Category Archives: Poultry

Fox Attack!

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Yet more death and destruction at McCarthy Park this week……went out to feed the animals one evening, and came face to face with a mangy looking fox actually curled up IN the chook run. It had obviously got in earlier and killed three chooks, but couldn’t get out again.

It is so, so distressing….and annoying, to lose our animals in this way. Foxes tend to just kill for the sake of it rather than for food. This fox was very skinny, and must have been hungry, yet had killed three chooks and just left them.

After much searching, we found a possible entry point – a very small gap under a gate, not at all something we would have thought a fox could fit through. Fortunately all the other animals free ranging at the time were unharmed.

New Arrivals!

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Today we bought 7 turkey poults! They are still very young (under 1 week) so are in a small cage with a 100W light globe to keep them warm. We are still building their new enclosure, but it will be ready by the time they are! It just needs to  be made fox proof, as unfortunately they do visit us from time to time, and they cause such destruction in a few moments.

turkey chicks

The chicks are doing well, even the two that were rescued as newly hatched. They were near death, so we put them in the cage with the light and were amazed to see they survived. After a few days they were strong enough to slip back to the mother hen and chicks.