Llamas ward off hen hunting foxes

By Martin Cassidy
BBC Northern Ireland rural affairs correspondent

Troubled by foxes raiding their chicken farm, a County Armagh family has brought in llamas to ward off the cunning predators.

It may seem an idyllic free-ranging life for the hens on the McClure farm in the green hills above Markethill.

But all too often the feathers fly and the peace on this organic egg-producing farm has been disturbed.

This is fox country!

The llama is looking after his new feathered friends

The gorse bushes and whitethorn hedges provide perfect cover and the foxes have been enjoying rich pickings.

Every morning, the free range hens venture out to peck, preen and dust bath.

Watching from the margin of the field, the foxes have lain in wait for adventurous and foolish hens that have strayed close to the field margins.

It's all over in a flash.

A few feathers mark the spot where the hen was caught unaware.

And by the time the farmer has reached the gate, the fox is making off with yet another plump chicken.

The problem with foxes is that they remember a good dinner.

The trail to the McClure farm has become well worn.

Down in the chicken shed, losses were mounting and it was clear something had to be done.

Free range chickens can't be kept couped up all the time and yet losses to foxes had topped 300 hens.

Just the smell of llamas can keep foxes away Eric McClure Farmer

Racking his brains for a solution, Eric McClure remembered a report in a farming newspaper about a sheep farmer who was using a llama to ward off foxes.

"If a llama can protect new born lambs, why not hens," thought Eric.

Next day, the foxes watching from the gorse bushes were to see two new faces in the field along with the hens.

Enter Olly and Holly - a male and female llama.

Back in their native South America, llamas are regularly seen chasing off wild dogs, coyotes and even bears.

And so it proved in Armagh.

"Just the smell of llamas can keep foxes away," says Eric McClure.

"And if they are not put off by the llama aroma, they get swiftly chased away if they stray onto the range."

Since the llamas arrived, peace has returned to the chicken farm.

All day long Olly and Holly watch over the flock as they scrape out an organic living on the beautiful Armagh hillside.

The long-legged llamas make short work of patrolling the field boundaries.

And in the afternoon, llama and hens relax in the sun confident that the fox is looking elsewhere for dinner.