I planted some cabbage seedlings I grew from seed last weekend. I made a timber frame which I then completely netted and put it over the seedlings. (I did this for my summer cabbages but had the same resulting problem though at the time I didn't know it was foxes, I thought it was vandals). My summer cabbages stayed butterfly thus caterpillar free. I went to my allotment this morning only to find the netted completely ripped apart on the top of the frame with several cabbage seedlings broken and the netting had muddy paw prints all over.
my husband has said that he will re net the frame but put some chicken wire over as well so the foxes can't get through the frame and onto the bed. I was wondering are egg laying butterflies about now as this is the only reason we have a frame over the cabbages.
Sorry if I sound stupid, this is my first successful year of having an allotment.
Your replies would be helpful.
There are far fewer cabbage whites around down here but they are still there. I spotted one on the plot yesterday. The foxes on our site do just the same - seems to be a game for them! Birds love brassicas too so I would do what you're planning with net and chicken wire.
Keep all your brassicas netted as the pigeons will have them, especially when the weather gets cold.
And vote to bring back hunting!!
sounds like you need better way to deter foxes.
It also sounds like need a stronger frame.
Not sure how hunting will help keep numbers down on my lottie - the hoof marks would cause much worse damage
Quote from: plainleaf2 on October 12, 2009, 01:43:27
sounds like you need better way to deter foxes.
It also sounds like need a stronger frame.
i know i need a better way to deter foxes which is why i asked for advice. Plus i dont think i can get a stronger frame then timber unless its made of metal !!!
what type and size timber did you use?
chickenwire covering the frame.
then the fabric.
The secret is not strength but height or substantial sides. It needs to be a barrier to a short sighted animal.
Well I must say I never thought that the fox would do that.
As naughty as the fox is, and as annoying as it is don't vote for hunting......the fox is beautiful......as is all his wild friends...... qahtan
If there's hunting, there will always be foxes. The hunts will ensure that! I was against it once, but I don't see any point in legislating about it, and I don't hold with all the intrusive legislation we get these days anyway. Leave people free to hunt or not, as they wish.
mpdjulie
it might helpful if you post a picture of your netting step up and measurements and specifications of the various components.
The many foxes on out site don't usually cause much damage, the odd bit of digging, poo on favourite spots, but one thing guarranteed to distract them is an old gardening glove (particularly leather!). Leave an old one of those out and they will go for it and forget all about your brassica cage.......I have recently dug up two gloves on my plot this week where I have been clearing beds, neither were mine! ;D
I watched one of your foxes on your Open Day, Deb, it was sauntering round without a care in the world......I've watched young foxes in my garden tearing round and leaping up and down for the sheer joy of it. My guess is that this is what your fox is doing, mpdjulie, so maybe a simpler cover wouldn't attract it/them. But I think you should cover against pigeons, the only thing they don't ruin in my garden over winter is leeks.
are you sure its foxes
my badger neighbours are creating havoc at present
dax
There are foxes on my site which don't generally cause too much havoc thankfully! They certainly use my plot to rest on, drink from the pond and eat the occasional pigeon that they've caught!
Thats funny ...the same thing has been happening at my allotment. I keep finding my environmesh cage flattened...i've now put string wrapped round canes over and around the cage at different angels and at different heights and it hasn't happened for two days...keep fingers crossed i've solved the problem
Just to let you know hunting foxes and deer is still happening all over the place. In theory they are allowed to use only 2 dogs but this does not happen most of the time and it carries on in its usual cruel way as before.
I doubt that hunting in and around towns and allotments would stop this nuisance - and when ever have you seen a hunt in London? Should be interesting! Unfortunately most hunting with hounds is horrendously cruel - currently they are hunting hinds that have had baby deer in May/June and there is no dispute that this is cruel. I support the fact that these beautiful animals have to be contained and culled to a degree - but there are guns that would do the job instantly - rather than a pantomime of hunters dressed in their ridiculous outfits running an animal to exhaustion - for FUN!
Sorry rant over - I should not have monopolised this thread but it does seem that most folk think that there is a hunting ban in force when there is not and it happens(hunting) most days of the week in this area! YUK!
Old Bird
When I lived in Angmering On Sea, Sussex, back in the 60s we worked in Crawley, Sussex.
Many's a time early in the morning on way to work we would see the hunters and the hounds gathering at Midsussex, at the local pub to have their get up and go drink, bullion and brandy I think it was.
A site to behold but hateful. Why do people have to be so nasty.
Saw the fox also a couple times.. qahtan
it might help we got back to original subject.
how to protect broccoli and such in cage that prevent damage by foxes.
Deb P - interesting what you say about leather gloves. I lost a pair a while back - my second best pair which I put down to senile decay setting in, though I don't usually lose things. I searched high and low with no luck. At about the same time, a fox started digging in my leek bed. >:( Each time I went down to the lottie, filled the hole in, replanted the leek. Fox came back and dug it up. In the end, I moved the poor leek to a diffent spot and left the fox to get on with it.
I wonder if that's where my gloves are? ??? I will have a dig myself next time I am down there.
Sorry mpdjulie - no suggestions on how to deter them ::)
Back to your subject of your cabbages!!!
Why don't you do what others have suggested which is "mark" your territory with urine. This supposedly does mark it out as someone else's "territory".
Worth a try I would think!
