden trashed!