Free range flock and fox

[chicknmania]

Thats interesting.....

 

[SmiYa0126]

Yes, we only had a fix come in the morning twice, the rest were in the afternoon.

 

[chicknmania]

Do you remember what the weather was like when it came?

 

[SmiYa0126]

Do you remember what the weather was like when it came?

They came on sunny days. However, that summer we hardly got any rain, most days were sunny.

 

[chicknmania]

They came on sunny days. However, that summer we hardly got any rain, most days were sunny.

I have ours locked up now, to their dismay. We got a new fancy game cam we are gonna set up and see if we can tell if the fox is still hanging around, or if it is multiples, or whatever else is hanging around. I'll be surprised it we can figure that out with a game cam, based on previous experience with our old ones, but it's worth a shot, I suppose.

 

[chicknmania]

And yeah, game cam captured the fox this morning standing at the edge of the cornfield. Almost a week later.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Grrr, lazy fox! Hunt some wildlife, jerk.

Can you put some enrichment into the run for your hens? A pile of mulch with some grubs mixed in, maybe a little of scratch, and then places for them to perch and preen. If you don't already have that

 

[DarJones]

Foxes are opportunistic predators. Young foxes or injured foxes will hunt the easiest prey. Chickens are very easy.

Foxes tend to visit the same time of day on a regular basis. If it is coming at 4:00 pm, it will tend to keep coming at 4:00 pm. If a fox is visiting early in the morning and again late in the evening, most likely there are two or more foxes. If you make the chickens unavailable by penning them, the fox will keep coming back to check and will take a chicken when you let them out. Once a fox gets in the habit of eating chickens, it will keep coming back until they are all gone. Emphasize the part of about "habit". You might break a fox if it is a one-off. You won't break it if it has taken 5 or more of your chickens.

There is a huge surge in the fox population across much of the eastern U.S. this year. I literally see them while driving down the road a couple of times a week. When the population is high, they have trouble catching enough rabbits, rats, and mice to fill their bellies. All of the foxes I have seen this year - including the 4 I killed for taking chickens - were very skinny.

From a very unwelcome but realistic perspective, an overpopulation of foxes will only be solved when some of them starve or when they are killed. In my opinion, you have only two possibilities. Either put up a permanent fox-proof pen or else kill the foxes that are taking your birds. It is highly unlikely you will be able to free-range when there are so many hungry foxes.

A female fox with young will hunt with her young. Almost never will an older male hunt with his offspring. That said, I had an older female, an older male, and two young foxes all taking chickens at the same time. I lost 10 young chicks (about 10 weeks old) in one day. Since I killed the last fox, I have not lost any birds since.

If you kill a fox, please either burn it or bury it deep. Foxes often have rabies or other diseases that can affect farm animals. I piled up brush and burned the 4 foxes that were killing my chickens.

 

[Red Horse]

I read somewhere that if you find the fox's den and urinate directly into it, they will get so offended they will move, even with their young. I tried it with the skunks that were living under my house after trying literally everything else and it totally worked... there were more than 8 under there and the remaining ones that weren't trapped buggered off somewhere else after the hubs started marking in front of the crawlspace every night. I don't know where your foxes would move to, but I bet if you keep peeing in their new house every time you find one they'll consider moving farther away and maybe the chickens won't be so convenient.

 

[chicknmania]

Grrr, lazy fox! Hunt some wildlife, jerk.

Can you put some enrichment into the run for your hens? A pile of mulch with some grubs mixed in, maybe a little of scratch, and then places for them to perch and preen. If you don't already have that

Oh im already doing the eneichment thing ha

Grrr, lazy fox! Hunt some wildlife, jerk.

Can you put some enrichment into the run for your hens? A pile of mulch with some grubs mixed in, maybe a little of scratch, and then places for them to perch and preen. If you don't already have that

Oh i already have haha. Theyre spoiled, now. Ive done all kinds of enrichment stuff. And now im not so sure thats a fox in the pic. It could be our big cat. The picture is poor quality