O B
;D
i still think that it is badgers
dax
No, foxes. ;D ;D ;D
does really matter if they are badgers or foxes.
the point is to prevent plant damage.
I do not understand why foxes should be interested in cabbages. Do foxes eat cabbages? or do they attack the netting to get at other prey?
It seems odd that now there is less hunting there seem to be fewer foxes, I have not heard them, seen one or seen a dead one on the roads for many months.
Badgers are big heavy animals compared with foxes, and badgers certainly do like vegetables.
we've seen 2 dead ones in the last 3 weeks, on the roads :-\
The foxes play havoc with my plot, the younger ones seem to think anything is fair game ::)
Think the suggestion of some kind of wiring plus netting on top may save them from the cabbage whites and provide some deterent....
QuoteWhy don't you do what others have suggested which is "mark" your territory with urine.
We've been here before, It's dirty, disgusting and worst of all, doesn't work. God gave us trees, use them.
Quote from: Eristic on October 15, 2009, 23:06:33
God gave us trees, use them.
How do trees protect cabbages from foxes :-\ :P
What about an electric fence?
Have seen this sort of damage myself - think it's the foxes going after slugs and snails. It's possible that there may be slugs and snails lurking in your cabbage area.
Here they've been known to dig around potatoes that have been left in the ground too long, and I've seen them dig up around a patch of tatty lettuce. So maybe if you eliminate the slugs amd snails you may discourage the foxes.
They eat slugs and snails :o - bring back foxes all is forgiven.
Quote from: Eristic on October 15, 2009, 23:06:33
QuoteWhy don't you do what others have suggested which is "mark" your territory with urine.
...It's dirty, disgusting...
Why is it?
Quote from: Eristic on October 15, 2009, 23:06:33
God gave us trees....
Prove it?
I've spent the last year marking a specific rhubarb clump every time I was on the plot, to see whether it would affect the plant. There was no effrect at all till last month. After several weeks with no rain worth mentioning, it started to wilt as the urine built up.
a lot of rhubarb is wilting with lack of rain, not neccessarily due to nitrogen build up?
I reckon urine works. You never used to get foxes in telephone boxes.
Well I thought I would update you all. After putting the wire mesh over the top of the netted timber frame, it seems to have done the job. Foxes have climbed on it again - there are depressions on the wire mesh - but it has held and my cabbages are in tact.
Thanks for all your responses
JULIE
Glad you seem to have it solved. Seems like the foxes thought you were giving them a climbing frame to play on. Cant imagine foxes wanting cabbages or that cabbages would harbour a food source that made them so persistent. but foxes can get fixated about something that amuses them in some way.
Wish i had the foxes here. On my privately rented allotment we have hordes of bunnies and I am having to dig in over 100 metres of netting.
On my vegetable garden in town I have a few rabbits but pigeons by the horde - I suspect many are homing pigeons. Yesterday i went down and neighbouring chickens had scratched up some of my overwintering onions and garlic. Stuff hunting. I would cheerfully provide a day time shelter and light refreshments to any fox that wanted to take up residence!
Quote from: Geoff H on October 20, 2009, 12:38:47
On my vegetable garden in town I have a few rabbits but pigeons by the horde - I suspect many are homing pigeons.
why do you think they are 'homing' pigeons? wouldn't they all be either at, or on the way to, 'home'
any pigeon that does not come home is not, by definition, a homing pigeon!!
Maybe they got lost Tony ;D
Cause the same pigeons sit on the roof of the house across the road and they fly round in circles above the pigeon loft which is in the back garden of that house. He has a big flock of them and does quite well in the races with them. Probably cause they can't wait to get back for my cabbages etc.
Does that make them racing pigeons then?
All I know is they eat a lot of cabbages and can get under the netting.
Digging away on the plot today, sat down for a rest, and a large fox wandered up the path and started eating a windfall pear....didn't know they would eat fruit! It looked right at me than wandered into my shed.......I went after it in case it decided to wee in there (potentialy very smelly), and it had jumped up onto the bit of worktop I use as a potting bench and was having a root around in the peas I had saved the seed of! It scarpered as soon as it saw me, with a very dirty look.... ::) ;D
That might make them racing pigeons, but there are other sorts people keep. You may be losing crops to ferals or woodpigeons as well.
to add to the urine comments. i worked on a farm in Canada which grew mainly cauliflower. they had a major problem with wild life eating their crop, mostly deer. their answer to this was to set pails in the soil around their fields filled with rags. all the workers were told to use these pails to pee in. no more problems from wild life
more thoughts on this problem. early this morning i went and threw out bread for the birds by now 9.30 am normally the garden would be full of birds. this morning none. i just went out to feed the black daleks and noticed the strong smell of Creacoat. two days ago i had painted the boards that i am going to put around my new veg patch with creacoat and left to dry. we had a little rain this morning which may have made the smell stronger. i wonder if this is why the birds are not here? if so creacoat may be a good alterative for urine pots.
I don't think pigeons have much sense of smell, but they're very wary. If you've been moving things around that alone is likely to put them off for a couple of days.
It's worth remembering if you're having major problems with them, particularly in the growing season when they're not so hungry. Last summer I stopped them attacking my peas by draping netting over my wigwams. I couldn't make it pigeon-proof, but it put them off long enough to switch to another food source.