First timer - and my first fox attack. Please help!

[cyay918]

Greetings all, love this website and forums!

I am a first timer, and I now have 12 (was 14) buff orpingtons which are about 4 moths old. Not laying yet but they should be getting close. I have a 2 acre yard and I have been letting them truly free range during the afternoon. I open the coop when I get home from work, and then go out to shut it at night before bed.

Everything has been great until last night when I went to close the coop door. I noticed that I am missing 2 chickens. Upon searching for them, I found 2 piles of feathers and a trail of feathers going through the brush beyond my property. I have never seen a coyote, but I have seen a fox before. We are in North GA so they are pretty common.

In any event, since 2 birds died, im assuming its more than one predator. A land predator from the trail of feathers.


So I am having to make my first run. I did not get hardware cloth because its too expensive for me right now. I had to go with the welded wire mesh stuff. I know I can still have a loss due to a predator "pulling" a chicken through the hole but its all I can do right now.

I have a few questions regarding construction though.

I read that foxes can jump and climb pretty high so I assume it is necessary to have a "roof" of wire over the top of the run as well correct? Can this be the cheap chicken wire or does it need to be the mesh stuff as well? I do not know if foxes are smart enough to climb onto the top, and then chew through the thinner wire on top.

The fence I have is 4' tall. Ive read that I need to bury the fence a foot deep which leaves me with a 3' tall run. I dont mind crawling if I need to get in there but I would like to know if I could NOT bury the fence and perhaps install a strand or two of electric fence wire around the run. Do you think foxes would catch onto that and begin digging outside the range of the electrical fence or do you think they would run off after a shock?

Thanks in advance, I have to do something, one way or another...tomorrow. The chickens are stuck in the coop 24/7 right now.

 

[cyay918]

Maybe I can just take the current fencing back, get cheap chicken wire type fencing combined with a few strands of electric fence?

 

[LoneOak]

Doubt seriously that a store will take back any used or open package wire. You don't have to bury it a foot deep, I've read that also and it is impossible to do where I live just west of Atlata. I used 6 ft chicken wire and put a top on parts of my run with 2" chicken wire, if you use 1" on the top all the sticks, leaves and other junk will gather up on the top and make it sag, with 2" stuff it will mostly all fall through.

Standard chicken wire is much more affordable than welded wire by a long shot especially with 2"mesh. Thee is a chance that a young bird could squeeze through 4" opening in welded wire but they can't get through even 2" chicken wire once they are a couple months old but they will try. When you install your wire fence make sure you pull it as tight as you possible can, it does make a difference if it can sag or if its tight.

If I read you post right the predator caught your birds before they were in any fence, they were free ranging in the yard. Who knows if it was a fox or not, it could have been a racoon or a possum even. Most any kind of fence will discourage these type critters especially in the daytime. If you make sure your birds are in the coop after dark and stay in the fenced run (4 ft is fine without a roof) during the day you should be fine because a fox or other perdators won't take the time to get in if their is a chance they will be seen. They got your two birds during the day not in a run because it was easy to grab and go without being seen.