F*x up!

I'd got out of the habit of checking the garden cameras.   We knew we had two regular cat visitors, who liked to look for rats around the Girls coops, but there was never anything else.

Until a couple of nights ago.

I was surprised to see footage from about 4.20 am.  And I was startled to see what looked like a fox in the bottom corner. .   I then saw there were quiet a few recordings from that night, and we had not one, but  two foxes.  

As I watched each short video, I became increasingly worried.  One of them had spent quite a lot of time on top of the Cube, looking for a way in.

I went back through previous days' footage, and found that they weren't coming every night, but they had been before.

We had installed doors  at the back underneath and down the long side of each Cube's run.  The orange Cube - the one with the fox on - had an additional large door on the other side of the run.  All the doors were secured with long drop pins, but I was concerned that a determined, small, fox might manage to force a gap.  Just in case,  and a door on the side which as secured with a pin. It looked secure enough, but I wanted to make sure.  I went out and cable tied the doors. It means we can't use them (unless we cut and replace the cable ties), which is a pain if we have to access the hens in that part of he run.  But it's better to do this right now.

I also cable tied the piece of mesh which separates the large walk in run from the walk in run which covers our fruit cage.  We'd blocked it off some months ago to give the ground time to rest,   and because I wanted an area where I could introduce Newbies this year.     I needed to make sure that if a fox got into the fruit cage run, they wouldn't be able to force themselves into the main run.

DH said our old Foxwatches were knackered, so I ordered two new ones. They should be here mid week.  

Yesterday, we gathered up the old Foxwatches and all the wiring, and DH spend a couple of hours working on them. He managed to repair one, and possibly repair the other.   They are now back outside, hopefully doing their job. I've labelled them (and I'll label the new ones when they arrive) so we can tell which one is which.    The old ones are called "Carrott" and "Cheery"; the new ones will probably be "Vimes" and "Nobby".

They didn't come back last night, but that's not unexpected.