Well I finally got the FOX

[pats4lsu]

I free range my flock.
Yesterday around 3:00 in the afternoon, I noticed a squawking noise from the woods behind my house. I noticed a small clump of feathers in the pipeline and a light trail of feathers that lead into a thicket. I grabbed my .22 pistol and set out on a chicken rescue mission. I never saw the perpetrator, but as I closed in on the squawking I heard one last "SQUAWWWK" and that was it. I assumed it was a fox as I have seen some visiting. Well this morning at 6:40 my beagles sounded the alarm. I jumped up and looked out, RED FOX stalking my flock. I headed to the gun safe and selected a 12 gauge shotgun and loaded it with 000 Buck. As I slid the back door open he was SLYLY slipping off into the woods. I guess there was just too much commotion for him to feel safe. I had ONE chance to squeeze a 40 yard shot and I let it fly! After changing, I went out to where he was standing and found a few drops of blood and a STRONG smell of fox pee. I know I hit him and surely hope he won't be back...for good.

Fox-6 chickens
Me-1 fox

Figured this may be helpful...who would have thought a Fox would hunt a free range flock in the middle of the day.

 

[Pinky57]

Good for you we have lost 15 chickens in the last week! We know at the very least that a bear has been around. A bear is the only animal around here (White Mountains of NH) that could've torn apart our feed bin, ripping of the part of the door with the latch on it. Something got into the coop and dragged away several chickens also leaving several dead. We are down to one rooster, 5 hens. There is a trail of feathers leading across the field into the brush. We spend yesterday installing new hardware cloth across all the windows. We'll be keeping them locked up for a while. We took a walk around the neighbors yard (they're only weekenders) and found tracks of bear, coyote (coydogs they call them up here) and deer. So we know at least a bear has been around, maybe the coyote or fox got the chickens, or a type of weasel.