fox jumped c. 5' in tree?

[Folly's place]

The website says 100 x 141, including nest boxes? Or is it 100 x 90? Either way, that's not big. My VERY rough guess is about 15 sq. ft. or 11 sq. ft., as we'd call it here in the USA, and that's about three standard birds to be comfortable.
Most coop manufacturers greatly over estimate the number of birds that will fit in their coops.
Mary

 

[Perris]

it's not their own estimate Mary; I quote from the site: "CAPACITY
Poultry Club of Great Britain Guidelines indicate that this house would be suitable for 8 large fowl or 15 bantams. However, we prefer Soil Association Guidelines which require a little more space per bird, and suggest that it is ideal for up to 6 larger birds or 10 bantams."

 

[Folly's place]

I saw that too, but in my experience, it's too crowded. I like about five sq. ft. per bird, including bantams.
Mary

 

[Perris]

Fair enough. I am trying to keep them as naturally as possible so was very happy when they took to the trees. Until the fox came. So at the mo there's only 2 to use the coop

 

[Folly's place]

I started with bantams roosting in my pole barn, after being told that it would be fine. After many losses overnight to raccoons, and a session of the survivors roosting outside in the trees because of the night time horrors, we learned, and redid an old shed into a coop. It was awful! Chickens outside at night are easy for any predator to take out.
My best guess is that your birds were roosting in that tree because their coop didn't suit them.
Mary

 

[Perris]

Or because roosting in a tree is a natural thing for a bird to do?

 

[Folly's place]

It's totally natural, but too dangerous in most environments where we all live.
Mine roost on saplings or branches in their coop, so at least that's natural.
Mary

 

[Faraday40]

Please help me identify tracks if you can:
Found some little tracks around the coop - and they did not look like the common squirrel, rabbit, skunk! I think they may be from our old terror: the fox. (He/she started visiting in August, but thankfully it never killed a bird. We tried many things, but it comes at random times of day and only runs off about 50' from me. It seems more frightened of our dogs, so we can only let chickens free range when a dog is outside. Since it's cold, we've been keeping the flock locked up and the dogs are mostly inside.)

Neighbors have also been claiming they saw a "cougar" or "bobcat" around. Since we live in the suburbs, it could also mean a very large cat. We rarely have cats enter our fenced yard due to how much our big dogs like to chase them. We definitely have some urban coyotes living in the brush about 1/2 mi away. I've even seen one who frequently walks down the shoveled sidewalks out front. However, I've never seen any in back and I think a coyote might have bigger feet.

Here are the pics...

I really didn't like seeing that the animal tried to claw under the coop

I also saw some tracks romping away. Our smaller dog's 3" footprints (Boxer mix) erased the trail, so I'm not sure how many critters ran through here & how many times. I only know that our big dog (Great Dane) was not involved.

I went back inside & grabbed a flashlight & ruler. I would guess the feet are about 1.5".