The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about the place.
Kenneth Grahame, in The Wind in the Willows
Although this blog is intended as a diary of my experiences, it is probably useful to write a few words about the real stars – the badgers.
Badger cub
The Eurasian Badger (Meles meles), as its name suggests, is found across Europe and Asia, although appearance and habits differ slightly from region to region. It belongs to the mustelid family, so it is related to stoats, weasels, martens and otters.
A male badger is called a boar, a female a sow, and young badgers are called cubs.
Appearance
The appearance of the badger tells you a lot about the way it lives. An adult badger is about the same size as a labrador dog but with much shorter and more muscular legs. This ‘low slung’ physique is ideally suited to a life underground (so the tunnels don’t need to be so high) and for feeding off small food items on the ground.
The badger’s powerful legs and long claws make it a strong digger, indeed the word ‘badger’ possibly comes from an old French word becheur, meaning ‘digger’. One of the characteristics of a badger sett is a large mound of soil outside the entrance that the badgers have excavated when digging their tunnels.
Badger track - but count the toes!
Like all mustelids, badgers have five toes on each foot. Dogs, cats and foxes only have four, the fifth being a ‘dew claw’ on the back of the leg. This is one way to recognise badger tracks – if there are five toes, it could well be a badger (although confusingly the fifth toe is quite small and not always visible).
Visually, the badger is unmistakable, with its white face and broad black stripes running from the nose to the ears. Look closely at a picture of a badger’s face. You’ll see that the eyes are quite small and the nose is very large. This is reflected in their senses. Badgers do not see particularly well, but their sense of smell is very good – something like 800 times more effective than our own. Badgers get most of their information about the world around them through their nose.
Social Life
Badgers live in social groups of five to ten related individuals. These groups are arranged in a hierarchy or pecking order, so that each badger knows its place. The group, or ‘clan’, communicates partly by scent, and dominant badgers will often mark the other badgers with their own scent. This scent is secreted from a gland under the tail, and it seems as if the dominant badger is briefly sitting on the other. This behaviour is known as ‘musking’, and can often be seen when watching badgers.
Badgers outside the sett
Badgers are territorial (see my posts for my ongoing efforts to map badger territories). The badgers that I watch control the area around 300m from the sett. This area is marked out by scent and by latrine pits or dung piles. These are small holes into which the badgers deposit their dung, and are one of the sure ways of indicating that there are badgers in the area.
Habits
Badgers are largely nocturnal, spending their days in a burrow called a sett. Badger setts can be very large, with hundreds of yards of tunnels and many entrances. They have separate areas for living and sleeping, and even latrine areas underground.
Badger setts can be distinguished from the holes of rabbits and foxes by their size, and also from the large spoil heaps outside the entrances. Another sign is piles of used bedding outside the hole. Badgers periodically drag fresh bedding into the sett, usually dry grass but also green plants, and remove the old bedding. This may be because the old bedding becomes infested with fleas – living underground in a group means that badgers are particularly prone to fleas. The first thing a badger usually does when it leaves the sett is to sit down and have a good scratch.
Here is a video of a badger shuffling backwards as it drags bedding back to the sett:
Being nocturnal, badgers stay underground during the day and emerge around the time of sunset. The precise time varies. In the winter, when the nights are long, they will usually come out well after it has got dark. In the summer they may come out an hour or two before dusk in undisturbed areas. The whole clan may sit around by the sett entrance for a while, scratching and playing – particularly if there are cubs – before moving away to feed.
Having a good scratch by the sett entrance
Badgers tend to be creatures of habit, and will use the same routes night after night. This creates paths, which in some cases can be very wide if they have been used by the badgers for a long time. Again, these paths are a good indication that there are badgers around. If you find a path leading under a wire fence, have a look and see if there is any hair caught in the wire. You can often find grey badger hairs trapped in the fence.
Food and Feeding
Badgers prefer to live in woods, but they often live on the edge of the wood, not in the middle. This is because their food tends to live in open fields rather than woodlands.
