He felt like chicken tonight

[shovel leaner 7,650]

Got a text from the chicken farm/free range egg producer . A fox was spotted making off with a chicken at dusk . 
       I said I would be over the next afternoon. Anyway that afternoon was pissing down and he didn’t open the hatches on the unit so the birds were kept in . I watched as a fox appeared on the other side of the electric fence and seemed to be looking over towards the unit . It didn’t come through the fence , so no shot was on . There is a bit of a gap under the wire in the corner of the field where they get through. I haven’t told the farmer about it as it’s a handy spot with a safe backstop , and I figure that if he fixes it they will just find somewhere else , and it might not be a good place . These chickens are nearly finished their laying life and will be gone soon , so I will tell him before the new ones arrive. 
           I told the farmer that it was a wasted trip for me as the birds were locked in . He assured me the birds would be out the next day . So I turned up the next day and sure enough the birds were out and scratching around the run , which is about a 4acre field. I climbed on top of a big pile of building rubble which overlooks the gap under the wire and waited. I had my .243 with the day scope , loaded with my 70 grain Sierra Blitzkings home loads . I spotted the fox the previous afternoon at about 5 o’clock, and sure enough it appeared in the same place and looked through the wire but this time it made its way to the gap . You would think that , because I go out regularly and shoot a fair few foxes that I don’t get that bothered. Wrong , I still get the shakes and adrenaline . I was totally focused on the gap and I watched it glide effortlessly underneath and without stopping it was trotting towards a chicken , the started to run and cackle alerting some of the other birds . I had to stop the fox or I was going to have to move the rifle and I was sort of half lying and kneeling and the rubble was noisy . “ Oi” it stopped to look towards me . He heard me shout but it wouldn’t have heard the shot that killed it . A big fat dog fox . I text the farmer to tell him I’d been successful and he came over to shut the hatches . “ Got any eggs going “? I said , “ how many do you want”? “As many as you’ve got “, he gave me 5 trays of seconds / rejects , and grumbled about me not selling them , and why do I need so many . Typical tight arse farmer.

[FOXHUNTER 5,021]

I know what you mean about getting excited when a fox is spotted , that is why I never tire of it . Just wish we had more to go at , but I've just been told by a farmer of a fox calling at the back of his so have an appointment once this fog lifts

[Dervburner 2,549]

Good result SL. I don’t buy eggs very often as I have my own poultry, but I just wondered what makes a reject egg?

 

Are they too small, thin shell?

[shovel leaner 7,650]

3 hours ago, FOXHUNTER said:

I know what you mean about getting excited when a fox is spotted , that is why I never tire of it . Just wish we had more to go at , but I've just been told by a farmer of a fox calling at the back of his so have an appointment once this fog lifts

Thin shells , knobbly shells , gritty bits on the shell , too big , too small . Nothing wrong with the egg inside though .

[Dervburner 2,549]

33 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

Thin shells , knobbly shells , gritty bits on the shell , too big , too small . Nothing wrong with the egg inside though .

Thought so, enjoy your omelettes

[Meece 1,958]

Very difficult to operate on these big free range enclosures.   A bloke who lives nearby used to work on a farm that had free range pens.... 4 acres... we went and lamped around and did see a fleeting eye right across the other side of the enclosure but nothing else.  We walked the enclosure fence and couldn't find a hole or anything..  this bloke spent days trying to find out what was happening and eventually found a trail of pad marks in the mud inside the fence.  It turned out that when the fence had been dug in and back filled the fence had a bit of a dip and a coresponding high spot of earth on the outside.  Even though the fence was about six foot tall, had a couple of strands of barbed wire on top and a VISCOUS electric fence out from the bottom  Charlie made easy work of getting over the fence.  The Fox just ran at it at an angle and did a bit of a wall of death up and over.!!!  This bloke sat up a tree every day at dusk for more than a week waiting for Charlie to come within shotgun range. Eventually Charlie walked under the tree and He took his charge of BB.  The chicken farmer was partialy to blame because they had a pit nearby that they used to dispose of the fallen chicken carcasses. I suppose that although charlie had a plentiful supply of discarded carcasses, it wanted the excitement of Chase and kill now and again.  It would have been difficult to get a safe shot with a rifle on this field because of the size of the pen, nearby buildings and the obstruction of the fence and probably the chicken would have freaked out on the shot.  The fence would have made this a really difficult shot due to the distance across the fence and it being like a wall along the line.  It was just difficult and that's why this bloke sat up a tree.

