Free range flock and fox

chicknmania

Free Ranging
17 Years
Jan 26, 2007
6,293
1,825
582
central Ohio
We've had chickens for 18 years and have a serious fox problem. Our flock free ranges and always has. Yes, we've had a couple of fox attacks before over the years, always during the day, but it has always been a hit and run type deal; they might kill one bird, (and sometimes they just make an attempt but aren't successful) but then they never come back; I mean we've never had a situation where a fox (or any predator) came back again and again over a period of daysand killed birds. We work from home and have the advantage of being able to run out to the barn and the areas where they flock free ranges a lot during the day, so maybe that makes a difference. Also we have several older chickens and peafowl and they're quite savvy about predators and so good about alerting the flock.
This year, we had a baby boom in our flock; a total of 36 chicks over the summer were hatched. I kept them and their mothers penned and let them into outside pens during the day, so I'm sure the fox (es) were aware that there was lots of peeping and carrying on. Normally we only have one or two broods hatch per year, so this was strange that we had so many at once. I sold all the chicks and their moms except I kept twelve chicks with their mothers. When they reached 5 weeks old, I let the remaining chicks out with their mothers to free range with the flock. About three weeks ago, one chick disappeared, and I had seen a fox days before that, so I figured. But then nothing else happened, so I didn't worry about it. But four days ago, we had a hen killed, then next day two chicks. They were all killed on rainy, overcast days between 2:00PM and 4:00PM. So yesterday was a beautiful sunny day so I dared to let them out, kept a close eye out, was actively out there several times during the day and used bobcat urine and fireworks and dog poop and whatever else has worked in the past to deter predators, and nothing happened, they were all fine all day. Today same thing. The flock was fine all day, it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. 5:00PM came and we heard the flock freaking out. We fired off bird bombs and etc and I ran out to check on the flock, and took a head count, but later discovered another hen missing. This is becoming some serious pain. I really don't want to try to trap/ kill the fox, although we will if we have to. I know sometimes it works if you just keep the flock confined for a while, I just wondered if anyone has done that, if it worked, and how long you kept the flock locked up. I CAN keep the flock locked up, but we did that for AI when it came here last spring, and after about three weeks our peafowl just couldn't stand anymore, and we had a couple of chickens develop illnesses that we were pretty sure were partly caused from just being confined for so long, so I let the flock out.

I'm guessing that we were under surveillance for a while by the fox and/ or foxes while those chicks were growing up; maybe all the peeping made it all the more attractive, idk.

Please suggestions are welcome. I just lost one of my favorite hens today.
 
Hello! The fox will keep coming back, I'm sorry you'll need to pen them for at least a week, or only let them out with your supervision.
Thank you, that's what I was thinking, at least a week. I wish I could train them to come back in when I call, but I can't. ☹️ I hate this, the weather is gorgeous and they can't go out.
 
Fox knows where theres free food penning them wont help it will wait it out. It will eventually take the rest
Actually if you read my whole post, that isn't necessarily true. We've had several experiences with foxes. All were one time incidents. Have never had this happen before where they came back again and again. I guess we've been lucky.
 
Actually if you read my whole post, that isn't necessarily true. We've had several experiences with foxes. All were one time incidents. Have never had this happen before where they came back again and again. I guess we've been lucky.
Penning them worked for us. We have a booming fox population here, we back into game lands and there's a state park across the street. You can hear cubs in the spring.
 
Thats what i was gonna do. Our fox comes on the afyernoon so ill just try to stay with them as much as possible. ThNks for the info
 

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