You have good numbers.
Also a lot more patience.
Why shoot the foxes?
- Thread starter AlexD
- Start date
Also a lot more patience.
That is serious and professional pigeon control Tim.
I am an amateur on the pigeons. Three or four, they fly off, some return, 3 more, at most a dozen in an hour or two, even with the benefit of covering a wide area of field.
Mate thats what pest control is
We have had well over 1300 crows in the last 12 months
I have had 500 rats
200 foxes
200 squirrels
Hundreds upon hundreds of pigeon
scores of magpies
Hundreds of jackdaws
Nickb
Well-Known Member
Sonicdmb73
Well-Known Member
I'm well versed with his opinion, it is not one I share. I have lambed my fair share too, I have seen mortality caused by all sorts. I have used various methods to prevent them.
I don't care how well regarded in animal husbandry anyone is. Unless they are clairvoyant you're not telling me that the twin lambs taken while the mother birthed the second was going to die anyway.
Some foxes become very adept at taking lambs, others will pass through picking up nothing more than the afterbirth. Of those weak lambs that are allegedly the only ones taken how many could be saved if found the following morning and treated? You'll never know. But I do know that the more predators there are the more prey species are eaten as a result. They with target whatever easy food source till it runs out. Then they either move on or starve.
phillc
Well-Known Member
Obviously it’s a very different story in Australia where foxes a real problem for native wildlife. They should be shot on sight.
As far as I know, only the State of Victoria still pays a bounty for foxes - a miserly $10. Thirty or forty years ago, their skins alone were worth 2x or 3x that much.
This story I just saw cites the number of 170 million foxes in Australia.
www.theguardian.com
As far as I know, only the State of Victoria still pays a bounty for foxes - a miserly $10. Thirty or forty years ago, their skins alone were worth 2x or 3x that much.
This story I just saw cites the number of 170 million foxes in Australia.
Hungry foxes are having a ‘catastrophic’ impact on Australia’s juvenile freshwater turtles. There’s a push to change that
Turtle’s long lives may be masking extent of loss of young and eggs, experts say, with estimates that one species has declined in population by 90% or more
www.theguardian.com
In the absence of any other significant problems, it's almost invariably the 2nd one of twins that's taken, not the first, and it's dead before the fox takes it.
This is why:
While the ewe is birthing her 2nd lamb, the first is wandering off. As it gets further away (say, anything more than 5 yards) the ewe gets more anxious about it, with the result that, as soon as she's expelled the 2nd lamb she rushes after the first. By the time she returns to the 2nd lamb to lick it clean it has drowned in the fluids and membranes, and becomes fox bait.
Overlay
Well-Known Member
I’m not a shepherd I shoot foxes,prior to that proof buildings so as not allow access and where possible improve on the site overall firstly apply the the triangle - food, harbourage and water remove 2 of these most predators or pests will move on 2nd proofing and 3rd option removal that’s how I work in that order, given the losses excluding predators is very high for what ever reason my question was l there or should there be a process for keeping high loss animals inside 100% until they are past the danger time predator or at high risk due to other factors
It just seems a bit lopsided to keep chicken in a pen proofed against predators 100% but higher vslue lambs for instance who have high £ value and mortality rates for whatever reason are left in a field for whatever reason to fend for themselves
Absolutely No disrespect to farmers or shepherds that’s what they do and for many generations but I wonder if number production is pushing sensible breeding policies into the shadows or more yield = more losses
Everyone deserves to turn in a profit that’s what we here for in what ever you undertake but Vss’s report on losses was to me a shock for me losing lambs in numbers it would to me make me either move to another species animal or reduce numbers And secure indoor areas
I’ve no grinding axe, I’ve no sheep I shoot / trap foxes I’ve only ever kept 3 ewes with lambs never lost one, lost loads of chickens until I got proofing and removal onto the best level, I spent many years on the marsh looking after sheep and cattle years back but can’t recall any huge losses certainly not as been mentioned
In a box, shepherd or farm has a lamb problem, I visit, see what we can do on proofing etc then it’s removal time job done been doing that for donkeys years with the emphasis on assessment manage fox numbers prior to lambing time we have all winter Ito do it
As said previously - high losses does make you think and look outside the box to improve if you can
Overlay
Well-Known Member
Yep. They always find the last chink in the armour that’s for sure,
I saw one in the thermal on a 8” corner post all 4 feet on the top, it jumped straight on stood there for a minute surveying the area, then casually jumped into the range on my side it’s one mistake
Fence post 6’2” in height, it didn’t blink an eye at it
Rhodesianjess
Well-Known Member
I shot one on the outskirts of the village for one of my beaters,it had been in after his chickens the night previous. It was walking along the top of a wood weave panel in his fence, just like a cat does.
Only 2 inches thick batten on the top of the panel, you expect a cat with extractable sharp claws to be able to do it, not a fox with blunt ones. Last time he did it though, trouble stopped after that.
Sounds like you shoot wood pigeons like other people shoot foxes.
BenBhoy
Well-Known Member
Agreed. Ewe has already established the bond with first. As she realises it's no longer right next to her, soon as she can she wants to get back after it even if that means abandoning the newly born one she hasn't bonded with yet. Obviously doesn't happen every time, not even most of the time thankfully, especially with proper maternal ewes. But that's a another mortality risk (abandonment) higher on list than fox KILLS.
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
Can a decent shepherd save the abandoned one if found in time if he or she gets there before Charlie Ben?
it's not always foxes! A couple of years ago my farmer friend and I were having a drink and we heard a commotion in his large chicken run. We got the thermal and looked out the window. there were two badgers in the run. We nipped outside thinking they must have got through the wire netting. As we approached they saw us and left by the same way they got in, up and over the six-foot-high wire netting. Their weight had made the netting sag a bit, but if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it possible.
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
Aye, many don't think a badger is agile, I once watched one clime a damson tree for the fruit.
Ive seen them run as fast as any greyhound too.
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