Thought it was oppussem maybe a halk BUT could it of been the fox????

[Seeing Silkies]

I am in TN, I had/ have a flock of 10 RIR, I have 3 differnt flocks of silkies, these 4 flocks i have had for over a year & a new trio of coronations sussex. They all have there own houses & pens ( a few weeks ago my pens did not have tops. I have never lost a chicken untill a few weeks ago. I took out the morning scratch My coops are 30 feet from my house ( we are not in the sticks, houses all around ) all chickens were fine. Went out to take the days scraps out & Mr Rooster my RIR did come I looked around his coop and there he was dead no feathers on his neck with a deep clean cut on his neck, beside him was one of the hens she was half eaten on her chest & belly. My 1st thought was oppussem, we have seen them over the past few months, but not near our chickens... There was a dig spot were you could see thats how they got under the fence, seemed to be oppussem size...... bought some traps & we started making cubes / out door runs - fence with wood frame all around, 2 days later one of my baby silkies was gone durning the day.... Then we see a halk ... so we wood frame roofs on all of then runs, Next moring a halk was sitting on the new roof to the silkie run were the baby came up missing.... Mean while I know a halk did not dig a hole under the RIR fence so we still had the traps set, I put one right behind the RIR house, I used tuna and after 4 days we had a oppussem ( shot him ), thinking there are more we reset the traps. I put pieces of hot dogs, dry dogfood, penut butter & cheese dont know why I didnt just put tuna????? next morning ( today ) we had a red fox ( shot him to ) I will be resetting the trap again tomorrow. But what is the killer of my chickens? The lady next door got mad because we shot the fox and said if we catch another one let her have it so she can let it free miles from here, I told her no because if it is killing my chickens, I cant see turning loose to feed on someone elses chickens or pets or it may just come back ( there like dogs and will find there way ). But I dont know what killed them

after all the money I have spent on new fence & all the wood I hope I have them safe... I think I will play it safe and reset my trap for ever so if something comes looking for food it will find it in my cage & I will catch it & kill it. am I wrong???? what do you think killed them? oppussem or fox
Just so mad I dont want to have to kill things ( well i dont my BF does )... But there not going to kill my chickens ether

 

[nzpouter]

constant trapping and shooting is part of chicken keeping I'm afraid....

 

[Seeing Silkies]

Quote:
I think your right, now I need to get a gun that I would be able to shoot & and not so loud ( the 9mm is not for me) incase BF is not home. I was worried about getting in trouble for killing the fox, But i now know that I can shoot & kill any thing that is killing or in dangering my chickens, so I think if I trap something against the back wall of my chicken house & it is known to eat chickens that should be good enough.

I just wish I knew what did kill them, or did all of them just find out that I had chickens? over a year and not one killed or missing and then 3 in a few days. Maybe a sign for a bad winter???

I have also seen were people say it is hard to catch a fox in a live trap. I had the trap sitting up against the wall nothing covering it total open area, ????

 

[Seeing Silkies]

ok... so tonight I look out my window & a fox is on top of my chicken run, its 3 feet tall & all wired in, So the trap is set again... I have been trying to get ideas to keep them away.. so I will be getting as much people hair & dog hair as i can to spread in the pasture behind us, along with mixing up some cleaners and spraying the pasture with a weed sprayer, Foxes dont like hair or cleaners... I wonder would it help to make a scarecrow and put a bunch of smells on him and sit him in a chair to the back of my coop would help.... any ideas ??? I will be thankful

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
to trap fox google flat set or dirt hole set most foxes that are already around chicken coops are already accustomed to human smell/scent. grey fox can be caught in cage traps if they are large enough, red fox and coyote are much easier to catch with coil spring traps or double long spring traps

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

You need to get a .410 shotgun. they are cheap, easy enough to shoot for anyone, & you don't have to be a perfect aim. Great "critter getter".

 

[tammyd57]

Quote:
Actually, it isn't. If your coops & runs are secure, you don't have to keep killing the wildlife. I haven't had to trap or kill predators in years (except for the occasional dog that gets dumped off here and decides he wants to 'protect' his new territory), and we DO have plenty of chicken eaters in our area-raccoons, possums, coyotes, foxes, weasels, hawks, eagles, falcons and so on. I'm not at all against killing predators. But it is just easier for me to exclude them rather than keep trying to catch them, because no matter how many I kill, there will be more to take their place.

 

[Seeing Silkies]

Well, if I want my chickens I have to do what I got to do... I asked for some Silver Sussex for xmass ( and I am getting them in a few weeks ) so I will keep the trap set and kill what ever gets in it. My neighbor is ticked at me for killing the 1st fox and wants me to let her have any others i may catch - so she can let go some were else. I told her no ( so she is really ticked ) I cant see setting something loose to kill someone elses pets, we are in an area were there are to many really. Yet we have never seen a fox the past 3 years we have lived hear. But after asking around all I am hearing is kill them. I will do hair and cleaner smells in the pasture behind us & still set the traps next to the pens - its just odd we have had chickens for over a year & 1/2 and never nothing to worry about, no all of the sudden i have all kinds of critters comming...... 1 other thing seems odd, I have 5 pens & 5 runs the foxes seem to keep going to the RIR pen, that what was killed and then i traped the foxes right behind there coop and tonight the fox was on there run... Yet nothing todrs the silkies pen that is 15 feet from the rir???? just seems odd

 

[tammyd57]

Maybe the foxes don't know the Silkies are chickens?

I'm sorry, I don't mean to make light of the problem.
There might have been something in the neighborhood (big dog comes to mind) that kept the foxes away until just recently. Or you've had a population explosion of foxes and they are trying to fatten up for winter.

 

[nzpouter]

Quote:
it is in my place...

we haven't that many predators here, the chickens free ranged all day and sleep in their coop with the door open and dogs sleep near them....

trapping is just an insurance against what I or the dogs misses.