Predator Slaughter Problem

[Shadrach]

An electric fence is an option but it would need to be a fence, not a couple of current carrying wires. We have current carrying wires here in an attempt to prevent the sheep and donkeys wandering. Ive seen a fox step through them. The other point is a fence that will cover the area that your chickens range is likely to cost a considerable amount of money and require constant maintenance. We have thousands of metres of the stuff here and it's a complete pain in the ****.
There are foxes here and usually they don't hunt until dusk which is also the time the free range chickens here return to their coops or go up the trees. What does seem to keep the foxes away are the dogs; we have two. It's not just the dogs here, everyone on the mountain has dogs loose and this makes it difficult for a fox to travel from place to place undetected.
Reluctantly I think your best option is to kill the fox.

 

[Trish1974]

Reluctantly I think your best option is to kill the fox.

Which is a great short term plan, but then another one will eventually move in... and the cycle will repeat itself.
@Howard E does well with just a couple strands of electric fencing. There is a link in his signature to a great article on the subject.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Which is a great short term plan, but then another one will eventually move in... and the cycle will repeat itself.
@Howard E does well with just a couple strands of electric fencing. There is a link in his signature to a great article on the subject.

The long term plan is to have an electric fence and kill the one or two foxes that move in every year.

 

[Shadrach]

Which is a great short term plan, but then another one will eventually move in... and the cycle will repeat itself.
@Howard E does well with just a couple strands of electric fencing. There is a link in his signature to a great article on the subject.

Thanks. I read it some time ago. It's a good article. As I wrote, we have thousands of metres of electric fencing here, not to mention a few hundred of stock net. The stock net keeps most large ground predators out. The electric wires don't really work.
Yes another fox may well move into the area. I'm not a fan of shooting anything. I just think it's the best option in the circumstances.

 

[Howard E]

An electric fence is an option but it would need to be a fence, not a couple of current carrying wires. We have current carrying wires here in an attempt to prevent the sheep and donkeys wandering. Ive seen a fox step through them. The other point is a fence that will cover the area that your chickens range is likely to cost a considerable amount of money and require constant maintenance. We have thousands of metres of the stuff here and it's a complete pain in the ****.
Reluctantly I think your best option is to kill the fox.

I agree.......an electric fence designed to keep sheep, donkeys and similar livestock in would not stop a fox, or most any other predator. Nor would it keep the chickens in. So what you do is move the same few wires around so it does. Bottom strand only inches from the ground, then stagger the additional wires above it in such a way that they can't crawl under it or through it without getting zapped. I run 4 wires, each at around 5 inch intervals, so the highest wire is only 20 inches or so off the ground. With a fence designed for livestock, that might be where they put the lowest wire. If that were the case, all manner of varmints could scamper back and forth under it, with impunity.

With such a low, multi strand fence, most predators who come along see it as the same kind of fence they encounter all the time. They routinely crawl under and through them. But this one, being HOT, bites back. Once they have had the crap zapped out of them, they seldom, if ever, come back for more. Not a physical barrier at all.....strictly a mental one. And the same will exist for the birds.

As for the cost, size it to the area you need. I've got 2 dozen birds confined within about 1/4 acre, and they mostly use just half of that. The interesting part. And as for hawks and owls, within this protected area, I've got about 4 different areas they can retreat to to get protection from overhead predators.

The problem with shooting varmints is you have to be present to win. OP clearly said they came home from work to find the carnage. So was not present to intervene. The fence is on guard 24/7. I'm starting to lose track, but that fence has zapped at least 6 to 8 dogs I'm aware of and that is just the one's I know about. There was another in the front yard yesterday....pit bull mix....different than the white one that showed up last year. I noted dog was running around, then I went back to what it was I was doing and never gave him a second thought. I had more important things to do than to sit around waiting for that dog to get out of line so I could shoot him.

Counted heads when I locked up last night and all were still present......just like every other night.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Fox tracks within your fence during the day? Remember that? You got lucky plain and simple. It’s getting redundant.

 

[centrarchid]

Keeping fox out works better with wires starting lower to ground and spaced closer together. When setup has been leaky, the fox would be jumping between wires which dogs will do in pench as well. Electrified poultry netting denies the jumping through bit for fox at less setup effort, but material cost a lot higher.

 

[Shadrach]

I agree.......an electric fence designed to keep sheep, donkeys and similar livestock in would not stop a fox, or most any other predator. Nor would it keep the chickens in. So what you do is move the same few wires around so it does. Bottom strand only inches from the ground, then stagger the additional wires above it in such a way that they can't crawl under it or through it without getting zapped. I run 4 wires, each at around 5 inch intervals, so the highest wire is only 20 inches or so off the ground. With a fence designed for livestock, that might be where they put the lowest wire. If that were the case, all manner of varmints could scamper back and forth under it, with impunity.

With such a low, multi strand fence, most predators who come along see it as the same kind of fence they encounter all the time. They routinely crawl under and through them. But this one, being HOT, bites back. Once they have had the crap zapped out of them, they seldom, if ever, come back for more. Not a physical barrier at all.....strictly a mental one. And the same will exist for the birds.

As for the cost, size it to the area you need. I've got 2 dozen birds confined within about 1/4 acre, and they mostly use just half of that. The interesting part. And as for hawks and owls, within this protected area, I've got about 4 different areas they can retreat to to get protection from overhead predators.

The problem with shooting varmints is you have to be present to win. OP clearly said they came home from work to find the carnage. So was not present to intervene. The fence is on guard 24/7. I'm starting to lose track, but that fence has zapped at least 6 to 8 dogs I'm aware of and that is just the one's I know about. There was another in the front yard yesterday....pit bull mix....different than the white one that showed up last year. I noted dog was running around, then I went back to what it was I was doing and never gave him a second thought. I had more important things to do than to sit around waiting for that dog to get out of line so I could shoot him.


Counted heads when I locked up last night and all were still present......just like every other night.

If you have a look at my coop page you can see roughly the solution I came up with to provide protected enclosures. Both the stock net fence and the tape carry current. The tape is to discourage the sheep from sticking their heads through the electrified stock net.
I spent 12 years of my life as a fencing contractor.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Keeping fox out works better with wires starting lower to ground and spaced closer together. When setup has been leaky, the fox would be jumping between wires which dogs will do in pench as well. Electrified poultry netting denies the jumping through bit for fox at less setup effort, but material cost a lot higher.

Do you have pictures of your electric fence? Generally electric fences designed to keep out predators are 6-7 wires with the bottom 3 wires close together.

 

[Howard E]

Fox tracks within your fence during the day? Remember that? You got lucky plain and simple. It’s getting redundant.

Hmmmm......fox tracks, once made, last until the snow melts. All day and all night. As I read the tracks, it was pretty obvious that fox did what would be expected.....crawled under and got zapped in the process. Then did the same thing one of our barn cats did.....it ran around all over the place in a panic trying to find a way out, then eventually jumped out......and he never came back. That was 2 years ago. We have had 5 tracking snows so far this year, and each time, I walk the perimeter and no tracks. Nothing. We have a pack of coyotes in the neighborhood.....have heard them multiple times over the past few weeks and close. No more than a few hundred yards or so from the front door. No tracks from them either.

Bottom line is I've never lost a bird to a predator and have never had to shoot one either (skunk that took up residence in the barn doesn't count). I chalk that up to an electric fence that protects them by day and a tight coop that protects them at night. If anyone has a system that produces a better record than that (or can even equal it), I'd like to hear about it.