Fox killed 18 today

[cgmccary]

Not a typo. 18 chickens gone including my rooster. I looked out the window around 3 to see a fox carrying a chicken off. I was totally shocked as I've never seen a fox in the day on our property. It came right back, ran around the pen and went INTO the pen. I was home alone with two babies so all I could do was open the door and scream obscenities at it... it would run off and be back 5 minutes later. Repeated this until my husband got home and I could go outside. A hen, my rooster and 16 young pullets are dead or assumed dead. 4 dead pullets were laying in a neat pile along the back of the fence.
Found the small hole dug under the fence where it got in. After NO fox attacks ever this happens. Apparently the fox/foxes were at it all day as I let the birds out at 8 a.m. The chicken at the bottom of the pile was going into rigor.
Assuming we have a pair of foxes with a den of babies to feed. And of course they took all of the young birds and left the 5 old ones that were getting butchered this fall anyway.
Just needed to vent. What a crap day.

You need a LGD. Losses like this will cease.

 

[cmom]

I recently had a fox kill one of my very special birds recently during the middle of the day. I trapped it. Most nights I see a fox on one of my game cameras. A few years ago a fox dug under one of the gates to one of my pens and killed several birds. I trapped it too. I've since put concrete under all of the gates. I think I have seen them more during the day as it's been mating time and time to have their young. My coyote trap behind this fox. In years past I used leg traps but more and more people are moving into our area and now I'm seeing more and more dogs and cats roaming around especially at night on my cameras and I don't want to catch them in leg traps so now I'm using my live traps. I caught 2 cats recently that I released. Hopefully they won't be back.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm so sorry for your losses. When it happened here, I also visited all the neighbors, and folks who had poultry within about 1/2 mile of our farm. One of those folks was able to shoot our fox (mangy and easy to ID) the following week. Meanwhile, our birds were locked in their safe coop and run. Fortify yours! Electric fencing is worth it too.
Mary

 

[pennyJo1960]

Not a typo. 18 chickens gone including my rooster. I looked out the window around 3 to see a fox carrying a chicken off. I was totally shocked as I've never seen a fox in the day on our property. It came right back, ran around the pen and went INTO the pen. I was home alone with two babies so all I could do was open the door and scream obscenities at it... it would run off and be back 5 minutes later. Repeated this until my husband got home and I could go outside. A hen, my rooster and 16 young pullets are dead or assumed dead. 4 dead pullets were laying in a neat pile along the back of the fence.
Found the small hole dug under the fence where it got in. After NO fox attacks ever this happens. Apparently the fox/foxes were at it all day as I let the birds out at 8 a.m. The chicken at the bottom of the pile was going into rigor.
Assuming we have a pair of foxes with a den of babies to feed. And of course they took all of the young birds and left the 5 old ones that were getting butchered this fall anyway.
Just needed to vent. What a crap day.

I am so sorry cannot even like what you said the loss of all @cmom has the best idea
bury the hardware cloth first then on top of that lay concrete along the lower parts about three inches tall

 

[aart]

Just needed to vent. What a crap day.

 

[cottontail farm]

thanks everyone. so far we've had no more incidents.
everyone loves chicken I guess

 

[Chesterschickens]

Not a typo. 18 chickens gone including my rooster. I looked out the window around 3 to see a fox carrying a chicken off. I was totally shocked as I've never seen a fox in the day on our property. It came right back, ran around the pen and went INTO the pen. I was home alone with two babies so all I could do was open the door and scream obscenities at it... it would run off and be back 5 minutes later. Repeated this until my husband got home and I could go outside. A hen, my rooster and 16 young pullets are dead or assumed dead. 4 dead pullets were laying in a neat pile along the back of the fence.
Found the small hole dug under the fence where it got in. After NO fox attacks ever this happens. Apparently the fox/foxes were at it all day as I let the birds out at 8 a.m. The chicken at the bottom of the pile was going into rigor.
Assuming we have a pair of foxes with a den of babies to feed. And of course they took all of the young birds and left the 5 old ones that were getting butchered this fall anyway.
Just needed to vent. What a crap day.

OMG! I am so sorry!!!

 

[Below frigid]

Not a typo. 18 chickens gone including my rooster. I looked out the window around 3 to see a fox carrying a chicken off. I was totally shocked as I've never seen a fox in the day on our property. It came right back, ran around the pen and went INTO the pen. I was home alone with two babies so all I could do was open the door and scream obscenities at it... it would run off and be back 5 minutes later. Repeated this until my husband got home and I could go outside. A hen, my rooster and 16 young pullets are dead or assumed dead. 4 dead pullets were laying in a neat pile along the back of the fence.
Found the small hole dug under the fence where it got in. After NO fox attacks ever this happens. Apparently the fox/foxes were at it all day as I let the birds out at 8 a.m. The chicken at the bottom of the pile was going into rigor.
Assuming we have a pair of foxes with a den of babies to feed. And of course they took all of the young birds and left the 5 old ones that were getting butchered this fall anyway.
Just needed to vent. What a crap day.

They will be back, leave them something to eat and wait them out with the Mossberg !

 

[cmom]

My last fox I actually caught it in a live trap. We have a lot of new people moving into our area so I do see a lot more dogs and cats around and have caught some in my live traps. I have some leg traps but haven't put them out because I don't want to catch a neighbors pet in the leg traps and if I catch them in the live traps I can release them without injury. This time of year the fox aren't too fussy about what to eat. I had some older chicken we had processed quite awhile back so I used some of it in the trap. A little over months ago I lost my precious Gladys to a fox and just prior I lost a couple of other birds. I hadn't lost a bird to a predator in several years. I do blame myself for loosing Gladys as she was loose out in the yard, but not the other two because they were locked in their coop and pen. Somehow a gate was opened. When I discovered that two birds were missing and then found the piles of feathers, I wired the gates shut. I have a piece of wire on the inside on the gate that was opened and the gate opens out so the wire is always on the inside of the gate. Well the next morning I discovered the gate had been messed with again and somehow the wire that was on the inside of the gate was now on the outside of it. The predator had to put a good force to the gate to get it past the wire. I had been seeing a fox lurking around that coop and pen on a game camera. Unfortunately the nights in question it was foggy so I couldn't see the gate but the fox did get close enough to the camera that I saw it. I have been seeing some fox quite a bit. I Have seen a male fox and a female fox on the cameras pretty regularly. The female had a dark spot on her tail near her rump and the males doesn't have the spot. I know the difference between the male and the female because the female squatted in front of the camera and the male lifted his leg. Many nights I see coyotes around the coops and pens but also see fox on the property.

 

[theinwardcold]

My best luck with protecting my birds was raising a goose with my flock. Usually it would scare away any predator because of the attention it would bring but when it didn't I could get outside and take care of the threat on my own because of the goose noise.