We have a fox family in our garden

[ForCluckSake]

We've got chickens so we quite often get a visit from the fox. The chickens are in a super secure fox proof location so am not worried about them. I have started leaving a few extra eggs on the lawn and tonight instead of 1 fox there was 3

*when foxes are discussed

@WheelieBinPrincess
I know
So utterly predictable 😴😴ZZZZ

@WheelieBinPrincess

This always happens Wetherby foxes are discussed! I don’t care and will continue to stick up for them. People that hate them are usually fucking clueless about their behaviour as usual.

Like wildlife has no business being, well, in the wild!

Yes how dare they encroach in the spaces humans have built all over and try to scratch a living eating the rubbish we leave out and feeding off the rats in unsanitary urban areas…they’re actually very good at living suburban/urban areas and have been doing it for years and years. They even self-regulate their own population!

And they’re actually quite lazy predators. Very very unlikely to go after a pet that’s housed properly or a cat that would probably fight back. Not common behaviour for them at all.

@LST
The Dorchester Bypass runs through farmland/ countryside you should see the carnage foxes, badgers, deer it’s horrible (And this would apply to any road running through countryside in the UK)
So they aren’t even safe in their natural environment
84% of foxes never make it past two years old,so they aren’t exactly thriving

[quote BeaucoupFish]@LST
The Dorchester Bypass runs through farmland/ countryside you should see the carnage foxes, badgers, deer it’s horrible (And this would apply to any road running through countryside in the UK)
So they aren’t even safe in their natural environment
84% of foxes never make it past two years old,so they aren’t exactly thriving[/quote]
It's so sad. We used to have a badger set behind our house and we used to feed those and the foxes every night when we were little. They've built where is was now so my parents haven't seen them for years.

We have a fox who visits every night and we feed her. She is super polite and respectful, unlike the squirrels who bite off tree branches to get at the fruit (which they then don’t eat cos they are underripe) so we are left with none.

I have a family of foxes in my urban garden. Mum, Dad and four cubs of about 7 months old. Mum sleeps on the back lawn alone most days. She is quite happy for me to be close to her when gardening, sitting or hanging out the washing. Dad waits near the front door every evening for me to provide food ( I cook chicken for them). Dad takes the food back to the cubs who are a little further away. Sometimes the cubs arrive for food.
As a keen amateur photographer I relish the opportunity to be so close to them.

@ProperVexed they are very beautiful- gorgeous pictures.

I have conflicted feelings on foxes. I worked at a kids petting farm and a fox managed to dig under the fence, get into one of their enclosures, and just ripped every hen to bits. I would have understood killing 1 or 2 because it was hungry, but it just killed them because it could.

It is sad to hear that foxes can go from a 2 year life expectancy living wild to around 15 years in captivity. They have a lot of factors against them. They are bastards though.

And watch out for fox shit. Foxes shit a lot, so if your garden is a new favoured hangout you will encounter it, and it stinks.

@ProperVexed

I have a family of foxes in my urban garden. Mum, Dad and four cubs of about 7 months old. Mum sleeps on the back lawn alone most days. She is quite happy for me to be close to her when gardening, sitting or hanging out the washing. Dad waits near the front door every evening for me to provide food ( I cook chicken for them). Dad takes the food back to the cubs who are a little further away. Sometimes the cubs arrive for food. As a keen amateur photographer I relish the opportunity to be so close to them.

What absolutely stunning photos!

We had a family of foxes last year but unfortunately the vixen died as did the cubs (who were very young). Dad still wanders into the garden most days for his chicken and has recently started bringing a feral massive cat with him! I’m determined to get a photo of him with this random cat. All of our neighbours comment on them as they’re often seen strolling down the road late at night. Even the dogs in the street avoid this cat, it’s afraid of nothing 😂

unlike the squirrels who bite off tree branches to get at the fruit (which they then don’t eat cos they are underripe) so we are left with none

Yes, squirrels are little bastards too. I regularly pick up apples this time of year which have had just one tiny bite taken out of them. By the time they're ready to be picked the squirrels have ruined a good 75-80%.

Apparently sprinkling cayenne pepper on the branches is a good deterrent, I'm going to try that next year.

@Greystray

I have conflicted feelings on foxes. I worked at a kids petting farm and a fox managed to dig under the fence, get into one of their enclosures, and just ripped every hen to bits. I would have understood killing 1 or 2 because it was hungry, but it just killed them because it could.

It is sad to hear that foxes can go from a 2 year life expectancy living wild to around 15 years in captivity. They have a lot of factors against them. They are bastards though.

And watch out for fox shit. Foxes shit a lot, so if your garden is a new favoured hangout you will encounter it, and it stinks.

They kill them all and given the chance will go back and retrieve them all to bury for eating later. They do return journeys. They're normally disturbed before they're done.

@Greystray that must have been really traumatic- but it definitely didn’t kill all those hens ‘because it could’. Humans and humans only kill for kicks. What the fox would have done was kill them to plan on coming back and removing them all to cache or store somewhere and eat later- they have strong stomachs and will store food for ages. But obviously the carnage was then discovered before the fox could do all that.

OK, that makes sense.

@LST and what with the culls/‘drag’ hunts
Don’t get why people don’t respect animals it’s just beyond me

That’s heartbreaking, I like to pretend they have moved on but I’m just kidding myself really
Some of us used to feed four squirrels in the woodland part of the site where I work, they’d literally be waiting for us on lunch break, they are now building houses on this bit of land that I believe is called ‘brown’ site (bear in mind it was a munitions factory during the war) anyway trees felled access road put in and no more squirrels anymore 😥

@Greystray
I have to say the same about hedgehog poo - they eat a lot and poo a lot sometimes in my porch 🤮

@ProperVexed
They are lovely photographs

@LST
that wasn’t clear and I’m not doing a diagram 😃but the woodland ran adjacent the the brown site along the road….but pretty sure they’d build on the woodland if they could
Everywhere I go now there are new build estates popping up on what was farmland

@WheelieBinPrincess @LST @BeaucoupFish
Thank you...they are good subjects

Chickens tucked in and safely locked away eggs are out water out am going to sit in the garden and try get more photos.

@ForCluckSake
Bless you for caring and thank you
I’m just realising how dark it’s getting and need to get hedgehog buffet out soon don’t want to give them disappointed faces 🦔

Here is one of the babies a few weeks ago

Wrong way up Sorry