Foxing

[Nickb]

More like 13½kg!!

Nah....just over 2 stone

 

[Smellydog]

210,000 grains give or take....

 

[Pelyma]

Believe me im no badger hugger / fan - but respectfully i think we have learnt more in the past 5 years with the advent and then seemingly constant improvement in thermal than the last 500 years
I have asked on several threads for any videos of badgers actively hunting - so far however none - with them being so far numerous i did expect to see a few clips tbh

2 minutes on Google showed this Badger killing lamb.

 

[Mike1979]

Ultimately badgers are designed as powerful killing machines, but the major difference to foxes is that its generally illegal to kill them, along with cats. I have seen the damage both will do but there is very little we can do about it so saying one is worse then the other is largely irrelevant. As I mentioned its legal to kill foxes and foxes can do a huge amount of damage...Ive had a number of lamb killers over the years and 1,000s of chicken losses. One very clever fox must have killed 400+ before I finally caught up with him. I reckon I was out for 40 hours over 2 weeks before I got a shot.

I appreciate that automatic pop holes and fencing which isnt great doesnt help as it allow the fox in (excluding any birds outside the fence) but that is not how the farmer sees it. Where I have issues with foxes I take the approach that prevention is better then cure.

Each to their own but fox control is beneficial for wildlife either directly or indirectly.

 

[Malxwal]

I shoot over a small sheep farm. This is the first year the farmer has had a lamb killer in many years, so it's gone. He isn't a large scale farmer, and has the luxury of keeping all lambs indoors until they're in good stead, and always reckoned if a fox got one of his lambs, it was because that lamb had a wrongness. He's had far more bother with badgers, often where ewes or lambs have gotten stuck /immobile.
Next door which I also shoot over is a livery. They're absolutely against shooting foxes, as they keep rabbits down.
Adjacent cottage, losing chickens. Feral cat witnessed doing it.
First farmer likes feral cats about, keeps the rats under control.

 

[Mike1979]

I shoot over a small sheep farm. This is the first year the farmer has had a lamb killer in many years, so it's gone. He isn't a large scale farmer, and has the luxury of keeping all lambs indoors until they're in good stead, and always reckoned if a fox got one of his lambs, it was because that lamb had a wrongness. He's had far more bother with badgers, often where ewes or lambs have gotten stuck /immobile.
Next door which I also shoot over is a livery. They're absolutely against shooting foxes, as they keep rabbits down.
Adjacent cottage, losing chickens. Feral cat witnessed doing it.
First farmer likes feral cats about, keeps the rats under control.

There are lots of different circumstances with lamb killers but generally I find its the later lambers who lamb out where the losses occur. I saw one fox waiting for the ewe to lamb and as soon as the lamb dropped the fox was straight in and had the lamb away. The last one I shot had taken around 8 lambs, all during the night and all multiples where the ewe had given birth that night. It did take 1 of a triplet after 3 days but that was the smallest of the lambs.

It helps when the farmers know exactly what the scanning results are and keep an eye on what's happening.

 

[finnbear270]

More like 13½kg!!

This

 

[Cyres]

In autumn more like 15 to 20 kg!
D

 

[Bo Diddley]

I shoot over a small sheep farm. This is the first year the farmer has had a lamb killer in many years, so it's gone. He isn't a large scale farmer, and has the luxury of keeping all lambs indoors until they're in good stead, and always reckoned if a fox got one of his lambs, it was because that lamb had a wrongness. He's had far more bother with badgers, often where ewes or lambs have gotten stuck /immobile.
Next door which I also shoot over is a livery. They're absolutely against shooting foxes, as they keep rabbits down.
Adjacent cottage, losing chickens. Feral cat witnessed doing it.
First farmer likes feral cats about, keeps the rats under control.

I see what you did there.

 

[Malxwal]

There are lots of different circumstances with lamb killers but generally I find its the later lambers who lamb out where the losses occur. I saw one fox waiting for the ewe to lamb and as soon as the lamb dropped the fox was straight in and had the lamb away. The last one I shot had taken around 8 lambs, all during the night and all multiples where the ewe had given birth that night. It did take 1 of a triplet after 3 days but that was the smallest of the lambs.

It helps when the farmers know exactly what the scanning results are and keep an eye on what's happening.

