Good reasons for an enclosed pen

[LTygress]

This isn't a question or an inquiry, more or less just a thread to "vent" with people that can understand.

I lost two more chicks today. And I could have prevented it, but after my mistake this morning, there was NO turning back. My chickens have become accustomed to being let out of their enclosure pen every morning. They all go back there to roost at night, except one who was a lone hatch, who prefers to rest on top. He is also the only one who will fly back out of it every morning whether I open it or not, because he is still small enough to fit through the netting and the lattice on the gate.

While I was at a new job orientation though, a fox showed back up in the yard. We haven't seen him in AGES, and he used to just show up at night when the chickens were roosting. That's why I built the pen to begin with - to protect them at night. They were 100% free-range prior to that, and often hopped up higher and higher into the branches of trees as they grew, for their roosting.

But today he showed up around noon. And out of all the chickens he killed, he got a buff polish and one of my sumatra chicks. Both were roughly 9-10 weeks old. I'm almost completely lost on whether or not the Sumatra was a hen or roo, but based on size I would say roo. Thankfully, I got two roos and four hens, so I still have a breeding set no matter what. The polish was definitely a hen though (I didn't get any roos). He took two of my most valuable birds, though. Go figure.

Catching the rest of the chickens is almost impossible right now because it's over 90 degrees outside, the attack made them skittish, they're free-range without even a fence, and they're pretty fast. So tonight when they all go in for the evening, the pen will be closed for good. They just won't be allowed out anymore. This will reduce their foraging since they have already eaten all of the grass in the pen, and bugs are pretty scarce there too. But I'd rather have them ALIVE on a varied diet from feed bags and my cricket/superworm breeding, than to have dead chickens that used to know how to forage.

We've had a fox trap out for a while too. But the fox himself disappeared for months. We thought he was dead, caught somewhere else, or had been permanently scared off, so the trap had no bait anymore. And just when we got complacent....

I'm just frustrated with it all right now, and sad that I lost two of my good chickens. The porcelain d'uccles, frizzle, ameraucanas, leghorns, columbian wyandotte, silkies, the phoenix roo, and even my lone hatch "Chippy" the mixed breed, are all fine. And I'm thankful that I do have hens remaining with both of those breeds so it's not a complete loss of the breed itself. But it's still frustrating to lose two of the chicks I had raised, to a stinking red fox.

 

[TOP KNOT]

This isn't a question or an inquiry, more or less just a thread to "vent" with people that can understand.

I lost two more chicks today. And I could have prevented it, but after my mistake this morning, there was NO turning back. My chickens have become accustomed to being let out of their enclosure pen every morning. They all go back there to roost at night, except one who was a lone hatch, who prefers to rest on top. He is also the only one who will fly back out of it every morning whether I open it or not, because he is still small enough to fit through the netting and the lattice on the gate.

While I was at a new job orientation though, a fox showed back up in the yard. We haven't seen him in AGES, and he used to just show up at night when the chickens were roosting. That's why I built the pen to begin with - to protect them at night. They were 100% free-range prior to that, and often hopped up higher and higher into the branches of trees as they grew, for their roosting.

But today he showed up around noon. And out of all the chickens he killed, he got a buff polish and one of my sumatra chicks. Both were roughly 9-10 weeks old. I'm almost completely lost on whether or not the Sumatra was a hen or roo, but based on size I would say roo. Thankfully, I got two roos and four hens, so I still have a breeding set no matter what. The polish was definitely a hen though (I didn't get any roos). He took two of my most valuable birds, though. Go figure.

Catching the rest of the chickens is almost impossible right now because it's over 90 degrees outside, the attack made them skittish, they're free-range without even a fence, and they're pretty fast. So tonight when they all go in for the evening, the pen will be closed for good. They just won't be allowed out anymore. This will reduce their foraging since they have already eaten all of the grass in the pen, and bugs are pretty scarce there too. But I'd rather have them ALIVE on a varied diet from feed bags and my cricket/superworm breeding, than to have dead chickens that used to know how to forage.

We've had a fox trap out for a while too. But the fox himself disappeared for months. We thought he was dead, caught somewhere else, or had been permanently scared off, so the trap had no bait anymore. And just when we got complacent....

I'm just frustrated with it all right now, and sad that I lost two of my good chickens. The porcelain d'uccles, frizzle, ameraucanas, leghorns, columbian wyandotte, silkies, the phoenix roo, and even my lone hatch "Chippy" the mixed breed, are all fine. And I'm thankful that I do have hens remaining with both of those breeds so it's not a complete loss of the breed itself. But it's still frustrating to lose two of the chicks I had raised, to a stinking red fox.

I have a hen house with a covered run(roof) I only let them out while I am at home, usually in evening when I get home and on weekends. They go in to roost and I shut the run door. So far no problems.