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It's time for you to do some target shooting for accuracy. That's probably why you missed, since the Fox wasn't spooked by you. That means the fox has been eating other people's flocks. Our nemesis is Coywolves and they scoot as soon as they see a human. The local coywolf hunters have to hunt them at night with nightscopes.
I keep my birds in chain link dog enclosures. I am not near a river/stream, so I don't have to worry about ferrets, but a friend near a river lost a whole flock to them. Be thankful you are dealing with a fox. Minks and ferrets will kill your entire flock just for sport and then not eat them. Foxes take birds one meal at a time.
 
chickendreams24 said:
Sorry to hear about your losses. It's hard to lose any of them but especially the special ones. Sending hugs your way.




Bad day here yesterday. I'm still sick and miserable. Went outside twice yesterday because the birds were predator calling, both times I saw nothing. The third time I went to walk outside I looked through the porch wind and there with my salmon favorelles cockeral in its mouth stood the largest fox I've ever seen. I ran for the gun it was still struggling with the bird when I got back. I aimed and took a shot, but the fox didn't go down. The scope on the gun is a little off so I probably missed. Amazingly the fox ran a few feet and stopped the bird no longer struggling, his neck snapped, as I ran in the house realizing the gun had only had one round in it. I ran back out and much to my shock the fox stood in the same place starting to pluck the bird. I shot again and it ran. I went after it and shot off a couple more shots as it ran around our entire property and out into the field. It had dropped the bird. I called DH2B and he came home. We waited and watched the fox didn't show back up. We processed put the bird to try and save some of the meat. It was awful and tough from the struggle, when cooked. We tossed it.

It may seem cold to some people but we left the bird out as bait. We are hoping the fox shows back up so we can finish the job. Anything to stop losing birds. Still no sign of Ducky. I think I found where the fox must have gotten Mickey. I'll be looking for a nice little black OEGB cockeral or some chicks, if anyone has spares, or hatching eggs. I would also like to find another silver duckwing pullet as I no longer have any hope for Ducky. :( I miss my babies. This fox is bold. It must have been out there yesterday waiting in the fog and the mist and hiding every time I walked outside. It couldn't have been more than three minutes that it took to grab the salmon favorelles cockeral. While it still sucks majorly at least the bird it grabbed yesterday wasn't one we planned to keep. We also believe it took a cockeral the day before yesterday as we are missing a mixed color rock boy that was destined for freezer camp, but we never found any signs of that bird.
All in all this brings out total predator losses up to 24 +/- in 2016 and we've already lost 3-4 in 2017. DH2B is proud of me. While I enjoy shooting and grew up in a family of hunters I have never shot at a living thing before. I'm amazed that in the moment I didn't even think of it. I only thought of whether or not I could save that bird.
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Faraday40 said:
@chickendreams24

Sorry you're having such a crummy day.  We had a sinus/ cold that lasted most of Dec.  Hang in there!  Maybe your DH2B can process one of those extra roos & you can make some chicken noodle soup.

We're finally all healthy again, but I had to cancel my after school science classes tomorrow because over 50% of my students have a stomach flu with fevers.  No thank you! 
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ducks4you said:
It's time for you to do some target shooting for accuracy.  That's probably why you missed, since the Fox wasn't spooked by you.   That means the fox has been eating other people's flocks.  Our nemesis is Coywolves and they scoot as soon as they see a human.  The local coywolf hunters have to hunt them at night with nightscopes.
I keep my birds in chain link dog enclosures. I am not near a river/stream, so I don't have to worry about ferrets, but a friend near a river lost a whole flock to them.  Be thankful you are dealing with a fox.  Minks and ferrets will kill your entire flock just for sport and then not eat them.  Foxes take birds one meal at a time.
Click to expand...


Thank you all for the responses and the sympathy.

While I agree everyone can always benefit from more target practice I am a pretty good shot, with that gun in particular. We took the scope off for a deep cleaning and haven't had time to sight it back in perfectly. So it shoots a little high and to the left. Something that we will work on as weather allows. I was however compensating for that and may have hit the fox I'm not sure. It was misting and everything here has been standing water for days, hard to see any blood.

Last year we lost up to three birds a day. Usually just one or two. While our biggest culprit is this fox and I believe it's mate we have also see coyotes or possibly a wolf(we do have one around). I'm leaning towards coywolf as it's massive and cautious but not terrified of us. We've seen it just standing watching us out with the flock a few times.

We have loads of field mice, rabbits, gophers, etc around. This fox is just lazy and grabs what's easy. Idk that there's anyone else close that has chickens.

We do free range our flock, weather permitting. We do expect the occasional loss. While I don't like it I understand it's nature and that it will make sure only the smartest fastest birds survive. Although that's not entirely true, as Mickey was my smartest boy and one of the fastest birds as an OEGB, he was also an exceptional flier. My feeling is that he was protecting the girls, probably his special lady Minnie and that is how he was grabbed.

Fingers crossed guys and prayers appreciated this evening I will be taking my ten year old Shetland Sheepdog, Molly to the vet to find out what the thing growing on her knee is, while it's still small. God willing it's nothing but if it is something hopefully it can be removed.

More later guys. The fox never showed up to take the body of the salmon favorelles cockeral. We left it out for two nights but it didn't show. We have put the bird to his final resting place and hopefully Saturday we will be able to let a couple spare cockerals out and sit and wait. Hopefully we can end this.

More later guys when I know what the vet says about Molly.
 
Please consider enclosing your birds. I know it's more work to clean, but I haven't lost a bird to a predator since my not so good coop cover collapsed and an owl took two hens some 5 years ago.
 
carolbiggs1965 said:
Hello. I'm going to gets chicks in a few weeks. I'm trying to figure out how I want my coop.
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Welcome to this thread
thumbsup.gif

Here is a link to a thread that can give you many IDEAS, as to a coop. It has over 16K postings..
th.gif

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/596294/post-your-chicken-coop-pictures-here
 
Coywolfs ? I don't think so. Coyotes will kill fox. Wolves will kill coyotes. If you can't take care of the critters yourself find a trapper or nuisance control guy. Otherwise you will loose your birds.
 

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