To make a long story short: over the last eight or so months we've lost at least around twenty birds to foxes. Come to find out, (which I suspected) it was the work of a mother and her pups who had grown up into chicken killing machines. Our neighbors and fellow chicken keepers have trapped most of the pups, but the mother remained at large. We viewed their method of catching them, but our setup does not allow for this. (They had a dog kennel that they left half open with dog food in it and the foxes went in and were trapped) So after a while, I got brave and let the chickens out to range and all was peaceful for about a month. Of course it didn't last. Last week I was working on the computer and I hear the roosters having a high-speed come apart outside. I rushed outside to see a fox attempting to drag away my Pekin duck who lives with the chickens. A little background on Daisy the Pekin. She came from the hatchery along with three others--two Blue Swedish and a beautiful Cayuga. They were in a temporary enclosure and a fox was evidently smart enough to get in. He killed both the Swedish and the Cayuga, and tried to kill Daisy as well, but due to her large size, was unsuccessful. The commotion woke me up and I found the remains of the three, and Daisy roaming the yard confused, and probably in shock. Thankfully she has done very well with the chickens and behaves as one of them and fits right in with the flock. Anyway, despite a slight wing injury, Daisy is still alive and well. She's proved to be quite tough by surviving two attacks and I'll do whatever it takes to keep her safe. Back to the present. We are building a garage for my grandpa who is moving a trailer on our property. With all the concrete workers and hammering, I figured that no predator would come around with all the noise. Well, I was right. When they all went home this evening, our family went out to eat. We were gone no more than a hour and a half and I come home to find a pile of feathers. It turns out the devil had gotten one of our Guineas. What makes me mad is that I found the body completely intact, no attempt to eat it or anything. This is a first in all the attacks that we have suffered. I briefly considered the work of a stray dog, but the body had been drug into very thick weeds. We've tried everything. We've set fox sets and other types of traps over possible trails and dens with no avail. We are now to the point where my grandpa and I are thinking about sitting out in the yard with our rifles all day and quietly waiting. I have talked with another chicken keeper in my area who has suspended a young rooster in a cage from a tree with a trap set at the bottom. I really don't want to do this, though. I would love if anyone could share their successful methods or offer some advice on this situation. Sorry for the length, but I am royally fed up with these foxes. I know there will be predator attacks with keeping chickens; it just goes along with it. But when I can't leave for even a couple of hours, I feel it must be stopped some way or another.
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