fox attack during broad daylight while I was outside!

[B-Goock]

I let my hens free range in the yard while we are outside. I do live in a rural area so predators are a constant concern but I was amazed a fox came after my flock yesterday afternoon in broad daylight. He singled out one of my black sex links named boss hog and chased her across the back yard, under the porch, and had her. He promptly ran with her in his mouth to the front yard, across the road, and into the woods with me in pursuit.
I thought she was surely gone.

The only thing that gave me a clue of the foxes direction was her cries. I snuck in and caught a glimpse of him and I took two shots to scared him enough to drop her. It's just a small 32 auto pistol. I'm not sure if I hit him or not but he did drop her and she ran back in my direction.

So now I have a hurt hen minus a mouthful or two of feathers. Her leg was bleeding but did stop and her wing seems to be injured. After the shock of what occurred she is now standing, some walking, and drinking. I've ace bandaged her wing up but it doesn't stay on very good.

Boss hog has a new name now that she earned, "Foxy".
I'm pretty confident Foxy will heal up.

 

[B-Goock]

Yesterday she was drinking a little but wouldn't eat. About all she would do is stand in the coop. I was surprised that I went to check on her once and she had gotten into a nesting box and laid an egg.
This morning she's laying on the floor and I think since she's not eating I'm going to grind up her food and force feed her some. I tend to lean to the side of chickens "do what they need" but she needs energy to heal.

My solutions to the fox problem (along with other predators in my area coyotes, bob cats, domestic dogs, cougars) is I am roughly doubling my run size so I can leave them in more. The run right now is 8x16 and under the coop is 5x8. I'm adding on another 8x16 and put a 8x8 roof over part of the old run.

Another solution is to set up a blind and hunt. I know my neighbors dogs and they don't cause any problems so they will be safe but if I see any strays attempting to get in the run, well the gig is up.

 

[sbhkma]

So glad you got her back! My son had a fox come right up while he was out with the chickens working on the coop. His large hunting lab saw the fox and ran him off, but that fox was within about 30 yards of my son. Middle of the day.

 

[kocho]

Oh wow. That's scary. Glad you were able to rescue her. I hope she heals up well.

 

[aart]

Vixens might have babies to feed about now, they get bold.

 

[gander007]

I let my hens free range in the yard while we are outside. I do live in a rural area so predators are a constant concern but I was amazed a fox came after my flock yesterday afternoon in broad daylight. He singled out one of my black sex links named boss hog and chased her across the back yard, under the porch, and had her. He promptly ran with her in his mouth to the front yard, across the road, and into the woods with me in pursuit.
I thought she was surely gone.

The only thing that gave me a clue of the foxes direction was her cries. I snuck in and caught a glimpse of him and I took two shots to scared him enough to drop her. It's just a small 32 auto pistol. I'm not sure if I hit him or not but he did drop her and she ran back in my direction.

So now I have a hurt hen minus a mouthful or two of feathers. Her leg was bleeding but did stop and her wing seems to be injured. After the shock of what occurred she is now standing, some walking, and drinking. I've ace bandaged her wing up but it doesn't stay on very good.

Boss hog has a new name now that she earned, "Foxy".
I'm pretty confident Foxy will heal up.

Job well dune

Take care of Foxy ..

 

[B-Goock]

Foxy

She isn't too impressed with the tote I use to keep her inside at night.

I still can't get her to eat much on her own other than wheat bread. Any suggestions?
I think she's feeling better because she was trying to preen herself a little and is more alert so things may be looking up for her.

 

[aart]

Foxy

She isn't too impressed with the tote I use to keep her inside at night.

I still can't get her to eat much on her own other than wheat bread. Any suggestions?
I think she's feeling better because she was trying to preen herself a little and is more alert so things may be looking up for her.

Scrambled eggs....or chopped up hard boiled eggs.

 

[sbhkma]

You might also try high protein chick feed and add some aloe vera juice to it to make a gruel. My girls love that almost as much as watermelon.

 

[B-Goock]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried the scrambled eggs yesterday and she wouldn't touch them. All she would eat herself was wheat bread. Today I got her to eat some corn herself. Tomorrow I'll give the scrambled eggs a shot again.

I finished extending the run today so I thought she should get a chance to initiate it so I took her out there. It's in the shade and has all kinds of greens in it along with some rotted log pieces loaded with bugs. For the most part all she did was stand, slowly walk around, and kept looking into the old run with the rest of the girls so I just let them all in. Once they all got to scratching around and sampling greens she perked up a bit and even spotted one of those brown centipedes and chased it down like it was a choice cut of meat. I figured as long as she is pecking around at stuff and eating that I would just let her stay.

I came back to shut up the coop and get her this evening and she had went up the walk board on her own power and found a place to sleep. She couldn't get up on the roost but she isn't sleeping on the ground so I let her be. I'll just take the doctors advice, "Do what you feel you can but don't over do it." She feels like she can sleep with the other girls then ok.

I'll look around for the aloe vera juice. Thanks