I'm still here... Mom and chicks at six weeks of age! There are two Belgian d'Uccle cockerels, two d'Uccle pullets, a pair of EE bantams, and one d'Uccle- EE mix. Mary
Update: Sadly, a daytime predator (fox?) got mama, the two Belgian d'Uccle cockerels, and the EE bantam cockerel a few days ago. The two Belgian d'Uccle pullets, the EE pullet, and the mixed EE cockerel remain. Things happen. Mary
We were out of town at the time! Our son, who was at home managing everything, never saw the culprit; it's just a good guess. Since then, no more losses. I've had no success trapping foxes, but will be setting up traps tomorrow, now that we're home. Mary
We have rogue foxes here where we live. A vixen raised kits under a neighbors cottage and fed them using the neighborhood chicken flocks.Our neighbor who free ranges lost every bird except 1 lone hen and we were finding Guinea feathers and white chicken feathers all around our pond. We saw the fox on our property multiple times but luckily, as my coop is metal clad on concrete and protected by a hot wire, and my birds are run confined, we haven't suffered any losses.
I finally was able to contact our local agent and told him what was going on and asked if they would please come out and trap the animals. He told us that Fox were almost impossible to live trap-that they got their reputations as being sly for a reason but gave us permission to shoot the animals out of season without a permit as they had well crossed the line as being nuisance animals.
Hope you have luck ridding your property of your nuisance animals.