----- Original Message ----- From: Allan Balliett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 12:14 AM Subject: Re: ashing
> Incidentally, if you don't have a plague of foxes then you probably > don't know that they get into your raised beds and dig GREAT BIG > HOLES (looking for something they think is in there to eat, I assume) > If you plant small patches for diveristy, they can destroy an entire > crop overnight. They also trample things (again, looking for prey) > and, as inexpicable as it is, dig tunnels into the little mountain of > rock dust we have here. (American wire fence going up around the > garden before this coming growing season) -Allan > > PS Yes, and they've eaten almost a hundred chickens this year....but > if they catch that damned weasel, they might be worth having around! Allan. Foxes You may get some short term relief in the garden by sprinkling cayenne pepper around the beds and paths ( I wonder whether this would work if potentised?) As far as the chickens are concerned you are going to have to get serious, either kill a couple of foxes (for ashing) or eat the chickens before the foxes do! I guarantee no matter how determined you get you will not do long term damage to the fox population. They are amazing critters, in any given area the fox population will always adjust to the available food supply by increasing the number of females that breed, increasing the size of each litter, and an improved survival rate of young. Chemical farmers in our district have been doing an organised poisoning program for ten years and I still see just as many foxes as when they started except there are now a lot more percentage of younger ones!! I have seen once where a single vixen and two small pups bit the tongues out of 52 new born lambs in a single nights work Yep just knocked em down, bit out the tongue way back in the mouth and went on to the next one, after the first few the tongue was spat out near the kill. Sure she is teaching her young to survive but if you were depending on those lambs for your own survival I figure its time to adjust the fox population a bit! The rock dust thing is interesting, they poo in, piddle in it, dig in it for months, praps because its foreign in their patch or maybe they feel the extra energy (ours is paramagnetic rock dust) ps never seen a real live hungry wolf - sounds like a bad idea to me Cheers Lloyd Charles
