Foxes & Fences
Protecting the Poultry Flock by
Katie Thear
The Fox - Greatest Predator Risk
The fox is undoubtedly predator number one when
it comes to free-range poultry, and the only safe option is to keep
flock and fox physically separated.
In the past, this was often difficult
because landowners who would not allow effective fences to be erected
in case they impeded the horses during a foxhunt owned much of
the land.
It was also an offence for many smallholders on rented land to
kill a fox because this was depriving the landowner of his sport,
and to do so carried the risk of eviction.
Writing in 1930, Sir Edward Brown refers to this attitude: "Most
powerful was the opposition of landowners and of larger farmers.
The former of these regarded food production as secondary to sport,
which to many of them was a leading object in life. They anathematised
smaller farms and holdings. To kill a fox was an unpardonable sin". (Ref:
British Poultry Husbandry. Sir Edward Brown. Chapman & Hall.
1930).
Under these conditions, the only option was to make sure that all
the birds were confined in a secure house at night and to utilise
hurricane paraffin lamps as a defence, a procedure that A. K. Speirs
Alexander mentions in 1948: "Our new batch
of growers could not be induced to come back at dusk; the result
over 50 killed, in spite of hurricane lanterns set about on poles." (Ref:
Hens on the Land. A. K. Speirs Alexander. Farmer & Stockbreeder.
1948).
In many areas, in living memory, it was the custom to "do
a deal" with the local poacher; that he would quietly capture
and kill the fox and receive some plump, oven-ready chickens in return
for his cooperation.
The Second World War and taxation loosened the stranglehold of
many big landowners on rural areas. Poultry keepers were able to
erect high fences around their properties, but it coincided with
the onset of "deep-litter" houses where flocks began
to be housed indoors, a move that ultimately resulted in intensive
battery and broiler houses.
It was not until the re-emergence of
commercial free-range poultry keeping in the 1980s, that the question
of anti-fox protection began to be seriously addressed again. Two
options have emerged as effective means of protection: tall fences
and electric fencing.
Protecting The Poultry Flock - by Katie Thear
See Also
Article Copyright © Katie Thear 2006
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