Daughter feed the chicken the other night and came and said we only had 4!!! so something has had 5 hens, our little silver sebright cockerel and 7 two month old chicks GRRRRRR I think they might of gone in my barley field and got lost as its been really foggy (im in Spain by the way) and wet (yes I know you all have the sun) found a couple of piles of feathers near their house, so I think its a fox, poor things must of got shut out after the automatic door closed,

Luckily I have 4 chicks in the brooder and I put 12 eggs we have in the incubator, so fingers crossed, also found a lovley english chap here with bantams and went and bought 5 lovely hens and a young cockeral off him,

COming over to the UK next month soI think I will get some hatching eggs and bring them back with me

RIP my chooks and chicky the sebright (who we hatched 4 years ago)

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i had a Game cock bird when i was a lad and even our dogs was scared of himD i couldent see anything taking him in the night!

What a shame - so sorry to hear that - Seabrights are lovely too - my aunt had one of hers taken by the dog and the other has paired off with a Partridge they rescued.

Emily

I have just rehomed 6 ex-batts( in back garden) but am terrified that they will get a visit from foxes. does anyone have any advice or tips on how to deter them?:

realistically, foxy is going to eat all the ex-battery hens, unless you put them in a secure cage. Foxes will get through chicken wire, so you need to use heavy duty steel. or you could put an electric fence around the bottom of the chuck cage. Odds are still on the fox though

with a Partridge they rescued

Emstarz, what was the partridge rescued from? A nice life in the country side?

Sounds like a fox. Thats the trouble now they have banned hunting, where i am we are over run with them, plus all the manky urban foxes that the RSPCA keep dumping into the countryside.
Our neighbour who is a gamekeeper said that he can always tell an urban fox which has been released as they stand with a vacant look on their faces wondering where they can find a restraunt with a food skip outside....
He says that he almost feels guilty as he drops them with his rifle.

I have had some trouble lately with herons landing in my pond and stealing my fish.
I think they are a fantastic bird, but i cannot afford to let this happen all the while.
It reminds me of when i was on holiday in Kenya near a little lake called Lake Olsheeyte. There were loads of big birds wading and looking for fish there all the while.
Every morning i was woken by a big stork. It was looking for the silver fish in the lake. It was a fantastic sight to see and very impressive too !
Every morning i would walk down to the edge of the lake and look at my stork.
Happy times.

The heron looks similar, but it is eating MY fish and i nee to stop it.
Any ideas ?