[Squirrel_Basher 17,102]

Yes chicken spook mate but they get used to it .Shot hundreds from within the electric fence .I’ve told the farmer so many times about foxes jumping  in and out ,going under and nothing gets done .
Met him there last night whilst he was locking up and he was moaning about chicken being still out after the sheds are in darkness .It’s easy ,get there earlier ffs .

I’ve put loads of chicken in that have been left out ,but still he gets there about 1/2 hour after dark .

Dont know why I’m moaning as it’s his laziness that attracts the fox density lol..

Hes still shutting up an hour after dark lol.

[Stavross 18,312]

A cracking write up and a great result, but bloody hell, your write ups are getting as long as ianm’s, I have to sit down with a brew

[David.evans 5,323]

Yes your bang on write stav 

the difference is SL don’t talk poo  

joke mate , your write ups are very good  

atb 

[shovel leaner 7,650]

I’ve got a bit of time on my hands at the moment. This lockdown and all the restrictions have meant that my normally busy shooting season is on hold . I’m usually feeding my birds , loading on various shoots and running my shoot days ......all stopped, just feeding now , and a bit of fox control, and a bit of deer shooting. 
              So I’m going to be on here more than I normally would. I must make the most of it as we are going to squeeze the rest of the days into December and January, sometimes shooting twice a week . It’s going to be tough going I think . 
    As I write this I’ve just finished feeding and I’m just having a few minutes overlooking where that fox , you know the one that everyone has been seeing and delighting in telling me about was spotted yesterday. I did see a bit of movement but it was only a small Muntjac buck . The rain has come in now , so off home , the crunchy nut clusters are calling

[BenBhoy 4,706]

Very clean looking cab that mate!

[shovel leaner 7,650]

1 minute ago, BenBhoy said:

Very clean looking cab that mate!

It’s my brand new mule . I try and keep it clean , a bit of an exercise in futility at the moment with all this mud , but if I don’t they cake up around the brakes and it becomes a real pain to get off . 

[Meece 1,958]

these invitation shoot the Fox missions are always full of conditions about can't do this or that.  It makes doing it almost impossible and it's  their fault that they got Fox troubles in the first place.  Hows that for shortness.?

[shovel leaner 7,650]

39 minutes ago, Meece said:

these invitation shoot the Fox missions are always full of conditions about can't do this or that.  It makes doing it almost impossible and it's  their fault that they got Fox troubles in the first place.  Hows that for shortness.?

The guy who has the egg unit is very much into the whole “ freedom food “ thing , and has tried to keep the run secure. At one time he said I was only to shoot the naughty foxes ( the ones that were in the run ) . I used to turn up and see foxes that I could easily shoot on the other side of the wire and have to leave them . I knew that they would be in there at some point . In the end , I said I wasn’t prepared to spend hours waiting for them to get through the fence , so he’d better find someone else . A bit of time passed and I think a few more visits from Charlie and his Mrs rang , and said her husband wants me to come back and just do what you have to do , but stop the killing . People want free range eggs , they want cruelty free eggs , but there isn’t such a thing I’m afraid. The unit I help has spent £1000.000’s on state of the art fencing and still Charlie gets in .

[Sausagedog 7,381]

7 minutes ago, shovel leaner said:

The guy who has the egg unit is very much into the whole “ freedom food “ thing , and has tried to keep the run secure. At one time he said I was only to shoot the naughty foxes ( the ones that were in the run ) . I used to turn up and see foxes that I could easily shoot on the other side of the wire and have to leave them . I knew that they would be in there at some point . In the end , I said I wasn’t prepared to spend hours waiting for them to get through the fence , so he’d better find someone else . A bit of time passed and I think a few more visits from Charlie and his Mrs rang , and said her husband wants me to come back and just do what you have to do , but stop the killing . People want free range eggs , they want cruelty free eggs , but there isn’t such a thing I’m afraid. The unit I help has spent £1000.000’s on state of the art fencing and still Charlie gets in .

There are some weird people about with weird thought processes in their heads!