Hey guys! Sorry I have not been active here in a while. I've been pulled in a few too many directions lately!
Anyway, I have a question. I have a doe due the first week of May, and I will be separating her from her kids at night to milk in the morning after the kids are old enough. I'm worried about foxes, though. We've been battling a fox with our chickens since last year. Even putting up new fencing hasn't helped; he temporarily seemed gone, but recently he figured out how to sneak around the back where the fence doesn't completely connect and has taken two more victims. We have two LGDs, but they are in their own fences (one with the bucks and the other with the does). The kids will not be in a pen with an LGD, but will be next door.
Should I be worried about the fox getting after the babies? Of course they're going to cry at night as well, alerting every predator within hearing distance, but my concern is mainly the fox because he has gotten so bold. I've never seen or heard the coyotes come near where our LGDs are, but the fox walks right past both LGDs, past the barn, and into our backyard to get the chickens.
I can partition the doe barn into two halves and leave the kids in the front, which would be completely enclosed. I just don't like to do that because then the does will be a little crowded in their half at night and will also be without hay (their manger is in the front half). However, my LGD knows how to climb that gate and I know if a fox somehow got in he would be over the gate immediately.
What do you guys think? Is a fox a threat to a Nigerian kid?
Replies
Lol, love the "hateful old woman" analogy. We have one like that too! :)
It's going to be a long month waiting for these babies!
Rachel, I totally vote for the dog crate. When Ginger was born two years ago, I didn't want to do it but I really had no option for separating them. What I did was put it in the pen with the door open for a couple of days before I used it. Curious as goats are, they were all going in and out it. Treats at the back of it helped that happen. When it was time for her to go in at night, she got treats (at the back of course) so when she saw me coming, she headed into the crate.
Thanks for the replies, everyone!
I think I will take the advice of finding a way (maybe a large dog crate, or maybe a partition) of leaving the babies with their mom overnight while still preventing them from taking all the milk. :) I have no doubts that Brownie could take on a fox easily. She's the Queen Bee around here. My mom likes to say that she "looks like a hateful old woman." But we love her anyway. :)
I wish we could trap him, but we have several cats and I'm afraid they'd end up being what we caught rather than a fox. I'm really glad we don't have cougars around here (or at least not an established population - there have been reported sightings). We do have bobcats in the area, but I've never seen one near our property. But with our Great Pyrenees dogs I hardly ever worry about predators with the goats anymore.
We have small foxes in abundance here on our property in Oregon and have had little trouble with them. Once years ago lost a sitting duck to a fox -my hubby live- trapped her and realized she was feeding babies and released her. Our goats would probably attack if a fox came into the barn -our cat got it the other day for going near her babies.
I think I would try live trapping your problem fox and moving it for the safety of your chickens. I think the foxes here don't realize the chickens are a food source because I have seen a fox mousing and chickens near by. We have been lucky so far it seems. I think these W. Or foxes are pretty too compared to some.
As I am writing this I remember a crazy incident years back around the time of the duck getting it. I looked out the window and saw a fox grabbing a hen - I ran after it with my dish towel and yelling at it -and my husband jumped on a bike and chased it. Actually we scared the fox so bad it ran into the fence -bounced off and we never had another attack. The hen survived. Maybe that fox warned the rest about the crazy people!!
I close the new little ones up with the moms for a few days and keep them all inside at night. Cougars are my biggest concern -and bob cats. I never leave little ones outside at night because owls could be a danger too I think.
Rachel,
If the foxes in your area are anything like the ones we have here (in Australia), they can certainly carry off a new kid. Before we fox-proofed our chook pen, we lost a big, heavy hen to the fox and saw it hop the fence with the dead chook in its mouth! That fox was only the size of a smaller dog, but sure could carry that chicken with ease. Fortunately, foxes and wild dog packs are our "only" worry here; no big cats and no coyotes or wolves....
We made the coop fox proof with cattle panels all round, corrugated roof, and dug in chicken mesh 3 feet out from the bottom of the cattle panels. That's where they get locked in for the night. Haven't lost a chook since....
Michael
We have foxes in this area, and as small as my Nigie babies are, I would say absolutely a threat. They scare me, as we don't have LGDs yet. I hope next spring we will have and won't have to be so vigilant. We lost 2/3 of our chicken flock over a couple of nights to a fox, and our roosters were way better fighters than my baby goats. :(
Do you think it'd be best to keep them closer to the LGD and sacrifice the space for the does?
It's times like these I wish I had endless money. Then I could just build a fence around our entire property and never have to worry about this stupid fox again!
I would think they could be... but I don't know from personal experience.