Seen a fox eying my chickens

I have two chickens in a backyard environment, I saw a fox behind their cage(obviously eying them up). I have a galvanised steel fence which goes half a foot out over the soil with slabs covering it, and also slabs around the perimeter their enclosure. Should I be worried about the fox as a lost chicken would be devastating to my younger sister.

Do you have a cover on your run? Foxes will climb fences. If you have a secure coop and run, your chickens should be OK. What kind of fencing do you have?

bobbi-j said:

Do you have a cover on your run? Foxes will climb fences. If you have a secure coop and run, your chickens should be OK. What kind of fencing do you have?

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The run is covered with the same hexagonal galvanised steel. The problem is that there is very little stopping the fox digging under, just slabs holding down some mesh and not anything under the ground. Would that be sufficient?

That hexagonal fencing you have needs to be reinforced soon with hardware cloth or some other sort of welded wire fencing. It looks nice, keeps chickens in, but doesn't do much to keep predators out. Raccoons can pull it apart with their dexterous little paws. Dogs, fox and coyote can rip right through it.

MosaicDragon said:

I have two chickens in a backyard environment, I saw a fox behind their cage(obviously eying them up). I have a galvanised steel fence which goes half a foot out over the soil with slabs covering it, and also slabs around the perimeter their enclosure. Should I be worried about the fox as a lost chicken would be devastating to my younger sister.

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bobbi-j said:

That hexagonal fencing you have needs to be reinforced soon with hardware cloth or some other sort of welded wire fencing. It looks nice, keeps chickens in, but doesn't do much to keep predators out. Raccoons can pull it apart with their dexterous little paws. Dogs, fox and coyote can rip right through it. 

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I agree with Bobbi. :/ Chicken wire is made to keep chickens in; not to keep predators out. Virtually everything needs to be reinforced with heavy-duty welded wire and even THAT could be reinforced with hardware cloth.
If there's a predator eyeing up your chickens, would you be able to handle shooting/trapping it, if able? Because that's always the best idea in the end, even if your pen is reinforced. Somehow, someway, those predators may find a way.

Sadly I live in England, so no guns(apart from air arms of which I have a couple of .177 pistols). As for the trap, i could not easily do that as I do not have any local means of sourcing them. Would doubling up on the wire be good?

Also, no racoons or coyote and there are no large dogs in my area. Only foxes badgers and cats. so as mentioned above would doubling up on the wire be strong enough, if not what do you recommend that could be done relatively cheaply

MosaicDragon said:

Also, no racoons or coyote and there are no large dogs in my area. Only foxes badgers and cats. so as mentioned above would doubling up on the wire be strong enough, if not what do you recommend that could be done relatively cheaply

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I would reinforce with something stronger. I'd also consider putting a cover on my run with the same stronger fencing you use to reinforce the run. Foxes can climb, badgers can dig.