Hi I have 14 chickens that are just around 12 weeks old. I have had chickens only for a brief while, I have never had to deal with a predator. Now today there was a super huge thunderclap that scared me but also a black and tan fox. This fox had been hiding beyond our mowing area in tall grass. on our property. Now I have heard that foxes will wreck havoc on a chicken coop, I don't know exactly what to do. My chickens live in the barn at night in a secure coop within the barn so there is no problem of anything happening to them in there. BUT the barn is in the unmowed 2 acres. The barn is around 20 feet from the mowed area, and has pretty good clear space in front of it and around the sides because it has just been built. But on the way to the mowed area (where the chickens spend almost all their time) there are some tall grassy parts. I am just worried that the fox(es) will hide there and jump my chickens. So, if you could help answer my following questions that would be great!
1 With fourteen chickens, that are usually within seeing distance, or at least in groups of four will the fox eat them?
2 I am unable to mow all of the tall grass (Some comes up to my shoulders!) but in the lower grass around the barn would it be worth it to mow it? I know that is what my neighbors do with their birdhouses to keep the cat from eating the birds.
3 With the grass being so tall in the general area of their dens I would not be able to find the dens until winter time. And anyway I definitively don't want to kill them. It is not there fault I suddenly got chickens. Should I even try to move them?
4 I have a good-sized yard for the hens to live in that is completely predator proof, right now they free-range on acre, they would hate to be locked up, but I will do that whenever I am away at school or some other place. Does the newly found fox make it so that they have to be shut up in the pen?
5 I don't have a roo, kinda don't want the fertilized eggs but if he would protect then it would help. I think I could also talk my parents into allowing me to pay for a goose. I am not sure though, but if I say it would help protect them they would probably say yes to the roo or goose or geese.
Thank you for all of your answering a-head of time. I have no knowledge about foxes so I thought some of you would!
1 With fourteen chickens, that are usually within seeing distance, or at least in groups of four will the fox eat them?
2 I am unable to mow all of the tall grass (Some comes up to my shoulders!) but in the lower grass around the barn would it be worth it to mow it? I know that is what my neighbors do with their birdhouses to keep the cat from eating the birds.
3 With the grass being so tall in the general area of their dens I would not be able to find the dens until winter time. And anyway I definitively don't want to kill them. It is not there fault I suddenly got chickens. Should I even try to move them?
4 I have a good-sized yard for the hens to live in that is completely predator proof, right now they free-range on acre, they would hate to be locked up, but I will do that whenever I am away at school or some other place. Does the newly found fox make it so that they have to be shut up in the pen?
5 I don't have a roo, kinda don't want the fertilized eggs but if he would protect then it would help. I think I could also talk my parents into allowing me to pay for a goose. I am not sure though, but if I say it would help protect them they would probably say yes to the roo or goose or geese.
Thank you for all of your answering a-head of time. I have no knowledge about foxes so I thought some of you would!
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