Vegetables and foxes!

[kittyk]

Earlier on today, I was planting up some vegetables in the garden and moving some other bits around. I decided to move a Ruby Chard from a trough to my new raised bed and dug it up with a trowel and carried it over. As I was spreading the roots round in the hole, I felt something in the roots. It was an egg! A chicken's egg!

It must have been a fox as my squirrel couldn't have done it even though he buries everything else! One can only admire the dexterity and skill of the fox in getting an egg from goodness knows where, a bin-bag I suppose, carrying it into my high walled garden and onto the low wall where the trough was where he must have balanced and dug, popped the egg in and covered it up.....and all without breaking it! Marvellous!

The thing is I now remember this is not the first time this happened either- last year, I found an egg buried in a tall narrow flower pot, again right down in the roots. I love foxes.

There is often a foxy smell around the garden especially where they pee in the veg containers and plot-does this affect the vegetables? Will it have a nasty effect on them? Are they still edible?

[Sweepster]

does this affect the vegetables? Will it have a nasty effect on them? Are they still edible?

Not sure, but if you were in a Roald Dahl story you'd probably grow a ginger tail...

[snohare]

does this affect the vegetables? Will it have a nasty effect on them?

Well, it will keep the rabbits away and discourage the mice, that is for sure - so I suppose it could well make your veggies more edible rather than less !
Hygienewise, there are diseases that foxes have that you don't want, Mycobacterium avium Paratuberculosis (MAP) for example - but so many species have that particular one and put it into the soil that the answer really is being careful to wash veggies properly; the same is probably true of most zoonotic diseases I think.
It's definitely not rats is it ? They do love eggs, and will carry them, although I don't know if they will actually store them. Are there droppings around that point to the culprit, or are you going mainly by the musky smell ?

[gojiberry]

Maybe it's a new breed of underground chicken.

Ian

[teakdesk]

It's definitely not rats is it ? They do love eggs, and will carry them, although I don't know if they will actually store them. Are there droppings around that point to the culprit, or are you going mainly by the musky smell ?

Had to get rid of a rat from my garage last winter... when we cleared up the rubbish where it was living we found a full-size apple that had been brought in from my apple tree!!

[snohare]

Obviously a hard core hoarder...a pack rat even !

[Demeter]

maybe it's a new breed of underground chicken.

Ian

rofpmsl!....

[kittyk]

Thanks for all the replies. I suppose it could be a rat but I have never seen one in the garden....I know it doesn't mean there aren't any! There are lots of foxes though in London which I see, (and smell,) in my garden each day. I would have blamed it on one of the squirrels but I don't think they would/could carry an egg without breaking it, would/could they?