Fox ate 2 chickens!

[wamtazlady]

Electric poultry netting will keep the fox from getting your chickens if you want to let them free range inside the netting.

 

[Folly's place]

Roosters die too!
Electric fencing, properly set up, will do very well. @Howard E has excellent advice, Premier1supplies has products and advice, and @cmom also has good pictures and advice here.
Mary

 

[cmom]

Mary is correct, I love to take pictures. I don't free range anymore but do have large pens for the birds that are covered and have electric wire around them. I use the poly rope wire with a 1.2 joule fence charger. My problem with a fox is that it dug under a gate to a pen and killed several birds. I have since put concrete under all of the gates and an electric wire at the bottom of the gates. Most predators first examine things with their noses and if they touch the wire, they will know it. I did eliminate the fox. Once they make a kill they will keep coming back. Good luck...

 

[lugboxer10]

Very sorry for your loss! I had a raccoon attack last week. One of the roosters definitely sacrificed himself. He's a hero. The raccoon got to one of my 12 hens. Ripped a giant gash across her chest. Fortunately, $600 later, she is fixed up and doing well. It was my fault because I got over confident and let them free range at night. I got 2 mini donkeys the past September after 5 chickens and 5 ducks were killed in one night. Haven't had a problem since I got the donkeys, but the chicken coop is fenced in and the donkeys cant get in there, so I feel bad. No more night time free ranging for my flock.

 

[hayley3]

So sorry about your Piper and Big Red...it's devastating I know.
I caught a fox once with my runner duck , the fox dropped her because I was chasing it across the field, but she was already dead. That is the only time I actually caught the fox.

I normally let my chickens out about 8:30 am, later is actually better, but I have plans to electrify, it's the only thing that really works. Right now their area is surrounded with Premier electric net fencing..and the neighbors dog came over to check it out! It was quite funny when it howled and took off running.

But a fox with babies will hunt during the day as well.

But I only have 100ft so have plans to enlarge it.

 

[hayley3]

Very sorry for your loss! I had a raccoon attack last week. One of the roosters definitely sacrificed himself. He's a hero. The raccoon got to one of my 12 hens. Ripped a giant gash across her chest. Fortunately, $600 later, she is fixed up and doing well. It was my fault because I got over confident and let them free range at night. I got 2 mini donkeys the past September after 5 chickens and 5 ducks were killed in one night. Haven't had a problem since I got the donkeys, but the chicken coop is fenced in and the donkeys cant get in there, so I feel bad. No more night time free ranging for my flock.

I had 4 goats which helped keep my hens safe because the hens walked along with the goats in the pasture.

 

[Anime2lover]

Thanks Mary, I will do that. My dog is medium size but good with chickens. She has a sore leg though.
We got lots of hunters and trappers here.
I would never want to kill any animal especially a fox. But a fox with a desire to wipe out my poultry just signed it’s death certificate. Talking to the neighbors about it.
I was warned once they find your chickens they will keep coming back.
It is a shame. We been fortunate to have our chickens for 10 months without incident. I never realized Spring could be so tough. 3 gone in a short time.
Would a rooster been able to protect them? Or alert?
I don’t have any roosters.
The coop is sturdy and the run. Nothing but a bear can get through that

Yes. Roos will even give their lives for the hens if their good ones. They will do their best to alert for air and land predators and have different alerts for each one. If it's an air alert, the hens will know to run for cover. Not sure about land alerts since foxes haven't found ours for a good 3 yr now and coyotes only come around when their cooped up.

 

[Bigbluefrog]

Call me devil's Advocate and as awful as this sounds, the red foxes currently have about 2 month old pups in their den- please don't kill or relocate it, it just has lots of mouths to feed currently. Consider perhaps a safer space for your animals in the early spring time especially. I so sorry for your loss.

So what your saying instead of one Fox I may have half a dozen. Yikes! Yes we thought about the pups too.

 

[Mtnboomer]

So what your saying instead of one Fox I may have half a dozen. Yikes! Yes we thought about the pups too.

You already have dozens. There is a farm in MD that I grew up deer hunting and still do today. Red fox are a common sight and I have shot several over the years. The land owner allows a trapper to come in for whatever furs he wants. On just 200 acres of ground, the trapper removes on avg 30 fox a year! In 2017 he took 64 red fox!

Obviously, they roamed beyond the boarders of the farm and your area may not have as high of a population, i don't know, but the point is its never just one fox. If there is a fox there will always be fox.

 

[Kuekenkrazy]

So what your saying instead of one Fox I may have half a dozen. Yikes! Yes we thought about the pups too.

Foxes don't stay long in one den, they will disperse at the end of the summer and usually it's only 4-6 pups. But if it's not foxes then it is raccoons or hawks. The best thing to do is protect your flock.