Red Fox Partially Beating Electrified Poultry Netting

[centrarchid]

This something that has come to be in the last couple of nights. I will be sharing observations as I look for weakness so it can be fixed. Dog assist partially down as dogs are exhuasted with one down right sore. Even rabbits running about not getting dogs excited. Fox does but as usual.


Account with pictures will be interesting.

 

[beetandsteet]

How many volts does your elec fence have in it? Is it on a battery or plug in? I had a skunk get into my netting, called the company and they had never heard anything like that happening. Will be interesting to see what you find out, I'll be following this thread.

 

[centrarchid]

Zero and it was partially laid over. An idiot (me) was plugging on wrong cord.

 

[centrarchid]

This is were Red Fox gained access from south. Fox has been coming lately in every night working fen for voles, Meadow Voles mostly I think. Dogs have been running it off but being a typical Red Fox it comes back relatively quickly especially when winds out of the north and northwest. Fox had a two night window to get into fence when either fence was down (first night) or charger off (second night).

Fox did not appear to mess around poultry netting also bordered by standard hotwire which borders about half the core area.

Evening before rooster got into a fight and was so tired he could not fly up to his roost so I penned him up in pen shown below. He failed to get onto even that roost. Fox came in and grabbed rooster multiple times before killing it. Rooster would break free and to far side pen only be grabbed again. This reason I normally have adjacent pens in close contact although pens in end are still relatively vulnerable. This was an end pen and separated from adjacent by about 1 foot. Kill site was corner closest to camera. Dogs interrupted fox first night running it off leaving rooster pulled up in corner. Carcass was left in that location and position for return of fox the following evening.

Second night dogs were kept in house and I checked location every hour. This interval I left fence off (not intentionally). Fox made second attempt on carcass after 3:00 PM. Dogs made a ruckus so I released them and they went straight pen area. Based on activity of dogs fox spent a lot of time walking inside southeast corner before abandoning carcass. Fox had to dig hole and pull pen a good 16" to get so carcass could be pulled under side of pen. Additional feathers were removed during the process. I think the fox succeeded in removing carcass from pen through trial and error.

This is headless carcass after fox extracted it from pen. Nothing additional was consumed relative to night of kill. No critters have come in after two days and a night with both charger on and fence put back up properly. Fox did come in from south but dogs went after it preventing an additional visit to pen area.

Dogs are relatively exhausted from working almost around the clock so they are slow to go after fox. They show zero interest in rabbits that are making bunnies everywhere.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

How many volts does your elec fence have in it? Is it on a battery or plug in? I had a skunk get into my netting, called the company and they had never heard anything like that happening. Will be interesting to see what you find out, I'll be following this thread.

Voltage is an operational input consideration. The most common voltage is 12V (DC) and 120V (AC)
The terms 110volt, 120volt, and 130volt are three different ways to describe one voltage.

Electric fence out put is stated in Joules. A 3/4 Joules or .75 Joules (or jolts) charger will do some jobs but a 10 Joules charger will work for up to 10 miles of fencing (high tension wire) but 10 Joules is best suited for only about 3 miles of high tension wire. The more Joules you employ the easier it is to maintain the fence because it will slowly burn through weeds and grass. It could be helpful to know where you live or how much snow you expect, and what varmint you wish to discourage.

Ground the charger very well and if you are in an arid location 12 or more feet of electric grounding rod is not over kill. Read up on installing a lighting arrester so that you don't have to replace your charger every time it rains.

 

[centrarchid]

Fox did not give as of last night. Sometime during night fox tried to dig under hot fence. Fence moved a little by me for servicing against wind. Last night dogs got into coyote once but other disturbance as well. I think fox was one of them.

It moved a lot of soil. Digging was directly down wind of carcass.

 

[Whittni]

That fox seems relentless! Time to double up on the fencing around the coop, runs, and pen directly. I suggest adding fencing under the run as well, with dirt on top.

 

[centrarchid]

It is not getting anything and went for almost a week between visits. Even if it gets into perimeter, birds in pens are not vulnerable like rooster that was lost. Dogs are also onto fox. The Red Fox propensity to try and hunt under dogs' nose is very risky. Dogs (although not current male) have killed two foxes doing pretty much what this one is doing. Male dog just needs to not bark when trying to catch fox from behind. Once dog gets a hold of fox, especially if it is my female then this fox will be finished.

 

[centrarchid]

Immediately after posting above I went out with spotlight and shined a Red Fox at northeast corner of poultry yard. It then proceeded to run west along north border then turned southwest to exit property (based on Lucy about 5 minutes later). Ben was in front yard when I saw fox but was not aware of its presence. Ben would have been alerted when chickens produce alarm calls and he calls Lucy into action.

Ben is still in training as not even a year old yet so I took both dogs down to track left by fox. Lucy figured out what was up almost as quickly as we left house. Lucy lined out trail scenting marking and gave silent chase. Lucy is currently lame running with a front foot off the ground. Ben held back and watched which is OK as it can make to he can see what is flushed out ahead of Lucy and close distance faster by sight. Lucy crossed multiple rabbits (likely targets of fox rather than chickens) and stayed to true to fox trail. Odds are fox will be back tonight. Rabbit are simply too abundant to pass up. It is nothing to see four within beam of spotlight.

 

[aart]

Fox did not give as of last night. Sometime during night fox tried to dig under hot fence. Fence moved a little by me for servicing against wind. Last night dogs got into coyote once but other disturbance as well. I think fox was one of them.

It moved a lot of soil. Digging was directly down wind of carcass.

So did it get zapped and give up?