Chicken all alone. Please help

[Hannahek10]

Just today I unfortunately came home from school to one of my four chickens dead in the run. We decided to let the other three free roam even though I didn’t feel like it was safe enough. I went outside when it was getting dark to make sure the chickens went into the coop and I came out to one of them by themselves. I shut her in the coop and went looking for the other two. After searching with my family, we found remanence of one of the chickens. An hour of looking later, we couldn’t find the third one. There has always been a fox around, but it never seemed to be a problem until today. I now only have one left and I’m extremely devastated as these are my first ever chickens and my love for my pets is so strong. The coop and run are both very predator proof so I have no idea how my first chicken died in the run. I shouldn’t have left the others out that same day. It’s currently night and I’m not sure if I should keep my last chicken outside in the coop by herself or make a makeshift one inside the house as I stay next to her? Would she be more comfortable outside where shes familiar with her surroundings? I’m currently looking for 1-2 chickens that need adopted/rehomed, but not finding any luck. Also, in the future, is there anything I can do about this fox? I still would like to free roam them, but now with this incident I’m going to find it extremely difficult. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[azygous]

I'm so sorry. Losing your pet chickens is an awful blow. Yes, I understand. It's happened to me. You never get used to it.

Predators can be very smart, but they develop habits. One habit is once they nab a chicken, they come right back the next day for more. You need to be prepared for that by mixing up the routine of your chickens to disrupt the predator's plans.

The first chicken may have been killed through the mesh of your run fence if it's made of poultry wire. The large mesh permits a predator to stick a paw through to snag a chicken and pull her toward the fence where parts can be torn off. Raccoons are especially good at this.

Running quarter inch hardware cloth around the lower portion of your run will help. Burying an "apron" into the soil around the run will discourage diggers. But the best deterrent is electric hot wire run around the coop and run and baited with peanut butter to invite the predator to engage the wire to get a shock.

Your feed store probably carries the supplies and they are surprisingly inexpensive, the fence charger being the biggest cost. They will also give you simple pointers on how to set it up.

 

[cmom]

So sorry for you loss. I don't free range anymore due to losses from predators. It is a risk you take and sooner or later those who do will loose a bird/birds at some time. Lessons learned the hard way. I have large covered pens with electric wires around my coops and pens. Nothing has gotten past the hot wires. There are several good threads on electric fencing. I personally use wires. You can run any number you want. I have three. I also have several game cameras and see predators on them quite regularly. Not knowing where you live you may be able to find a farm swap in or around your area. Good luck...

 

[azygous]

The great thing about hot wire and using a bait on the wire to engage the predator is that the lesson learned from being shocked is permanent. That individual predator will not ever return. They will associate your premises with acute pain and will stay completely away.

 

[kmfmstar]

Just today I unfortunately came home from school to one of my four chickens dead in the run. We decided to let the other three free roam even though I didn’t feel like it was safe enough. I went outside when it was getting dark to make sure the chickens went into the coop and I came out to one of them by themselves. I shut her in the coop and went looking for the other two. After searching with my family, we found remanence of one of the chickens. An hour of looking later, we couldn’t find the third one. There has always been a fox around, but it never seemed to be a problem until today. I now only have one left and I’m extremely devastated as these are my first ever chickens and my love for my pets is so strong. The coop and run are both very predator proof so I have no idea how my first chicken died in the run. I shouldn’t have left the others out that same day. It’s currently night and I’m not sure if I should keep my last chicken outside in the coop by herself or make a makeshift one inside the house as I stay next to her? Would she be more comfortable outside where shes familiar with her surroundings? I’m currently looking for 1-2 chickens that need adopted/rehomed, but not finding any luck. Also, in the future, is there anything I can do about this fox? I still would like to free roam them, but now with this incident I’m going to find it extremely difficult. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Im so sorry for your loss! The same happened to us; we had 16 hens and in the middle of the night a group of raccoons (5) dug under the wire and ate the heads off of 6 of our girls. My husband shot them and we brought the survivors on our screened back porch for the night. Our daughter’s friends had built the enclosure for us and buried the fencing less than a ft in the ground, not deep enough.

The next day i had a mini excavator delivered and built a run 60’ x 20’. I buried wire 4’ deep, fenced and cross fenced it because i wanted my hens on fresh grass at all times. I built nest boxes about 4’ tall and rotated the hens when the section they were occupying was tilled and almost barren. I used hog wire and lined it from the ground up about 4’ with hardware cloth. I also enclosed the top with hog wire (it was 10’ tall so we could walk in comfortably). The nest boxes were placed in the center of the runs so that no predator could reach their little heads at night while they were roosting. We fed them scraps from the kitchen, and by the time they needed to be rotated the vacant runs were overgrown with vegetables and tall grass. There is no joy like seeing your girls ecstatically frolic in waist high fresh grass and produce! We ended up with 60 hens; our friends would attempt free ranging and learn the hard way, as we did, that predators will discover their new hunting grounds soon enough and they didnt have the time or resources to build a run like ours so we took their hens in.

i hope you find a companion for your little survivor soon. So so sorry for your loss

 

[Hannahek10]

I'm so sorry. Losing your pet chickens is an awful blow. Yes, I understand. It's happened to me. You never get used to it.

Predators can be very smart, but they develop habits. One habit is once they nab a chicken, they come right back the next day for more. You need to be prepared for that by mixing up the routine of your chickens to disrupt the predator's plans.

The first chicken may have been killed through the mesh of your run fence if it's made of poultry wire. The large mesh permits a predator to stick a paw through to snag a chicken and pull her toward the fence where parts can be torn off. Raccoons are especially good at this.

Running quarter inch hardware cloth around the lower portion of your run will help. Burying an "apron" into the soil around the run will discourage diggers. But the best deterrent is electric hot wire run around the coop and run and baited with peanut butter to invite the predator to engage the wire to get a shock.

Your feed store probably carries the supplies and they are surprisingly inexpensive, the fence charger being the biggest cost. They will also give you simple pointers on how to set it up.

Thank you so much for this information. I definitely will be adding that quarter inch hardware cloth near the bottom of the run as well as the electric wire. I do have about two feet of chicken wire that comes out from the run which blocks predators from digging. That seems to be working pretty well. Thanks again for the response!

 

[The WinterWolf]

id just break out the 12 gauge.... however if you dont want to, then you can set up traps and take the fox far from your home

 

[neo71665]

The only thing chicken wire is good for is keeping chickens in. Predators as small as a rat can tear it apart. It won't stop anything as an apron when it puts it's mind to it.

 

[NatJ]

you can set up traps and take the fox far from your home

In many areas, it is illegal to take a wild animal somewhere else and release it.

Even if it is not illegal, it is a bad idea, for people and for foxes:
--the fox might kill someone else's chickens at the new location
--the fox might get chased away or killed by other foxes or other predators that already live at the new location

Of course, those same points apply for other predators and pests too, not just foxes.

 

[cmom]

id just break out the 12 gauge.... however if you dont want to, then you can set up traps and take the fox far from your home

In many areas, it is illegal to take a wild animal somewhere else and release it.

Even if it is not illegal, it is a bad idea, for people and for foxes:
--the fox might kill someone else's chickens at the new location
--the fox might get chased away or killed by other foxes or other predators that already live at the new location

Of course, those same points apply for other predators and pests too, not just foxes.

We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipients of others relocations. My suggestion is, if you are going to trap and plan to relocate, contact a wildlife rescue in your area. They usually have relocations sites. In many places it's illegal even though many people still do it.