The Not so Fantastic Mr Fox (?)

[llombardo]

Is the top covered? It looks like it is?

I have a gap by my gate. I extended hardware cloth to cover the gap--sharp as can be, so if something reaches in, it will not feel good. I did this on both sides of the gate. I've only hit it a couple times myself. I also put one of those green stakes to block it off too.

 

[llombardo]

Yes they can! Raccoons are the worst. They have little devil hands. I let my dogs stay out really late after what is now referred to as "Murder Night". They all came back covered in dried blood and little scratches on their noses. I believe they played tug a war with that raccoon.

Funny thing, they are super protective of the chickens.

I use my dogs as a deterrent but I wouldn't allow that kind of contact knowingly considering the diseases raccoons carry.

I think not having a routine at night throws creatures off. If they know dogs are there, they tend to stay away. If they never know when dogs will be present, even better. I let mine out at all hours. Frequently at 3-4 am because I have a senior that gets hot no matter how cold it is in the house.

 

[llombardo]

Yes they can! Raccoons are the worst. They have little devil hands. I let my dogs stay out really late after what is now referred to as "Murder Night". They all came back covered in dried blood and little scratches on their noses. I believe they played tug a war with that raccoon.

Funny thing, they are super protective of the chickens.

I use my dogs as a deterrent but I wouldn't allow that kind of contact knowingly considering the diseases raccoons carry.

I think not having a routine at night throws creatures off. If they know dogs are there, they tend to stay away. If they never know when dogs will be present, even better. I let mine out at all hours. Frequently at 3-4 am because I have a senior that gets hot no matter how cold it is in the house.

 

[MARSMOM]

I use my dogs as a deterrent but I wouldn't allow that kind of contact knowingly considering the diseases raccoons carry.

I think not having a routine at night throws creatures off. If they know dogs are there, they tend to stay away. If they never know when dogs will be present, even better. I let mine out at all hours. Frequently at 3-4 am because I have a senior that gets hot no matter how cold it is in the house.

I didn't know they would actually catch and kill it. I was trying to let the raccoons know that the chickens have their own protection team. Until that night the only thing that happened would be my pointer treeing a possum or armadillo. I just recently moved to our family farm, 62 acres and no one has ever lived on the property.

My great granddad used to sell coon dogs to supplement his income and there are raccoon recipes in my uncle's house across the street.

Plus all the dogs and cat stay up to date on their vaccines. There's too much available for them to get into out here in the woods.

 

[Trish1974]

My main question (ASSSUMING it indeed IS a fox im dealing with), is will it be back day three? I would imagine that he’d be a bit full after an entire Brahma in one night, but I also thought foxes only came at dusk, and the full sized hen died around 4 PM.

Yes, it will come back daily until there is nothing left to eat. Foxes run all hours of the day and night. I have personally seen more fox between 6 am and noon than at night on my trail cams.

Do foxes take the whole chicken?

Yes they do. They will also take multiple chickens per day if given the chance. Fox cache prey. My neighbor lost 19 pullets to a fox in one day last summer. No one was home and the fox had all day to dig under his chicken tractor and steal every single chick over a 6 hour period.

Was the second kill outside of the run? If not I'm not sure it was a fox. The first kill definitely sounds like a raccoon. It is possible you are dealing with two different predators.

 

[centrarchid]

More than two predators is easy to realize. As I have been observing how things operate, you can have multiple predators come in on same nest with minimal intervals between visitors. Just because you have chickens that are even vulnerable does not mean the bad guys are certain to return every night. They have other obligations than culling your flock as well as other honey holes they need to keep tabs on.

 

[hayley3]

I just saw a fox at noon...normally I see them in the mornings. I have caught them on my trail cam at night too. Raccoons normally appear just as the sun is going down. If a chicken disappears I am pretty sure it's a fox. Sometimes you will see a trace of feathers. Raccoons normally leave the bodies after eating parts of the chicken.

 

[centrarchid]

Four critters I see will take adult standard sized chickens leaving minimal signs. They are Red Fox, Coyote, Bobcat and Gray Fox. Sometimes an exceptional domestic dog will do the same, especially when provisioning pups.

 

[hayley3]

Yes! And I just saw my first grey fox the other day. He was bigger than I thought a fox should be.

 

[varidgerunner]

Coons will carry them off without a trace. Depends on how safe they feel in your area. If they have cubs, and you have dogs or make a lot of noise at night, they will carry one off to a secluded spot. If their cubs are big enough to follow them, and they feel safe, they will kill a bunch and each chunks off of a few, to teach the cubs how to kill. But there are a lot of things that eat chickens, and when the morsels get strewn on the perimeter, and things with chicken blood on their feet and fur leave your area, it is not uncommon to chum in every predator for miles. In most any given area, raccoons outnumber foxes probably ten to one. Possums outnumber the coons. Coyotes will kill chickens, but don't really have to on any kind of a schedule, there are plenty of things they can kill instead, including foxes, coons and possums. Coyotes are causing fox populations to drop in many areas, and cause the remaining foxes to come closer to human development. Knowing the true status of foxes around here, I would be glad to share a few birds with them.