The main food of the badger in Britain is the earthworm. This may not sound a very substantial diet for a large mammal like a badger, but earthworms are quite nutritious and they are also easy to catch. During the night, the worms emerge from the soil and lie on the grass. If you go into a field with a torch and tread softly, you can often see them lying in the open.
The badger, with its big, sensitive nose, snuffles through the grass, sniffing out the earthworms. When it catches one it often holds it in their mouth like a piece of spaghetti before swallowing it. Scientists have analysed the diet of a badger and estimated that each badger needs to eat about 160 worms a night to survive. This may sound a lot, but a badger can easily catch that many in a few hours.
Badger dung with wheat
Badgers also eat other things. In my area, where there are a lot of wheat fields, they will eat wheat and barley. You can tell that this is what they have been eating because it shows up clearly in their dung. I’ve also known badgers to eat fallen cherries from a cherry tree (stones and all!), as well as apples and all sorts of insects. Some people feed badgers, and they seem to be quite fond of peanuts (unsalted) as well as fruit and dog food.
Further Reading
This is only a short introduction to badgers. There is a lot more information about these fascinating creatures if you are interested.
To start with, there are lots of good websites about badgers. www.badgerland.co.uk is very good, as is Brock’s World, particularly for children. Both of these have a vast amount of information and some excellent pictures.
If you are interested in the welfare of badgers, the Badger Trust is well worth a look. It represents local badger groups, so you should be able to find one in your area. Many of these groups offer guided trips if you fancy going out and doing a spot of badger watching.
In terms of books, the ‘bible’ of badgers is Badgers, by Ernest Neal and Chris Cheeseman (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). This book is quite academic yet still very readable, with lots of stories and anecdotes. It is difficult to get hold of, but if you want to know all there is to know about badgers, this is the one to get. Ernest Neal was a great authority on badgers, and all of his books are very good.
Another excellent but difficult to obtain book is The Social Badger, by Hans Kruuk (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). If you want to get a deep understanding of badger behaviour, then this is full of information. Hans Kruuk pioneered many of the study techniques used today, and a great deal of our knowledge of badgers’ social behaviour comes from his work. It is also a great story of his fieldwork in Oxfordshire and Scotland, which at times reads more like an adventure story than an academic work.
Easier to get hold of is Badgers by Michael Clark (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). This is an excellent book, very readable with funny illustrations, yet packed with facts and stories. It is highly recommended for children and adults alike.
All of these books have sections on badger watching, but if you want a more detailed guide, my favourite is Mammal Watching, also by Michael Clark (click here for a link to amazon.co.uk). It is quite an old book, but it is full of good information about watching badgers and other animals.
As a final word, I should of course mention Tales from the Wood, my own blog. Keep visiting for more personal experiences of a badger watcher!
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
I have terrible trouble with badgers digging up my garden.50 large mounds this morning.Totally soul destroying after many an hour making it nice. Any one offer advise please on what i can do.Im at my wits end.
Hi there. I sympathise with you – it sounds heartbreaking.
The problem with badgers is that they are creatures of habit and also very strong. Once they start feeding somewhere they keep on doing it. A sturdy fence will keep them out, but it does need to be sturdy, and also dug into the group so they can’t push under.
This website has some hints on badgers in the garden:
http://www.badgerland.co.uk/help/you/problems/gardeners.html
Failing that you could try your local badger group and see what they suggest.
Good luck! I hope that you and the badgers can live peacefully together somehow.
http://www.badger.org.uk/
will have all the information you might need and can provide contacts with your local badger group
we reconmend an electric fence as the only legal way to keep badgers out
heres a new widget made from your RSS
http://www.yourminis.com/minis/yourminis/spineyextra/mini:badgerman
Any suggestions about what to do about badgers that wantonly kill chickens in broad daylight?
Hi there and welcome. I watch badgers and I also keep chickens, so I can sympathise with you.
Firstly, are you sure it’s badgers? I have heard of badgers killing chickens, but to do so in daylight is very unusual as badgers are almost entirely nocturnal.
I can only advise that you take the same precautions as you would against foxes, except more so. Badgers are very powerful and will get through most fences if they want to. The best protection against both foxes and badgers is a strong wire fence at least six feet high and securely dug in at least a foot underground. Even better would be an electric fence – these keep out just about anything.
