Thread: Fox problem

Local council ask them to lay 1080 but be aware this will kill everything that comes into contact with it and anything that eats the contaminated animal.

Certainly we have a larger than usual number of rabbits this year. Been working on those but of course they also are abundant on surrounding properties. The foxes turds are all full of christmas beetles and crickets so it appears they are on the famine food at present; I'm going to try trapping them whilst this is the case- the blackberries will be ripe soon so they will be spreading those seeds everywhere. Simple baiting with 1080 is problematic as we and several of the neighbours have dogs that we do not want to poison- foxes are known to dig up baits and cache them for later, so the baits can end up where you don't want them.
The local council are not interested in assisting with pest management- heck they can't even fix a hole in the road.

It occurred to me the other day that we are the only ones in our immediate vicinity for whom marauding foxes are an actual problem- there are no sheep in the area and we seem to be the only ones with poultry, so for everyone else in the area it is a 'so what?' issue. Thus it comes down to how much money I'm prepared to spend to enable my chooks to free-range.
I've been flat out with a daughter's renovation so have not yet approached the property owner behind us. When I get a chance I'll go and have a chat about maybe getting some shooters to visit.

Originally Posted by POD

Certainly we have a larger than usual number of rabbits this year. Been working on those but of course they also are abundant on surrounding properties. The foxes turds are all full of christmas beetles and crickets so it appears they are on the famine food at present; I'm going to try trapping them whilst this is the case- the blackberries will be ripe soon so they will be spreading those seeds everywhere. Simple baiting with 1080 is problematic as we and several of the neighbours have dogs that we do not want to poison- foxes are known to dig up baits and cache them for later, so the baits can end up where you don't want them.
The local council are not interested in assisting with pest management- heck they can't even fix a hole in the road.

It occurred to me the other day that we are the only ones in our immediate vicinity for whom marauding foxes are an actual problem- there are no sheep in the area and we seem to be the only ones with poultry, so for everyone else in the area it is a 'so what?' issue. Thus it comes down to how much money I'm prepared to spend to enable my chooks to free-range.
I've been flat out with a daughter's renovation so have not yet approached the property owner behind us. When I get a chance I'll go and have a chat about maybe getting some shooters to visit.

My son lives not far from you. I reckon he'd jump at the chance to let off a few if the occasion arises.

Otherwise, if it is, as it seems, left up to you then it would seem that fencing may be the only option. And, oh yeah, 1080 requires a permit, and good luck getting that in an area that has, as you say, domestic pets. Well, BawBaw might be easier than YarraRanges, but I reckon you'd spend ages trapped in red tape. All aside from your own concerns regarding these pets.

Whoever introduced foxes, not to mention rabbits, was an idiot, but the things are now here to stay. We have them here, but then we aren't allowed to keep more than a few chooks, so I guess they prey on natives. Wish the bloody things could climb trees and reduce the number of possums... .

Makes me laugh, when every morning I can see numbers of fallow deer on my 1/3 acre block. Speaking of introduced.

I'm in the very inner suburbs of Melbourne and I have free-ranging chooks. I was very aware that there are a heap of foxes in the inner City as I used to see them in Princes Park when I was running laps at night, wandering through the Uni and I've actually seen them trotting down my street in the late evening, coming up from Merri Creek. I have no doubt that they've been in my backyard as something knocked the lid off the pedal chook bin one night and ate the grain. However they don't appear to be around during the day or early evening, as they'd have to go through an off-leash dog park to get to our place, and with an auto-close door on the chook shed the chooks are safely tucked up in a fox proof shelter at sunset. Nonetheless I did lose one chook a couple of months ago that had its leg degloved and had to be euthanised (vet suggested it was a predator attack, which it must've just escaped) and another was recently injured (wing and leg) when we had them in a smaller shelter for a week. If I was on our farm I'd be out with a spotlight and gun but frustratingly that's not possible here, which leaves the local council and they don't engage in fox control at all.

