Foxes- what we can do to prevent them!!!!

[Deblett]

I used to free range my chickens here in Portugal when I first got them, but a neighbour warned me about roaming dogs, I didn't initially fear foxes as Isaid earlier but this attack yesterday couldn't have been dogs as fence was too tall, we don't have any other predators other than birds of prey so pretty sure it was a fox.

 

[50-45-1]

I free range during the day and have a secure coop for nighttime.
I dont loose many birds anymore, i credit to my 5 guinea alarms and 3 guardian dogs.
I believe without the above things, i would be chickenless in a week.
I have fox, coyote, bobcat, racoon, possum, neighbors who let there dogs roam, hawks, wease, just to name the worse preditors.

 

[Nksg75]

I free range during the day and have a secure coop for nighttime.
I dont loose many birds anymore, i credit to my 5 guinea alarms and 3 guardian dogs.
I believe without the above things, i would be chickenless in a week.
I have fox, coyote, bobcat, racoon, possum, neighbors who let there dogs roam, hawks, wease, just to name the worse preditors.

I agree with 50-45-1:
The Livestock guardian dogs are a godsend.
I have my flock freerange with 2 donkeys, a horse, and 2 LD.
The horse and donkeys aren't what helps, it's the LD!!
I do believe the horse and donkeys provide cover occasionally from aerial predators, but otherwise they are yard art.

 

[50-45-1]

Dont discount those donkeys!
I had a friend that had a jenny and that critter kept all k-9 species out of the pasture.
Single handed cleared the pasture of 3 neighbourhood dogs set loose and were bent on chasing the horses. That donkey almost killed acouple before they scooted back under the fence.
I had another neighbor who had a free range pig. He never lost any chickens to preditors and did not know why. Then his pig died, and within 6 months all his chickens had one by one been taken by preditors......makes you wonder.

 

[Shadrach]

Dont discount those donkeys!
I had a friend that had a jenny and that critter kept all k-9 species out of the pasture.
Single handed cleared the pasture of 3 neighbourhood dogs set loose and were bent on chasing the horses. That donkey almost killed acouple before they scooted back under the fence.
I had another neighbor who had a free range pig. He never lost any chickens to preditors and did not know why. Then his pig died, and within 6 months all his chickens had one by one been taken by predators......makes you wonder.

Now that’s interesting. I know someone further up the mountain who has a couple of free range pigs and they keep free range chickens as well. Despite being in hawk territory and having all the usual predators they rarely lose any chickens. I wondered if there might be some resource conflicts between the pigs and chickens, but apparently not. I’ve been told that the chickens groom the pigs!

 

[Trish1974]

Electric fencing is your best defense against fox. My coops and runs are completely surrounded with electric fence, the physical fence is 1/4-1/2" hardware cloth and brought out 18" from the bottom to prevent digging. Member @Howard E has a great article on his page about electric fencing and can tell you how to set up a few strands around your property's perimeter if you free range.

Fox are the worst predator in my area. They are relentless in the spring and summer. It doesn't help that my neighbor free ranges his birds which attracts the fox, and leads them right over to my property. I actually gained a few birds because of fox attacks - walked out on one of his birds being chased by a fox and she flew right up on my porch to get away. I picked her up off my porch swing and guaranteed her safety by keeping her. (Before this I did warn my neighbor of the fox attacks and he didn't care. He didn't even realize he was losing chickens - I had to point out the ones that were already gone. He said they would "just have to fend for themselves".) Two weeks after that incident I saw a fox chasing one of his chickens through my security camera (poor bird was trying to get into my run with my chickens). By the time I got the gun ready and got outside the fox had already grabbed her and was carrying her off to the woods. I shot in the air (couldn't shoot in the direction of the fox) and he dropped her, only to pick her up again and start running. So I shot again, and just kept shooting until he ran off. The hen ran into my woods and I found her huddled up against a tree. I scooped her up and brought her in. She was scalped on her back and missing half her tail. She had two obvious puncture wounds which I treated with antibiotic stuff for 7 days. Turns out there was a third puncture up by her neck I didn't see until way later but luckily that never got infected. She made a full recovery and her and her sister are now part of my layer flock and are living happily ever after. Since then my idiot neighbor has lost 2 more flocks to fox.
This is what poor Lucky looked like when I rescued her:

This is what she looked like 6 weeks later:

 

[cmom]

I see fox most every night on one of my game cameras. I have in the past had predators mostly dig under the fence so I put electric wire arounf my coops and pens. I had a fox did under one of the gates to a pen and kill several birds so now I have concrete under all of the gates. I had an owl kill some birds in one of my open coops so I put heavy duty netting covering all of the pens and put tarps over the open side of the open coops. I haven't had a loss since to a predator.
Last night a fox outside the chick/grow-out coop.

 

[Howard E]

If you start at the beginning of this thread, the pattern that emerges is most accounts of losses involve physical protection via runs, fences etc., or no protection.....meaning free range flocks. Foxes can deal with those. Those that have minimal losses keep their birds safe with electric fences. Foxes.....and most other furry predators can't deal with those.

Then there was this guy........

Note.....the birds inside the fence were safe. Outside........not so much.

Moral to that story is the fence works.........trick is to train the birds to stay inside.

 

[cmom]

I agree. There are going to be loses if the birds aren't protected.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

don't have many foxes where i live too many coyotes.

getting a LGD in about two weeks time but he will be a puppy for a while.

i try to trap the coyotes i have to deal with. but am not really good at trapping coyotes.