Of course a lot depends on how many chickens you have, what sort of run they live in and so on. I hope you find a solution, but please do remember that badgers are a protected species.
I have seen many Badgers throughout the years, but two night ago i came across on a wooded track a strange looking animal. It resembled from behind a large cat with a very long redish fur to the ground. (I could not see its head or feet, but was sure it was a young ginger coloured Badger). I was only four ft away from it.
Do they change colour when they get older.
Hi there and thanks for stopping by.
Excellent sighting! Brown or ginger badgers do exist (although I’ve never seen one myself). According to Michael Clark in ‘Badgers’ the technical term for a ginger badger is ‘erythristic’ – my new word for the day!
There are some pictures on the web if you want to compare. Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/nature/pages/badgers.shtml
From memory I believe that the brown colour is genetic and more common in some parts of the country. Do please let us know if you see yours again.
All the best
BWM
Friday 24th of July 2009 i was awoken at 6 am by a badger breaking in to my chicken coop,and yes it was very light. The bugger got hold of one of my girls by the time i got to it . It was like a possesed beast it would let go and was not worried about me either.By the time i got it to let go, to much damage was done and we lost her, needless to say badgers are no longer welcome in my garden. I, and everyone i tell have been shocked by this behavior i thought they ‘ate worms’!
Hi Paul,
Very sorry to hear about your poor chicken ( I keep chickens so can appreciate how upsetting this is).
It is very unusual for a badger to find its way into a chicken run. They tend to be foragers rather than hunters. They mainly eat a lot of insects, including wasps nests, worms, fallen fruit that sort of thing. The only mammal food they frequently eat are nestling rats, rabbits and mice – they do this by digging out the nests – so are generally pretty good on the pest control front. They are not qick enough to catch adult mammals or birds – though they will eat carrion.
The fact that the badger was out in daylight suggests to me that it was either elderly or unwell. Alternatively it may have accicently become trapped inside the chicken coop and been unable to get out – and took the opportunity to get a meal when the chickens came out.
What to do?
Contact the local badger group – you can find your local group by going to the Badger Trust website. If the badger is injured or in need of help they will be able to trap it and take it to the local wildlife hospital for treatment or euthanasia. If the badger was trapped they will be able to tell and find out how it got in.
How to prevent further visits.
The badger may have been attracted by the prescence of rats/mice or any waste food that is lying around.
Clear away any waste food and keep the coop free of a build up of chicken droppings to prevent these smells attracting wild animals.
Whilst badgers are strong animals they will generally try to pass beneath a fence by digging or pushing underneath it.
The simple way to stop this is to ensure that a section of fencing is turned back at 90% to the upright fence, in the direction that the badger/fox would be coming from. This is because the badger will always dig at the base of the fence, so it will therefore be standing on the fencing it is trying to lift. The turn back should extend out for at least 12″.
If you are making a new pen you can dig this in about 15cm/5″ deep but if you are attaching it to a new pen then you could just give it a good covering with soil/turf. The turn back is the important bit. When you attach the new section of fencing, make sure there is a good overlap up the old fence and that this is securely fastened. Check out the book “Problems with Badgers” which is produced by the RSPCA for more info.
Good Luck
Hi Paul – thanks for writing in. I am very sorry to hear about your chicken – I too keep chickens so I can sympathise.
It probably won’t help to say that what happened to you is very rare, but badger attacks on chickens are unusual, especially in a mild summer like this one when there should be no pressure on them to find food.
I think that Josie’s advice is excellent – I can’t add anything to it. The Badger Trust publish a leaflet about badgers in gardens (http://www.badger.org.uk/_Attachments/Resources/55_S4.pdf) and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers have advice on badger-proof fencing (http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/3315)
Hopefully this has just been a one-off event. If not, as Josie said, get in touch with your local badger group and see what they can do.
Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear about your chickens. We lost ours just yesterday to a badger so I know how you feel.
