Dang varmints!!

[Gray Farms]

Heard a ruckus from the geese and guineas this morning. By the time I got my boots on and got out there I counted 9 geese instead of 10. Followed the trail through the brush and recovered the body. Pretty sure it was a fox and it got on of my 2018 ganders. Better than loosing a female but loss is a still a loss. Dang I hate varmints! I loose one or two geese a year but usually to owls.

 

[Fishsticks06]

Time to shore up your coop and run. Make it fox proof. Not sure I would kill the fox right now. Chances are it has babies. That would be sadder than sad to me. I would be looking for ways to keep my flock safe, hardening the defenses. I just had to do that to stop the eagles. It was a long week but I don't think I'll lose another chicken to an eagle.

We have a trail cam and I have to say foxes won’t stop (at least for us.) We have a fox that continuously paces around the coop at night. If it has kits, they’ll just grow up to be like mama.

 

[Gray Farms]

Predator control can be a mixed bag since the varmints often provide a control for other varmints and/or rodents. All the same, after all due deliberation I’m pretty sure I’d blow the little &#@*& away. Game cameras are helpful, but in addition to that a baby-cam or one of those doorbell devices I can’t use because... satellite internet... could give you real-time information and a heads-up that it might be time to grab the varmint elimination device and head out the door.

Oh make no mistake I have no trouble eliminating anything I catch killing my birds or that is a threat to my birds on my property. I "take care of" many many varmints every year. I've just never had trouble like this in broad daylight before. Just thought it was odd.

 

[Gray Farms]

I feel your pain. Really I do. I'm so sorry you lost some of your ducks. I just lost 3 chickens to eagles for the first time ever. I have never even heard of an eagle going after chickens in my area until this year, but they are going after everyone's. My run is 4000 sf and I have figured out how to keep the eagles out. If there is a will, there is a way. Good luck to you. Please, if you shoot the momma fox, find her den first and shoot the babies. Letting them suffer and die a slow death seems untenable to me.

Geese, they are geese. Not chickens or ducks. Good luck with your eagles.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Since your talking about strange happening with our birds we had a 4.5’ blk snake attack a 6 week old Cochin Bantam chic an try to eat it of course it could only get head an neck down before it realized it couldn’t eat the rest. I had thought snakes would be able to size up its prey and know if it could eat it before it attacked and killed it. We’ve had many chicks ducklings and goslings and black snakes and never had this happen. I just think it’s odd.

 

[Fishsticks06]

Heard a ruckus from the geese and guineas this morning. By the time I got my boots on and got out there I counted 9 geese instead of 10. Followed the trail through the brush and recovered the body. Pretty sure it was a fox and it got on of my 2018 ganders. Better than loosing a female but loss is a still a loss. Dang I hate varmints! I loose one or two geese a year but usually to owls.

Oh, that’s unfortunate.. This is likely to continue, the fox knows where easy pickings are. I’d say exterminate the thing so it doesn’t continue, that’s about your only option if you want it gone. Anyways, we’ve got predators of our own near the coop. I just hope you can find a solution, best wishes!

 

[ValerieJ]

Time to shore up your coop and run. Make it fox proof. Not sure I would kill the fox right now. Chances are it has babies. That would be sadder than sad to me. I would be looking for ways to keep my flock safe, hardening the defenses. I just had to do that to stop the eagles. It was a long week but I don't think I'll lose another chicken to an eagle.

 

[CindyinSD]

Predator control can be a mixed bag since the varmints often provide a control for other varmints and/or rodents. All the same, after all due deliberation I’m pretty sure I’d blow the little &#@*& away. Game cameras are helpful, but in addition to that a baby-cam or one of those doorbell devices I can’t use because... satellite internet... could give you real-time information and a heads-up that it might be time to grab the varmint elimination device and head out the door.

 

[Gray Farms]

Are you free ranging? You can create a safe place for your chickens by putting them in an enclosed run, with a roof.

These are adult geese. Their pen is about a 1/4 of an acre. It'll be impossible to enclose it. I loose one or two a year but its always been at night and typically owls. This was midmorning and broad daylight. Its never happened before in my 15 years raising Sebastopol geese.

 

[Gray Farms]

@Fishsticks06 @Miss Lydia, thanks for your condolences.