What happens when foxes start eating chickens (graphic)

[DarJones]

If you have ever been through a fox taking your chickens, you have a good idea how they operate. They have a typical stalking sequence where they hide behind objects in the landscape, get within 30 feet of their target, rush out and grab a chicken, then run immediately back to shelter in the woods. The fox is usually exposed for 5 seconds or less. I had a problem since March with chickens being taken. I had to do something about it or would have lost all of my birds.

My house has an end window that overlooks the chicken barn and yard area where they spend most of the day. I removed the screen and lifted the window a few inches. I placed my loaded 12 gauge shotgun on the window sill (could not do this with children around!). Then I sat in a chair near the window and waited for the chickens to squawk. They will make alarm sounds when they see the fox and it is guaranteed they will see it before I do. I started killing foxes in June and think I finally got the last one this week. It was VERY difficult to kill them. I got lucky with the last 2, they were more focused on the chickens than on me aiming a gun at them. I shot them just before they ran out from behind some bushes. The key to killing them is that I was where they could not see me until I had the gun pointed at them.

https://www.selectedplants.com/miscan/fox1.jpg

https://www.selectedplants.com/miscan/fox2.jpg

https://www.selectedplants.com/miscan/fox3.jpg

https://www.selectedplants.com/miscan/fox4.jpg

Some will consider killing foxes brutal. I consider @70 dead chickens (mostly new chicks) eaten by the foxes to be brutal. Mother nature makes NO allowances for how you or I feel. You have a choice, protect your birds or know with certainty that predators will kill them. Am I certain this is the last of them? On the contrary, this area - like most of the eastern U.S. - is loaded with foxes. There will be another, it is just a matter of time. Meantime, I have about 200 eggs in the incubator and about 40 chicks growing.

 

[mowin]

Protect your animals, yes, but not by shooting wild animals, but protect your animals by fencing them off from predators!
In Europe, you would be fined for killing foxes, because it is strictly forbidden!
The veterinary inspector would fine you because your animals are not properly fenced!
But that's in Europe!

Sorry, but shooting the predators is protecting my livestock.
So if I had the birds in a 5' high fenced in field, and a fox jumped the fence and killed chickens, you'd be ok with killing the fox? Or would you expect one to spend $100's or even $1000's of dollars that they might not have to fortify the field further?

Thankfully I don't live in Europe, and have plenty of ammo.

 

[mowin]

You are free to be angry at my opinion, but killing any predator is a primitive way of protecting your poultry! A predator is doing what it was created to do, which is to kill to feed itself! You are a bad poultry farmer if you can't protect your animals by fencing your chicken coop with metal mesh. (I also mean the upper part).
If that investment is expensive for you and you don't want to completely fence your animals, then you don't meet all the requirements of the veterinary inspection for raising chickens (that's how it is here in Europe)!
You simply do not have all the conditions for safe breeding of chickens!
There are hunting societies that are responsible for pest control!
If you properly fenced your animals, and the predator still managed to kill them, the hunting company will compensate you for the damage!

See how simple it is in the civilized world?

I'm not angry at your position. However,
Your obviously angry at my position, but killing predators that are actively killing livestock is LEGAL in the USA.
We don't need hunting societies as we are a free nation and are allowed to hunt for our own food and to control predators.

See how simple it is in a civilized FREE world?

 

[Geena]

I’ve made this point many times. Clearly the people commenting about protecting chickens with fencing and even hot wires are lacking actual experience.
Chickens turn into pinballs with a fox, raccoon, wombat, zombie or platypus lurking outside.

 

[dawg53]

Good shooting!

 

[ikoCRO]

You have a choice, protect your birds or know with certainty that predators will kill them....

Protect your animals, yes, but not by shooting wild animals, but protect your animals by fencing them off from predators!
In Europe, you would be fined for killing foxes, because it is strictly forbidden!
The veterinary inspector would fine you because your animals are not properly fenced!
But that's in Europe!

 

[LaFleche]

I'm from Croatia!
You're from Germany?
You can kill wild animals whenever and however you want?
Why are you lying?
All countries of the European Union have a clear law on the protection of domestic and wild animals - this law is also implemented in European countries that are not in the EU.
You know very well that no matter what kind of animals you have, you have to register and the veterinary inspection has to check the conditions in which you keep the animals!
One of the items in the law is that you must not expose animals to predator attacks, and that you must protect them!
Killing foxes, wolves, bears, falcons, snakes, weasels is strictly prohibited in the European Union, and don't lie that it isn't!
I personally know a lot of German poultry farmers and I know that in Germany they are very strict in enforcing the law!

Killing predators is very primitive and bad!
If you cannot properly fence/protect your animals, you do not deserve to keep animals!

Please, calm down.

Just because you think you know something does not necessarily mean that your assumptions are always correct.

Killing foxes and other predators is allowed provided you are a hunter and do it correctly, meaning respecting the closed seasons for every species and using the proper tools for doing so.

Apart from this, sometimes people will have to resort to their own methods as some predators will even attack people in their own yard in broad daylight. This happened to a neighbour who was attacked and badly bitten in the leg by a big raccoon when she went to feed her poultry.

Raccoons are no longer protected species as they are considered an invasive animal that has proven to be detrimental for lots of our endemic species. They are subject to hunting legislation and the rather newly proclaimed aim is to rid the endangered endemic species from this plague.

The European Commision issued a paper which enlists species that are to be considered invasive and to be eradicated because of their detrimental effect on the endemic species.

https://www.health.belgium.be/de/ti...ve-gebietsfremde-arten/europaeische-liste-der

 

[LaFleche]

You know very well that no matter what kind of animals you have, you have to register and the veterinary inspection has to check the conditions in which you keep the animals!

This is just not true.

You can hardly see it fit to apply national laws and regulations for farm animal breeders producing meat for human consumption (food industry) to a private person keeping a Hamster or some ornamental fish etc.

This even is very funny, just imagine how to register the little fish and their tiny offspring ...or trying to do so with daphnia...

 

[Captain13]

We have to kill them here. The Department of Natural Resources allows it because of the high rate of rabies in foxes and raccoons. If a fox comes in contact with your dog, the dog has to be quarantined for 12 weeks in a pen that you have to build and the state has to approve, cost of the pen is around $1500. You can trap or kill. Most choose to kill. I’m one of them. I shot a fox just before lunch two weeks ago that had grabbed my neighbor’s rooster. The rooster and the fox both lived, but the fox has a noticeable limp now.

 

[roosterhavoc]