I’m feeling guilty because I should have done my research. I thought our coup was bullet proof. Our fending was dug in and turned back, but what I hadn’t known was that a badger could eat through the metal wire. To add insult to injury, after killing them all it didn’t have the courtesy to eat any of them. Just a brutal assassination. It was between 1pm and 4pm.
hi there , I had a badger get one of my girls a few days ago. It was only about 5.30pm and I caught it mid attack! The sound was horrific and I assumed it was a fox, I got such a shock when I saw the badger. Unfortunatley I was too late and he had killed one of them – two disappeared and only one was left:o( Luckily the other two showed up the next morning.
Hi Michelle,
Sorry to hear about your chickens – I know how upsetting this must have been.
I think it only fair to all badger lovers out there that I give an update on our story. We now think it was a dog that got into our coup rather than a badger. We cant be certain, but we have since seen a large husky dog with black / white coat sniffing around the coup. So badgers are back in my circle of trust – for now 😉
Hi Michelle
I’m sorry about your chickens too. It seems that badgers do take chickens. I guess the cold weather may have made them look outside their normal food sources, but this is just a guess. The truth is that badgers are great opportunists that will eat almost anything.
All you can do is to make sure the fences are as secure as possible in case it comes back. Mind you, from the bruises you got it looks like you had quite a tussle. Hopefully that’ll put it off.
All the best
BWM
we lost 5 bantams last night to a badger was shocked to see one as we have only ever seen foxes before but the took all 5 kids were gutted me too
we only had two old ex-batts left (the other 6 dying of old age previously). I had unwittingly not put the door down properly on their coop, and something came in a took only one of them (?) two days ago. It returned last night for the other. This time I had securely fixed the coop door, adding a plank of wood and half a breeze block. From the tracks it left in the soil and the furious digging we are thinking – badger. It dug into the soil a good 8″ and ripped the door off its hinges.
Poor old girls – I just hope the end was quick
Would this be typical badger behaviour, to only be able to catch one at a time. Unusually – no blood traces, but a lot of feathers. I’m fairly sure it’s not a dog, as I tracked the feathers along a field edge and towards a known sett (petered out before getting to sett)
Hi Nicki – thanks for writing in. I’m sorry to hear your story. My first thought in a case like this would be fox, not because I feel the need to defend badgers, but because foxes are the usual culprit in chicken killing. However, it is clear that badgers will take chickens on occasion, so they can’t be ruled out. They are certainly strong enough to dig and to pull doors open and they will eat almost anything. The problem is that predators see chicken coops as concentrated sources of food. To them, opening a chicken coop is no different to digging up worms or rabbit burrows.
The only real defence is to make sure that the coop is physically secure, which means a good door and a strong fence. Hopefully it will be a one-off event.
I will see what I can find out about this, and one day soon I’ll try to put together a guide on badgers and chickens.
All the best
BWM
Hi BWM
I thought I’d share a story with you – it goes to show just what contrary animals badgers are!!!! I posted before on one of your threads – I volunteer at a wildlife rescue where we take in a fair few badgers. We had six cubs that we housed together whilst rearing this year. They were relocated some time ago to a facility that was better placed to prepare the badgers for release. They were released last week to an area where setts had been especially made for them. For a short while they are in a huge fenced enclosure until they are ready to really be set into the wild. Anyway, they were released. They shunned the easy option – the man made setts – and wasted no time in building their own setts! It’s wonderful that they have done this and brought a smile to my face. Straight away their instincts have kicked in. The fence will be removed soon and then they will really be own their own. I am so proud to volunteer at a place that focuses so heavily on rehabilitating these beautiful animals and releasing them into their natural habitat!
Hi Rebecca
It’s always good to hear about wildlife rescue, so yes please, keep sharing the stories. And I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one the badgers play tricks on! This sounds just like typical awkward badger behaviour.
Mind you, I think the issue with artificial setts is a complex one. I have a suspicion that badgers have a sophisticated relationship with their setts – they aren’t just holes in the ground to live in. I spent a lot of time over the summer pondering why badgers move between different parts of the sett. I have an idea that it’s linked to hierarchy, dominance and clan relationships. There’s so much we don’t know about badgers, it wouldn’t surprise me if there are things about setts we haven’t fully understood yet.
