Fox

[Stu8706]

Hello all

Some thing had dug under my neighbours shed. I originally thought it was a rabbit, but I found a foot print and I'm pretty sure it's a fox.

I originally thought it would be good eating all the rabbits but will the fox end up eating the frogs?.

So are foxes good or bad?


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[Bill HH]

Well I loved seeing foxes in the wild but after they had killed a load of my chickens or eaten new born lambs I sort of went off them a bit. Mind you whenever that happened I always blamed myself, not the fox who was doing what comes naturaly.
What I did hate was seeing the hunt chasing a terrified fox across the field, shouting and whooping like a bunch of savages. They would go round the night before and block up many of the dens so it had nowhere to go to earth.

[Veggielot]

I don't think it is a case of being good or bad they are just doing what comes naturally.

[noviceveggrower]

Hi,
I have a fox visiting my plot at night. I also have a shed load of frogs and toads down there to.
So if the fox is eating them it isn't denting my population I have to check an area before I cut the grass or use any shears. I find them everywhere in the fruit section and in the middle of my runner beans.
Don't foxes eat slugs and snails to?

[Linzy]

im biased i grew up on a poultry farm and ive seen what happens when a fox makes is way it to a chicken hut.

[Dorothy rouse]

We have foxes, up on our plots, and they are actually a bit spooky, they just walk along the path, stop and stare at you, bold and brazen, and they leave 'messes ' !

[AllInContainers]

Foxes are bad if you are trying to raise anything they eat, otherwise they are good

[Hans Mum]

We have foxes, up on our plots, and they are actually a bit spooky, they just walk along the path, stop and stare at you, bold and brazen, and they leave 'messes ' !

THey do that on our site too they are not scared at all.......another problem is they are full of mange which is not good for dogs (one of our members dogs caught it & was quite ill with it)
I lost all my chickens to a fox attack last summer which was awful wouldnt be so bad if they ate them but they left most of them behind. I know its nature but still not nice.

[Verinda]

Our country foxes are so timid and secretive we hardly ever see one, I know they are there and we hear them screaming at mating time. I'd be so upset if my hens were killed, but then they are free range and it's one of the worries I have to live with.

[cheops]

I think there is not a more beautiful wild animal in the UK.. but I believe that is only so when they are healthy and in their natural habitat. Their natural habitat is in the countryside NOT in urban areas. When they are in the countryside they will eat and even decimate chickens etcetera but the fox cannot be blamed. And I agree with Bill HH, that fox hunting is more than barbaric.
However in urban areas I would vote for a 100% cull tomorrow given the chance. The reasons are ---they are not healthy - they are often unhealthy and ravaged with mange and 'bald' with such in many areas. That cannot be very pleasant for the fox to say the least. Secondly how many have you seen dying or dead on the roadside? The RSPCA reckon 50% of urban foxes are killed on our roads. That statistic itself is deeply depressing but consider how many of those 50% were not killed instantly. How many were suffering on the road with horrific injuries and maybe run over again and again till death offered relief.

[Madasafish]

We have had a den of foxes in the field behind us, living in holes on a small bank under the roots of a very large tree. They have been there for at least 40 years. In recent years their numbers have expanded and though wild, we do see them occasionally..

They eat anything they can eat in our garden including strawberries (which they appear to love) and I have stopped growing them ( strawberries - not foxes) as a result.

They also use parts of our garden as a toilet.

To my knowledge, they have also killed and eaten at least two cats... missing at night.

My next door neighbour traps and shoots them but they are clever and he has only caught two in four years...

The ones I have seen looked sleek and healthy - including the cubs peeping out of the holes two summers ago. (but we are on the edge of fields and woods so semi urban)

[mothhawk]

I don't think it is a case of being good or bad they are just doing what comes naturally.

I agree, Veggielot. They have an ecological niche that is slowly being eroded as we build on more and more greenfield sites. I remember when the Co-operative Society banned hunting on their land, (our fields at the time were pretty much surrounded by Co-op dairy farms), and started shooting them instead. The local fox population was wiped out and the rabbit population exploded.

The rabbits undermined and eventually killed loads of hedgerows with their burrowing, and the edges of cropped fields of wheat/barley etc were eaten down to the ground every year. Eventually men with ferrets were called in, but barely made a dent in the rabbit numbers.

I was so pleased when the Co-op banned hunting, but devastated that they still destroyed the foxes anyway.

[Stu8706]

Thanks for all the input. I like the idea of wild life being around my plot. I like the idea of foxes eating slugs and bugs, so so much the strawberries!!! I have seen some foxes in town with no hair they look really sad 😥

I saw 2 rats while I was down the allotment today running along my fence. Hopefully the rats will become foxes dinner.




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[Scarlet]

Our country foxes are so timid and secretive we hardly ever see one, I know they are there and we hear them screaming at mating time. I'd be so upset if my hens were killed, but then they are free range and it's one of the worries I have to live with.

You can fence them behind an electric fence. Come Spring when the fox have young to feed a chicken not penned in will likely end up as food. Its not a pretty sight.

[Bill HH]

When we had over Two hundred pens with runs I could see fox tracks in the snow and they visited every pen every night just in case we forgot to close a pop hole. I did miss one once and they killed 26 hens out of 100. We found bodies buried all over the place, under stones, under planks etc, presumably to come back for later. If that happens the only person to blame is yourself, foxes were there long before we ever were.