Fox is attacking

[canalcolt]

We got 2 goats in April and now we have a fox.
For a couple of weeks my birds have been sqwauking their alarm almost every morning around 5:30am. our house has a forest behind it and makes kind of a horse shoe shape around our back part of the back yard. We also have lights by the coops so we can see if anything is trying to break into the coops. But when I go outside when hearing the sqwauking I don't see anything. The sqwauking cAn continue for a while.
One day around 12:30pm my husband sees one of our roosters hauling butt and right behind him is a fox. Luckily my husband came out and either he startled the fox or another roosters crow did. That time we found the fox had killed several chickens and has taken them away. There had been no sqwauking alarm. Two days later I saw the fox at the edge of the forest in a different location and when I noticed it it ran off into the woods. Two days ago my husband cut branches from a tree where we had found a lot of feathers.. at some point it even looked like a trail (but it lead no where before there were no more feathers seen). I decided to pick the fruit from the tree that was cut and the darn fox snatched a chicken with me only a few feet away (the chicken had gone into the forest) . Later that day the ducks went into the forest and even though my husband was back there with the 22 rifle the fox had gotten our male mallard duck.
Yesterday, I did duck/chicken watching. I decided to sit back in the forest to watch where the fox would come and go. Of course 3 chickens came deeper into the forest to scratch the ground. So I moved a little closer and had them in my sight. This is about 3pm. Not long after that the chickens by the house do their alarm sqwauking. I race back and the sqwauking continues for a few minutes and dies down. I go back into the forest to check the chickens.. they r okay. Almost 5 minutes later, the chickens by the house do their alarm Sqwauking again. When I walk around the backyard and don't see anything and they stop the alarm call, I went back to the chickens in the forest. The chickens back there came out of the forest. For the rest of the day there is nothing. Last night I set out our trap with eggs by it. The trap has been by the coop awhile because we had a problem with raccoons. This time I moved The trap to the forest entry way and put eggs around the trap (I read someone had did this) . I didn't touch the eggs with my bare hands.. I just took them straight from nesting boxes and laid them there. This morning nothing! No alarm sqwauking, eggs r still there.
Today One rooster stood at the forest entry where the feathers Are for 15 minutes but nothing happened.
My husband also claimed the fox was red almost like our Rhode Island rooster. When I saw the fox in the forest it looked gold/tan to me.
Any suggestions? I can't use any type of leg traps because of our cats, dogs, chickens, and ducks.
Do foxes hunt in pairs or can the light make the coat seem a different color?
Also, will foxes distract humans to get a chicken?
Also how can a chicken tell if there is a predator near by when the sun is not up yet and light is limited?

Sorry for long post just wanted to put in details. Much thanks in advance.

 

[Birdinhand]

typically when a fox is being very bold it's feeding pups and is relatively desperate. I've had them run across my feet after my own chickens in broad daylight. once they find a source of easy food, they keep coming back till it's gone. I would take this seriously and drop everything till you have their pen secured. the chickens probably need to be kept in the coop till you kill or trap the fox.

 

[centrarchid]

A larger live trap baited with a live or even dead chicken can be used to trap.

They do not hunt in a coordinated manner as pairs like some of the other larger canids but you can have a parent with kits in tow.

Color can vary with lighting. Color can also differ between individuals.

I do not think they will try to distract you but they can wait until they think you pose less of a risk. Once they commit to the chase the fox seems not to aware of potential threats that my come up after it, especially from behind. That is how my dogs catch them.

Alarm signals when you see nothing may indicate more predators than you think or fox comes out in view of chickens but not you.

I would do two things in the following sequence. Pen birds first, then setup hotwire. Setup I like for foxes has an outer perimeter encompassing free-range area and another 4" to 6" from coop / run perimeter to zap predator when fox probes it while chickens confined.