Fox got the babies šŸ˜­ how do we protect them??

Hep44

Songster
May 8, 2020
144
142
111
This is our first time hatching chicks, and our broody momma cut the cord about 2 days ago, so the babies have been venturing out on their own. Early this morning, a fox came into the yard and got a young rooster and 3 of the 5 babies. What can I do with the remaining 2 babies to help protect them? We have a separate coop with younger birds, and I'm wondering if we should put them in that coop? They have always been in the big coop with momma, but now she hasn't been protecting them so I don't know if we should move them
 
I should add that they were free ranging. I'm going to try and add on to the run today and keep everyone locked up for a little while. I'm just wondering if we should.take extra precautions since they are so small. Typically our birds that are that small stay locked up, but these guys are used to free ranging with mom
 
So sorry for your loss. The fox will keep coming back unless you either eliminate it or protect your birds with an enclosure. I don't free range anymore due to losses in the past and when you free range that's the risk you take. This is the time of year when some are still feeding their young so are more apt to be out during the day hunting. Here most of the predators hunt at night. My brother has a family of fox in one of his pastures. His birds have a run. So far he said he has had no issues with the fox (yet). I have electric wires around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering all of the pens. I'm pretty sure that the predators around here know the electric wires are there and they teach their young that a bird isn't worth getting zapped for. I also have several game cameras up for different view points of the coops. I have seen predators out around the coops but not like I have in the past.
Here is a bobcat outside of my chick/grow-out coop not long ago. I have electric wires around it and the pens, concrete under the gates and it is also covered with good heavy duty netting. Many years ago I had a bobcat dig under a fence and it killed 14 birds. It just killed them. I set traps. It didn't come back the next night but did the following night, big mistake. Good luck...

If you do decide to try to catch it and don't want to eliminate it, there are usually wildlife rescues that will probably take it. I had an owl killing some of my birds. I did catch it and since they are federally protected I contacted a wildlife rescue who came and got it. They said they had a release area so it shouldn't be back. I have seen other owls since.
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A regular visitor. I see it on at least one of the cameras most nights.
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