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]

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.

 

[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.

 

[ValerieJ]

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.

In the meantime, if you're going to kill the momma, you need to find the den and kill the babies too, or they will die a slow death of starvation.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Sorry for your loss @Gray Farms

 

[ValerieJ]

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

 

[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.