In the meantime, keep up the good work and do keep sharing the stories.
All the best
BWM
i witnessed a juvenille badger dragging a dead juvenille across the road. have you any ideas why they would do this? when i drove past later i could see no sign s of the dead badger.
Hi Louise – thanks very much for your comment.
What you saw there is what is known as a ‘badger funeral’ – something pretty rare. There is an old belief that if a badger dies its family will bury it. There isn’t any definite evidence for this (I’ve seen plenty of dead badgers that were obviously not buried) but people have seen the same thing as you – a dead badger being dragged off by another one. Sometimes badgers have been found covered in leaves, presumably by other badgers.
Why do they do it? I’m not sure. But you’ve witnessed a rare thing with badgers, and that’s something to be pleased about.
Thanks for sharing it
All the best
BWM
Hi
We had 4 chickens and we think that a badger has been taking one at a time. First I thought I had locked one out and a fox had got it but a few nights later when another chicken went missing I realised that a badger has been opening the nesting box on our hutch and taking them. I tied the nesting box down only to find that a badger had ripped the corner off the nesting box to get another chicken.
This ties in quite nicely with my neighbours story when about a week before I started to lose chickens, he had a panel off his shed ripped off and discovered a chicken with his head bitten off inside.
Can you suggest anything other that re-cladding the hutch?
We had a badger turn up in our hay store, it was very docile and after a week we called the local badger rescue centre who took him away. He had wounds on his rump – probably evicted from one of the numerous badger sets in the woods about a 600yds away.
He was returned to us about 3 weeks later, fully recovered. He was let go in our field and took off into the small copse, where we know there are no sets. He has stuck around and has broken into our bantam hen house on 3 occasions by ripping off the cladding, leaving large teeth and deep scratch marks. He has now consumed 11 bantams & our bantam rooster. After each attack the hen house was repaired & strengthened but he still finds away in. On one occasion he got trapped inside and bashed his way out through the main door of the coop. Last night, one of our regular chickens was taken early evening (late May), close to the house, we couldn’t get to her in time but saw the badger running off.
Our chickens free range, we have llamas in the field and have had no problem with foxes. The badger doesn’t seem afraid of the llamas.
My concern is this rogue badger has no intention of returning to the woods, he has too much of an easy life here feasting on our chickens and as he is relying on our chickens for food during the summer, he will only be more desperate to kill come winter.
My question is: can we request he is trapped and relocated to the woods or is this completely illegal. We did tell the badger people the only sets were in the woods not the copse, but they said the badger had to be released where it was found ….. which was our hay store opposite the small copse.
Any ideas,
Hi Lee – sorry to hear about your chickens
As always, I’d ask whether you’re sure a badger is responsible, rather than say, a fox. Badger attacks on poultry are still rare (but they do happen). Attacks from foxes, stoats, rats and mink are more common. The size of the hole may give you a clue.
If it is a badger, the best action is a sturdy fence (or an electric one) to keep it away from the coop, or something to reinforce the nest box.
Hope this helps
BWM
Hi Clare – sorry to hear your story
It sounds like you have a problem badger on your hands. Attacking chickens is rare and it is only the odd rogue badger that seems to do it. You are right that your badger is probably an outcast – the wounds on the rump are a classic sign of a badger that’s been attacked and driven away by other badgers.
Unfortunately the law on badgers is complex. It is a criminal offence to kill, injure or ‘take’ a badger, but their are exemptions and licences can be obtained in special cases. Serious damage to livestock is one of these. I’m not an expert on the finer points of the law, so it may be best to speak to your badger rescue people about this, although the licence to move or kill a badger has to be granted by either DEFRA or Natural England (I forget which, and I’m not an expert on Quangos either). I think it’s a job for someone with experience.
Other than that, the only option is a physical barrier, including an electric fence. I’d have a word with the badger people and see what they recommend.
