Hens & Foxes

Keeping hens on an allotment is easy, providing you can keep the foxes out. However if a fox does get in, it will kill in a frenzy, just for the hell of it, rarely seeming to take the carcasses away to feed its young.  And if the fox does leave any hens alive, it will return a night or two later to finish the job.

When I first started keeping hens 25 years ago, we lived in a small Norfolk village, and, in my innocence, I gave the hens minimal fencing, which simply surrounded the area under some apple trees. It was intended to keep the hens in rather than any foxes out. Any mildly energetic fox would have been able to dig under or climb over in seconds.

At first the hens roosted in the trees, which was probably out of harm’s way. But after a while they started flying over the fence and into the jaws of our large dog.  So we clipped their wings, which stopped them flying (I suppose they could have flown round in circles) but also stopped them roosting in the trees, and brought them back down to fox level.

Nevertheless, in 13 years in that rural village, we didn’t see a single fox.

In my first day at our urban allotment, however, I saw my first fox walking up the path between the plots in broad daylight, bold as brass. And in the early hours one summer's morning, I saw a couple of foxes mating in the road.

This just reinforces my sense that foxes are nowadays an urban rather than a rural problem.

Since starting up with poultry again at 4 years ago, we have been visited by a fox twice. The first time a couple of years ago, he dug and pushed through a corner where the netting was not secure. He killed 2½ hens out of 4. (The ½ was still alive but with her neck chewed through and head hanging off. So we dispatched her the next morning.) To make the run more secure I improved the depth of my fence down a full 18 inches, and then laid some old metal grids under the soil horizontally around the perimeter of the fence. And 2 days later I could see scrape marks where Mr Fox had tried to dig his way in again.

This arrangement kept my hens from the foxes for more than 2 years . But just 2 days ago, he got in again. And it was my own stupid fault. I had removed one of the grids when I dug the new asparagus bed next to the chicken run, and simply forgot to put it back. The fox had dug and pushed through again, same corner. It’s as if he has been patiently watching me for 2 years and waiting for me to make a slip. 

This time he killed 4½ from 6.  (One has lost some feathers, and is limping and seems so traumatized she is almost catatonic. I’ll pop down in a minute to see if she has survived the night.)

So, how to keep the fox from the hens?

The most secure way is to let them out yourself every morning and put them to bed every evening. Foxes generally (but not always) hunt at night, and by these means you are keeping the hens out of harm’s way when foxes are about.  Most of my neighbours do it this way but I don’t. My main reason is simply that I don’t want to have to go down at dawn and dusk every day. I justify myself by saying that the hens get more hours of daylight, and therefore stay in lay for longer, if they put themselves to bed. But really, I wouldn’t keep hens if I had to go there twice a day in addition to any visits to do other allotment work.

My method relies of secure fencing! I fence the entire area in, including ceiling, so that the hens live in a kind of chicken-wire room. Foxes can both climb and dig, so the hens have to be protected from above as well as below. The fencing needs to be dug in about 18 inches all round. In addition it’s best to lay some kind of barrier around the perimeter, either inside or out – paving slabs would be ideal. The hens let themselves out at dawn and put themselves to bed at night.  I just visit once a day to top up food and water, collect eggs, and throw them some grain or greens.

After the fox got in, we piled bricks, scrunched up chicken wire, and even an old garden fork, in the corner where he had got in. This is only temporary, until I have time to reinforce the fencing. And yesterday morning there was a large hole where he had tried to dig his way in again. He failed though, I suppose that as he dug under the bricks they would fall on his head!