Originally Posted by Arapiles

I'm in the very inner suburbs of Melbourne and I have free-ranging chooks. I was very aware that there are a heap of foxes in the inner City as I used to see them in Princes Park when I was running laps at night, wandering through the Uni and I've actually seen them trotting down my street in the late evening, coming up from Merri Creek. I have no doubt that they've been in my backyard as something knocked the lid off the pedal chook bin one night and ate the grain. However they don't appear to be around during the day or early evening, as they'd have to go through an off-leash dog park to get to our place, and with an auto-close door on the chook shed the chooks are safely tucked up in a fox proof shelter at sunset. Nonetheless I did lose one chook a couple of months ago that had its leg degloved and had to be euthanised (vet suggested it was a predator attack, which it must've just escaped) and another was recently injured (wing and leg) when we had them in a smaller shelter for a week. If I was on our farm I'd be out with a spotlight and gun but frustratingly that's not possible here, which leaves the local council and they don't engage in fox control at all.

The auto close on the sons chook pen didn't work for a few days,and he had a fox kill 8 chickens,leave 5 with wounds and had to be euthanised,and run off with nothing.This happened just on dawn.
All caught on his security camera.He lives in the western Brisbane suburbs.
The council then set traps and caught 5 foxes.
He also has huge carpet snakes,they have never actually eaten a chicken,but have eaten the eggs.
Oh,and deer,they are another story.

On the property,when lambing,we had to poison the foxes,which also killed the wild cats.
Horrid stuff,but that was the only way to keep them fully under control,or we would lose quite a number of them,even in the paddock next to the house.
Once under control,losing a lamb to a fox or cat was very rare.
We used to shoot them as well,but that didn't put much of a dent in their numbers.

Melbourne is notoriously riddled with foxes. There was a study done years ago that found that, anywhere in Melbourne, you are never more than a few hundred meters from a fox. City foxes are mainly scavengers.
We have had a dozen chooks killed by foxes on two occasions, one when I had been working on a fence and had forgotten to turn the electric fence unit back on- I have a wire around the chook yard at ankle height and another at chest height. Fox got in through a defect in the fence, killed all the hens and tried to drag the rooster out through the hole, we had a yard full of dead chooks and a dead rooster jammed in the fence. Another occasion was Christmas day, we were invited out to dinner after already letting the chooks out, went up to shut the yard when we got home and all the chooks were dead. This is in addition to the normal attrition of opportunistic attacks during the day when they are free-ranging. Never had as many foxes around as this year though.

Counted over 100++ rabbits in tiny park the middle of a little country town at my mums place. Several foxes and seen while out running there as well. Your correct about even more in the city. Out this morning in the eastern suburbs I counted almost as many.

I chuckled about your comment about the council being unable to fix a pot hole. I need a big sticker. I am not drunk just avoiding the Victorian pot holes

Suspect most of the holes I tried to miss are on roads Vic Roads has neglected for almost a decade now not the local gov types. Can I send Vic roads the bill for my recent wheel alignment?

Back to council and Rabbits. The rabbits are on council property and breeding up like. The exasperated person in the council I spoke with mentioned the sand dune damage and many meetings over the issue. That was months ago and I estimated 10 times the number of rabbits now .

For real cool trivia in rabbits 'Eating the invaders' is well worth watching on the a

Eat The Invaders: Series 1 Episode 1 Rabbit : ABC iview
The cane toad and Mud Marlin are cool time wasters if you have some spare. I put it on episode One for a 80+ PNG nun yesterday. She got all the way to the toads while I was filling up the rabbit holes in the front lawn

Foxes like pigeons have moved their habitat from the country to the city. Pigeons used to live on cliffs what did man build

In the UK they say the majority of the fox population lives in the city not the countryside. Is all about availability of food and habitat. Much easier to live and scavenge in the city than hunt in the countryside