Sorry I can’t be of more help
All the best
BWM
Dear BWM,
Thanks for the advice. I did what you said but it seems we are helpless to do anything apart from install more heavy duty/electric fencing 😦 It’s a big outlay for the sake of one rogue bagder. He is using ambush techiques now and had two failed attempts at jumping one of our large chickens in the field last night at around 8.30pm. We will have to clip their wings to stop them being able to get out of the garden. Trouble is I hate to do that to free rangers.
regards, Claire
Hi Claire
Don’t forget the licence option. It isn’t something I recommend lightly, but it is necessary sometimes. It may be worth speaking to the council pest controller. See http://www.sedgemoor.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=776&p=0 for instance.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve clipped the wings of my chickens. Hasn’t cramped their style too much. They still escape…
Hi BWM,
Thanks for that link, really appreciate your advice. We will make some enquiries along that road.
Have a good summer!
i love badgers
I think I may have badgers in my garden. I hole appeared under a fence I erected in my garden last year that was previously a leylani hedge. I put the soil back. It was dug away again! I put a breeze block where the hole was. Another hole was dug next to itI I accepted that I may be along a badger route and so I accepted defeat and left the hole. I have then over a couple of months looked for evidence in my garden to no avail. So, being fed up of only seeing cats coming through the hole and using my garden as a tiolet, I blocked the hole up again. Hey presto, along came another hole a few feet away!! I have now noticed a mound of earth at the front of a line of leylandi at the back of my garden that borders my neighbour. The mound goes backwards towards the fence but I can’t see all the way back. I live on an estate that is surrounded by woods (if that helps). How can I confirm that I not only have badgers visiting my garden but I may also have a sett? Also are there any problems having a sett? I live in Plymouth Devon
many thanks
Malcolm
Hi Malcolm, and welcome
I think that whether having badgers in your garden causes problems depends on how you feel about them. Many people welcome them and enjoy watching them, but they can cause damage. They tend not to respect fences, for instance, and they have a habit of digging up your lawn. If you get a proper sett then the holes and spoil heaps can be extensive. But I would always say to enjoy the badgers for what they are.
If you want to be sure that it is badgers, the simplest method is to put down sand and look for tracks. Have a look at http://bedfordshirewild.blogspot.com/2012/02/success-encouraging-foxes-badgers-into.html for an example.
All the best
BWM
hello
found a dead cub when earthing up my spuds ,it was buried about a foot deep in soft soil any ideas .the cub was in good condition
thanks
Hi Kevin, and thanks for your comment
I confess I don’t have many ideas. It’s the time of year for cubs, and like all wild animals many badger cubs die young from a whole range of causes. I don’t know what would have buried it though, that’s the puzzle. Unless the old stories of badger funerals and badger burials are true…
If I find out more, I’ll let you know.
All the best
BWM
Hello all,
I live in Ireland where we’re lucky to have the badger’s cousin, the pine marten, but not the weasel. I also witnessed the sight of a badger removing it’s dead mate from a road where it had just been killed. I was taking my daughter to the local pub/shop for sweets, when we saw what appeared to be a ‘ body’ on the road. As we got closer we saw a badger shaking the hindquarters of it’s recently departed mate. After watching for a few minutes, we took off to the shop. On our return, we saw the same scenario, but said badger then gave up the shaking, and proceeded to drag the corpse up the roadside bank and through the hedge on top, no mean feat, as a dead brock is incredibly heavy. I would’nt be surprised if the dead got the same ‘ funeral’ treatment as has been observed before.
Last night I came home late from a social at a neighbour’s, and her indoors asked me to close up the shed. I grabbed a torch and went to close up, and was shocked to see a carcass at the entrance. I ran around to the door to see the damage inside to our poultry flock. A broody hen, only last week hatched two duckling’s, and as I entered saw that one was dead and the other tearing around in a panic. We had placed an old door inside to segregate the hen and the wife had moved it earlier in the day.
I was amazed to see a badger behind the door, prodding it with a garden fork to usher it out the door. The weather is mixed, so I doubt the stripey fella was starved of worms, both bodies were devoid of heads, never saw that with foxes,
Best Regard’s from County Clare
Hi Stevo, and thanks for your comment
Very interesting indeed. The story of the badger funeral is an old one, and one that isn’t fully understood. Some say it’s part of their family behaviour, others say it’s just a badger taking advantage of carrion (which isn’t as touching).
