Fox Attack in Broad Daylight

[UrbanFarmerGirl]

To the poster: Is your JRT ok with the chickens? If you leave them in the yard together I do not think a fox will come around. Dogs can smell that foxy musky smell from very far away and will be on the lookout. It will just encourage the fox to look elsewhere. That's easier than having the chickens locked up all of the time, and better for the fox too- in lots of places they are having a real hard time finding food and keeping their number up, and they are important in keeping other prey populations under control. Maybe he'll try hunting other pests for you.

 

[akpeeps]

Well, something got the meat out of the trap without tripping it last night. Thought I heard some unusual noises about 4 this morning so went out and checked....empty trap-no bait.

 

[petesgirl]

I have the same problem, but it is coyotes, not foxes. We have had our chickens for over a year, free ranging almost every day with few problems (we did have one chicken disappear, one was killed by a neighbors dog, but nothing else) until yesterday. My husband happened to look out the window about 3 in the afternoon to see a coyote chasing a chicken. Hubby ran outside yelling, but it was too late. I got a glimpse of coyote with my biggest black-sex link chicken in his mouth. I also yelled and screamed drop her, but nope, the coyote kept running. I let my dog out and my hubby and dog disappeared running after the coyote and chicken. I followed, but couldn't keep up, they were all running fast! Pretty soon I see my husband coming back holding our dead chicken. He said our dog chased the coyote down and made him drop the chicken, but it was too late. We put the chickens up and I do not want to let them out, we do have a nice sized run, but no top on it, the fence is about 8 feet high, with hardware cloth buried down, so nothing can dig under, but a hawk or racoon couold get over the top. We need to get a top on.
So then this morning my neighbor came over to warn me that there were 2 coyotes in my driveway! Well crap! I have 2 big lab mixes that are pretty much outdoor dogs and she said they chased the coyotes off. My backyard is fenced off so the dogs can't get back there to protect the chickens in the back, we have to keep the gate closed because we also have goats, and we don't want them in the front. Of course the chickens can get over the fence and can hang out in the front or back, there just is not any protection from the dogs in the back.
We also have 2 cats and a chihuahua that I am now worried about. My chi is on an invisible fence system so he won't run out into the street, but the coyote could easily get him, so now I will have to stand there and watch him while he goes potty, and he likes to go out early! Will this coyote problem get better? The wildlife department said that it is bad right now because they are bringing food to their babies, great more future coyotes! He also said we have the right to shoot and kill any coyote that comes on to our property.
When you use live traps, what do you do when you catch one?

 

[akpeeps]

Shoot it.

 

[aprophet]

they are a lot harder to catch with live traps someone posts a picture of a pup in one now and again "proving" it can be done but they are caught a lot quicker with coil spring or double long spring traps snares work well too

 

[petesgirl]

Funny thing is, I think my husband would shoot it if it is out running on our property, but if it is in a trap, it seems different to shoot it, but that is what would have to be done! I am a bit of an animal lover and have a hard time with that kind of stuff, but I have to protect all of my animals, and there seems to be so many coyotes out here. We most likely won't get live traps, we will just be on the look out.

 

[LovinMyNewChicks]

We have just finished building our coop, and are now in the process of finishing our run. Our chicks are 3 weeks old - we have 28 (ordered 25, and got extras). We live on the corner of a farm-to-market highway and a dirt road. There are houses across the highway and woods across the dirt road. The whole time we've been building, we have been hearing this weird noise. My mom thought it sounded like an animal in a trap. But I had heard it all last Summer, too. We know we have panthers around, and thought that might be it. Then last week, our next door neighbor (down the highway, across a pasture from us) lost all 11 of his pullets to a fox in the middle of the day. His wire was buried 12", but the fox dug a tunnel under the fence and came up in the pen. He took everything -- not even a feather left. His wife saw the fox out the window, but it was too late. So I looked on youtube and found a video of a fox "shrieking." That's exactly what we've been hearing. So my husband started sitting out at dusk, and saw four of them the first night - running all around our barn and up and down the dirt road. Since then, I guess we've all been more observant...my mom (who lives next door - up the dirt road from us) has seen two from her porch creeping down our driveway every morning around 7 am. And she has seen one in her front yard, just a few feet from her front door. Then my son & I saw one in our backyard just a few feet from our back door (which is the door we all use) - this was around 10 am. Our chicks have been in the coop now for 4 nights. I think the coop is sealed pretty tight. We do have 1/4" hardware cloth on most of the floor - boards on the rest. But for right now, we've laid plywood down on all of the floor and put shavings on top. But I am really worried about letting them out in the run once it's complete. We have set the 4x4x10 posts 2' in the ground. We are using 1/2" hardward cloth for the bottom half (up 36"). The wire is buried 8" (we've dug the trench, but haven't buried it yet). That's really as far as we've gotten. We're going to add an apron to the bottom of the wire. And we're thinking about adding some concrete before covering the wire with the dirt. We were going to use chicken wire for the top, but after reading here I'm thinking we'll use the 1x1 or 2x3 galvanized wire for the rest. I am new to this site, and love it. There is so much good info here. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

 

[rileysgranny]

UrbanFarmerGirl - yes, the JRT is fine with the chickens, much to my surprise! In fact one of my bantam roosters will jump him if he gets too close to them. Other than that the chickens usually ignore him. The only problem with leaving him out with the chickens when we aren't there is that he, the JRT, is so spoiled that he wants to be where we are and will stand at the front door and whine to get in instead in the back where the chickens are. But, we may have to try it again because we just can't spend hour upon hour guarding them and I hate not letting them out to enjoy the bugs, worms and seeds they love so much.

 

[vtgirls]

Unfortunately (for the fox) once the foxes get a whiff of chickens they need to be removed permanently, by trap or by shooting.....
From what you all are saying, all of your foxes must have kits they are trying to feed. They will stop at nothing to do so...

 

[Kriston]

I haven't seen the fox again, but that certainly doesn't mean he's not out there lurking around waiting for the right time to steal my baby chicks! Y'all, I'd be devastated if he got to my chicks.
The coyotes got 8 of my ducks a few months ago :-( I was so attached to them that it truly broke my heart.