Either a Red Fox or Coyote?

[Kittymomma]

Coyotes will hunt at any time. I had one take a broody mamma hen 10' away from the house in my driveway at 6:00 p.m (doesn't get dark here until after 9:00 this time of year. They are very bold this time of year and as another poster said, you should keep close watch on your dog as well as your chooks. At only 15 lbs he's very vulnerable to attack.

A couple of years ago the coyotes were very bad here and running in packs, my 75+ lb lab mix ran into 6-8 of them in the lower field. Fortunately she showed a bit of sense (for the first time in her life) and ran right thru the pack and back to the house. She usually chases coyotes out of the area, but that many could have done real damage, even to a dog her size.

Coyotes will dig under and/or climb most fences, I'd suggest keeping your chooks in a run for now and reinforcing it with a few strands of electric fencing.

 

[Gallusfarm]

Quote:
how about that?? Thanks for letting us know...

 

[junglebean]

So I have continued to keep the chickies locked up in the tractor, and have discovered the path that the coyote pack uses to go through our lower yard out to the neighborhood. They haven't come into the open part of our yard since they figured out the chicken are locked up, but they make eye contact with me as they pass through the neighbor's yard at dusk. No fear...I have been trying to keep our dog in, as I am afraid he will be led back to the pack and killed. Animal control has been notified. Thanks everyone!

 

[brendapa]

We have a coyote that has shown up in the neighborhood. For Pete's sake! I'm in a suburb of West Chester, PA!
It killed the neighbor's boxer, down the street 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago someone saw one with 2 pups in the field.
My neighbor's dog was frantic at my side deck door to get in last week. She'd been running, hard. I let her in. I asked her if Timmy was in the well but realized from her actions she was very scared. She's never done this in the 9 years she's lived next door.
I think she outran them. It took her 1/2 hour before she was willing to go home and only after I turned on all the security lights.
I walked down to get the mail today and right in the middle of the driveway, fresh coyote scat. Big, like a dog's but dark, full of red meat, like a fox's.
Crap....he's leaving me his calling card.

 

[chickenlisa]

getting a rooster won't help...we just woke up this morning (early!) to see a gray fox attacking our grown NJ Giant Roo! We surprised him and the Rooster got away and is ok, but we've lost many roosters in the last year and now we know what's been getting them. I'm sure there is a family of foxes back in the woods who need to eat and our free chicken dinners (breakfasts) are part of their diet.
Good Luck!