Do you have badgers around?

sounds like brock

Hi Penny

Assuming they 'are' badgers this is the advice of the NFBG http://www.pamela.mynott.btinternet.co.uk/garden.pdf
Remember you may not harm them or their setts.

Many thanks to Moon grower and Cliffo. I am about to contact the NFBG. Thank you again
Penny

You're welcome Penny - hope you can resolve the problem they are wonderful but can be destructive. Keep us posted and write about your garden for us.

Foxes might be burrying spare food in readiness for winter perhaps?

Sid, so far as am aware foxes do not bury food! Given that tehy ae meat eaters...

foxes have a way of storing food for hard times' they do not kill near to were they live they allways travel ignoring game on their own patch,' that is there store

Yes, foxes do bury food. If they have more food than they can eat at one time (like if they get into your chicken coop) they will come back and bury what they can't eat. Have you ever seen those wildlife documentaries about Arctic foxes burying seabird eggs?

I never miss them Sid but arctic foxes are in different circumstances there are only certimes times of the year when food is plentyfull ie' those young birds on their first flight a lot do not make the sea, and soon after they burry them it freazes so they have a frizer so to speek ,minde you I could be wrong

No, you're quite right Cliffo, different species, different circumstances. But I believe our native red fox also buries his surplus.

you could be right, I know more about the forin nature than our own, they should do a comperable seaires on wild life hear.

Still reckon it will be badgers, I doubt any sane fox would bury its food in the middle of a lawn. And if you've seen the devastation caused in a hen house if a fox gets in you'll know they kill every last hen eat what they want and leave the rest.

We have foxes on the allotments,
now and again when i have been digging over a bed i have come across a Goose egg buried there and the only thing i could think off is a fox buried it there for later.

Having got onto the NFBG site I am now convinced that Moon grower and Cliffo are right. There are very large holes and much smaller ones; almost as if the lawn has been walked over in supersize stilletto heels. Apparently the larger holes are their latrine, and we have been noticing round flattish berry-looking faeces appearing in the garden that we couldn't identify, so I think we have a watertight case. I am now about to get back to the NFBG for advice because they say that Badgers on the lawn have to be dealt with IMMEDIATELY, but do not say how.
Penny

Good luck Penny - keep us posted as to how it all goes.

Someone mentioned chafer beetles. I looked them up and it would appear that it is the lava of the chafer beetle that then attracts badgers, foxes and crows to dig down into the lawn to retrieve them. I had noticed long lines of crows digging into the holes; so now we have the culprits and the reason that the lawn has suddenly become so attractive. Waiting for a reply from NFBG. Will keep you posted.

Penny

Gosh I would never have thought of beetles as being the cause of the badger problem...

Mg - I don't see the relevance of your second comment in your post of 5th Nov. However, since you bring it up, the reason why a fox kills every chicken he can when he gets into your coop is that he is simply making the most of the plenty. If you leave the dead chickens where they lie, the fox does come back for them.

Lumpy - there was a very interesting bit in Autumn Watch the other day - you might still get it on iplayer - about badger latrines. Apparently they only defecate (sp?) along the boundaries of their territory, 'holding it in' if necessary until they get there. It's to do wtih warding off members of rival sets. Bit unfortunate for you..... lol