How do I free range my chickens with a Fox in the woods??

[BDutch]

Maybe use a chicken tractor?

Chicken tractors are not fox proof because foxes dig underneath the wire.

 

[BDutch]

I haven’t read all replies. But I can recommend chickens that have a good flight instict, a build to fly and hide, no fluffy eye covering and have a natural color to survive fox attacks.
Make a garden with lots of bushes to dive under. And trees and small buildings to jump/fly on/in.
You loose a chicken from time to time. But survival of the fittest is someting you can apply to chickens. Choosing chickens that are fit for free ranging really helps.

 

[Tashua]

I currently use a 100lb. Doberman security system. I have no foxes, coyotes, raccoons, possums, hawks or anything else for that matter.

View attachment 2159920

Beautiful Dobbie

 

[Folly's place]

It's true that the behavior of each individual chicken does matter, and it's also luck.
That fox who killed those ten hens? They were all actively laying hens, sweet birds who tended to react by crouching, not flying away.
When my dog killed two dozen birds? They were both small and large, including three of my six roosters, and the few that lived were either in the barn that moment, or in trees. A few bantams lived, and three EE hens, with a few white Chanteclers, the group who usually were at the barn in the afternoon.
Luck, and flying up when frightened, made the difference.
On as side note, our back yard fencing is five feet high, including hot tape on the top, and Invisible Fencing that hits three feet inside that physical fence, so the dogs don't dig under it.
The fencing collars died because the main control (motherboard?) which was 20+ years old, failed, and one of the dogs dug under the real fence to get to the flock. IF fixed everything, no charge to us (except all those dead birds) and since then I've been paranoid about it, and have the collars and batteries checked often.
Mary

 

[Aunt Angus]

Chicken tractors are not fox proof because foxes dig underneath the wire.

Didn't think of that. No foxes here. I forget how wily they are.

 

[centrarchid]

Didn't think of that. No foxes here. I forget how wily they are.

The chicken tractor can be made resistant to Red Fox digging using something simple like chicken wire that forms a ground level skirting that extends horizontally from base of tractor.

 

[Aunt Angus]

The chicken tractor can be made resistant to Red Fox digging using something simple like chicken wire that forms a ground level skirting that extends horizontally from base of tractor.

Didn't think of that, either. Either way, a tractor is not free ranging. I'm so dumb sometimes...

 

[CrazyChicken Lady]

Sounds like they definitely come back in the spring when they have kits just for the food source. Maybe next year you could trap them very early spring if you could find their den and get the jump on them. They probably come back to the same one every year there also. If you could be prepared to erase them in the den maybe that’s the ticket somehow??? As to what that is beyond food a trap and a gun I have no idea!

Expect one problem, the Fox lives in our neighbors yard. We don’t live in a subdivision but we do have neighbors. And every March- April a Fox comes crawling out if their woods and kills my birds but that is a good idea, possibly I could try to shoot it? I have no clue if that could work but we’ll see!!

 

[CrazyChicken Lady]

The most important thing that will save your birds most often, is a predator night time coop. and a coop and safe run large enough for your flock to be on lockdown for two or three weeks at a time if it's necessary. Here in snow country, that can include time when the birds don't want to tread out there, and especially if there is a hawk attack, or another predator arrives, before it can be eliminated, or gives up.
Day time disasters do happen, but all chickens are easy targets at night!
One dog, however terrific, can't patrol 24/7, and still needs to be fenced. A pair or trio of dogs works, but again, needs to be fenced.
Mary

I haven’t read all replies. But I can recommend chickens that have a good flight instict, a build to fly and hide, no fluffy eye covering and have a natural color to survive fox attacks.
Make a garden with lots of bushes to dive under. And trees and small buildings to jump/fly on/in.
You loose a chicken from time to time. But survival of the fittest is someting you can apply to chickens. Choosing chickens that are fit for free ranging really helps.

The ladies free range on about 3 acres ( but we do have more ) and we do have plenty of small trees/ bushes/ small things they can hide under and they are normally close( ish) to the coop. Also we have a very large and protective rooster that given a chance would probably die for his hens.

 

[cmom]

I came across a very interesting article on using electric wire or electric fencing for free ranging/pasture raising chickens.
http://www.plamondon.com/wp/faq-simple-electric-fences-chickens/