My first farmer has witnessed that, but it was a badger in waiting...

 

[Mike1979]

My first farmer has witnessed that, but it was a badger in waiting...

Its the only time I have seen the actual incident ...fox lasted about 20 seconds. Within 30 seconds of shooting her a second came straight over so looked like it was a pair of vixens working together...but didnt wait to fins out and dropped the second as well. I try and avoid watching what the badgers are up to as I cant do anything about them

 

[Malxwal]

Its the only time I have seen the actual incident ...fox lasted about 20 seconds. Within 30 seconds of shooting her a second came straight over so looked like it was a pair of vixens working together...but didnt wait to fins out and dropped the second as well. I try and avoid watching what the badgers are up to as I cant do anything about them

My farmer got to work with a spade

 

[Goingback]

Believe me im no badger hugger / fan - but respectfully i think we have learnt more in the past 5 years with the advent and then seemingly constant improvement in thermal than the last 500 years
I have asked on several threads for any videos of badgers actively hunting - so far however none - with them being so far numerous i did expect to see a few clips tbh

I have seen badgers on a regular basis hunt. chasing leverets, duck and quatering for fawns. Video's I have none

 

[Nickb]

Had a badger run past me one night with a rabbit in its mouth , don't know if it found it or killed it though ?

 

[jb1]

I dont shoot fox's this time of the year, my opinion is if you are asked to control Fox's for whatever reason the time to do the job is before breeding season. Do a good enough job and the numbers will be low enough to have minimal impact on shoots or lambing time. If a Fox becomes a problem this time of the year then i agree sort out the problem Fox, and then of course there is the problem of dependant cubs that have been left.

 

[Smellydog]

I think a lot of folk don't realise how independent cubs soon are. While they are dependent the vixen doesn't leave them.
They, the cubs will survive eating **** if they have to.
Stop basing decisions on Walt Disney.

 

[Bo Diddley]

I think a lot of folk don't realise how independent cubs soon are. While they are dependent the vixen doesn't leave them.
They, the cubs will survive eating **** if they have to.
Stop basing decisions on Walt Disney.

Correct.
A bit of a mix-up between my brother and me one spring. He waited over the earth and shot the vixen (I had shot the dog two nights before) I thought he was going to clear the youngsters up the following night, and he thought I was going to do it, the long & short is they ended up wandering around in the oilseed rape field next to the spinney the earth was in for weeks until it was cut, they were skinny buggers when I caught up with them, and a little smaller maybe, but they had certainly survived ok, The couple we watched outside the earth were small cat size when he shot the vixen.

 

[Smellydog]

Correct.
A bit of a mix-up between my brother and me one spring. He waited over the earth and shot the vixen (I had shot the dog two nights before) I thought he was going to clear the youngsters up the following night, and he thought I was going to do it, the long & short is they ended up wandering around in the oilseed rape field next to the spinney the earth was in for weeks until it was cut, they were skinny buggers when I caught up with them, and a little smaller maybe, but they had certainly survived ok, The couple we watched outside the earth were small cat size when he shot the vixen.

A few summers back I got a tip off about cubs in a field.
When I got there there was two litters. One half the size of the others . No adults seen. They all were catching beetles.
They were all in perfect health.
No adults were ever seen or accounted for. I think someone else had fixed them and the cubs got together to fend for themselves and they were doing fine.

 

[BenBhoy]

I dont shoot fox's this time of the year, my opinion is if you are asked to control Fox's for whatever reason the time to do the job is before breeding season. Do a good enough job and the numbers will be low enough to have minimal impact on shoots or lambing time. If a Fox becomes a problem this time of the year then i agree sort out the problem Fox, and then of course there is the problem of dependant cubs that have been left.

But nature hates a vacuum, and you won't be fox free for long after winter breeding is finished. So you're laying off them just when ground nesting birds are at their most vulnerable??

 

[Tim.243]

I dont shoot fox's this time of the year, my opinion is if you are asked to control Fox's for whatever reason the time to do the job is before breeding season. Do a good enough job and the numbers will be low enough to have minimal impact on shoots or lambing time. If a Fox becomes a problem this time of the year then i agree sort out the problem Fox, and then of course there is the problem of dependant cubs that have been left.