Hi, I have been reading this message board for quite some time. This is the first time I posted. We lost at least 4 hens today due to a red fox. I let the hens out of their run around 3 pm while I was doing chores out back.After awhile I went back in the house. I looked out the window while washing eggs,They were all there. My husband came home and when he looked out there were dead chickens laying around the yard. We saw the fox from the kitchen window. We ran right out. The chickens had completely scattered all over the yard, hiding in the bushes. There were three chickens dead, one that my husband put out of her misery. He got the gun and waited. Got a shot into the fox when it came back, it ran off. He found it out back of the yard and killed it. We always shut the chickens in the coop every night.
I'm so sorry to hear about this. Sooner or later, we almost all have a fox experience to tell! Hopefully, that will be the end of your predator problems for a long, long time. Glad you came here to unload. It helps to know others understand. Also I want to welcome you to Backyard Chickens. Come back again under happier circumstances. P.S. Glad your husband got the fox!!!
A couple of months ago we had to kill a fox. It was a female. My SO said there would be a male in the area and he was right. We shot it just last week so be sure and watch out for this. Now we are wondering if they had an offspring that will start to show up. I sure hope not. Sorry for your loss. Do you not have a roo to alert you of any danger? This is how we were able to kill both foxes. I have a lot of roos so its easy to know when something is up. Good luck to you.
So sorry for your loss. Wow...we had a fox attack too , last July , but it was in the middle of the night! I had NO idea they would attack in the daytime!! WE have foxes all around us too!!! Glad you shared this , so I will know to be more alert when we let our chickens out !!! ( I have not any chckens now due to coons and foxes ) We are ordering a new flock soon and will do things very different .....we started by building a brand new 8x8x7 barn style coop that is , we hope, predator proof . And now I will always supervise my girls and roosters as they forage in the yard each evening out of the run!! Thanks again for sharing your story!!!
Quote:Both the foxes we had to kill in the last couple of months happened early in the morning after daylight. I don't know if this was because its winter and food is scarce or what. Both times five of my game roos were blocking the fox from getting to my younger birds. They take there job seriously. At least with all the roos I have there was enough racket going on to let us know there was danger. Back in the summer I was losing hens with biddies on the ground during the night so I'm thinking it had to be these foxes. They were coming close to the house and my dog fences. I guess they figured out the dogs couldn't get them.
we had foxes again last summer.. my brother shot 2, I missed 2.. there are still plenty to go 'round.. I am always amazed when someone is surprised that predators hunt in the day time or any other time that they are not expected to.. Here,, just for the record.. there is no predator that hunts only at night, and there is no predator that hunts only in the day time.. I have first hand experience with owls , weasels, fox, coons, cats, all day and night time visits.. PS I am guessing that the fox was a young inexperienced one... an adult, feeding it's young would normally take one and run...