And the badger and the hens is unfortunate. I have seen the headless thing before – it happened to our neighbour (or more accurately, to her chicken) and was definitely the work of a fox. But I don’t doubt that badgers can and do kill hens on occasion.
All the best
BWM
Badgers are a complete pain and there are far too many for their own good. They cause an extraordinary amount of damage to roads, train lines, car parks, grave yards, gardens and peoples homes to name a few. A week ago all ten of our 8 week old chickens and one much-loved laying hen were slaughtered in their hen house. It was extremely upsetting to find their headless corpses piled up in the corner in the morning. The walls of the house were covered with their scratch marks as they tried to escape.
Knowing that we have a good deal of badger activity in our garden I set up remote cameras to film any activity around the hen house. Sure enough, the very next night, Mr. Brock returned and managed to get into the (now empty) hen house through the nesting box.
I find it bewildering that many posts on here state ‘are you sure it was a badger?” as though these animals can do no harm. Badgers are exceptionally strong and are opportunistic feeders. They can bite through wire mesh with ease and whilst electric fencing does offer some protection they will sometimes just ‘take the hit’ if they are hungry and if they know that there is an easy meal on the other side. They will attack and kill other animals far more frequently than is often thought and attacks on chickens are not uncommon at all.
Do not get me wrong, I am an avid enthusiast of wildlife but I am also a small holder and sometimes the two just do not match. Foxes get a bad press but as far as I can see they only go for easy opportunities when it comes to taking chickens (e.g. leaving the pop-hole open, forgetting to switch on the electric fence). If you secure the hen house then this will keep foxes out, badgers on the other hand will actually tear their way into a coop if the fancy takes them. You can shoot a fox on sight if you want to and the same should be said for badgers. They have no natural predators, there are far too many and they need managing in the same way that we manage deer.
Humph.
my dog and a badger were havin a fight last night in the back of the garden, will the badger return as they do come in sets i beleive it was a baby one my dog had blood over his face not quite sure where its coming from any advice from any 1 with simlar problems my neighbour also had a large badger coem in the garden through a gap in the fense but cannot get through to my garden so must be gettin in another way
A week ago, I discovered 8 call ducks missing. A barrier had been ripped out which necessitated pulling nails out. There were a few feathers but the amount was of no significance. There was some wirenetting that had been squashed down which had allowed access. I was pretty sure this was not the work of a fox – I have had plenty of those in the past. I visited the broiler chicken business adjacent to me to see if they had seen any signs of duck remains. I know that foxes lie up next to the buildings at night. I was amazed to be told that 2 huge badgers had been seen at 10.45 pm the night that I lost myducks. The discovery of a duck’s head a couple of days convinced me it was the work of the badgers. I now intend to put the night shelter in a shed, but it sounds as if once there has been an attack, the badges have easy pickings. I have thee hens and a pair of geese and am worried to hear that access to the hens has been made through the nesting box. I am devastated by the loss – some ducks i had had for 6years, others were the result of hatching ducklings. I am not going to do anything to replace them until afte Xmas in the hope they will abandon my patch, but will they now go fo the hens!!!!!
Dear Sir,
My name is Charlotte Hoare and I am a student at Hereford Sixth Form College, studying towards becoming a vet.
I have recently began my EPQ (extended project qualification), an independent investigation on a topic of my choice. I have decided to investigate the question –
“Is badger culling the answer to TB in cattle?”
In order to gather information for this study I have created a simple online questionnaire. I am hoping to receive as many responses as possible so it would be very kind of you if you could also inform your colleagues about my questionnaire so I can benefit from as many responses as possible which will increase the validity of my study.
I would be extremely grateful if you could please find the time to complete the questionnaire for me. I have a deadline to work to so I would like all of the questionnaires completed by 1st February if possible.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Charlotte Hoare
Please click the hyperlink to view the questionnaire:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XQ6TCKS
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