Fox killed all my chickens (but one)

[Jon James]

Hello
It would appear that a fox has come in the morning and taken all but one of my chickens. I have had my chickens for two and a half years without any problems before now. I had four hybrids, a silkie bantam and two sea brights. Only the very smallest and fastest sea bright has escaped.
However I'm now unsure if I should replace them.
I have a small but very secure coop that has an electric opener on the door that that allows the chickens to free range in a large enclosure. I am unable to make the enclosure fox proof due to the layout of the garden. Although I might be able to lay electric wire around the perimeter I doubt it would work.
The chickens have always come out at dawn and all gone in at dusk. They were taken first thing in the morning.
Any ideas? At the moment I am thinking of either giving up on keeping chickens or shooting the fox. Or both...

 

[Rich386]

Electric fence worked for me.

 

[ronikins]

i had the sameproblem. only it was just a vixen taking one at a time for her kits. i really really didn't want to kill her. so i hung a particularly stinky shirt of my husband's, one he'd wore while hauling wood, right on the run. i haven't seen ger since and that was 2 years ago....

 

[Rich386]

i had the sameproblem. only it was just a vixen taking one at a time for her kits. i really really didn't want to kill her. so i hung a particularly stinky shirt of my husband's, one he'd wore while hauling wood, right on the run. i haven't seen ger since and that was 2 years ago....

This is a great idea I never thought of that as a deterrent.

 

[Rich386]

i had the sameproblem. only it was just a vixen taking one at a time for her kits. i really really didn't want to kill her. so i hung a particularly stinky shirt of my husband's, one he'd wore while hauling wood, right on the run. i haven't seen ger since and that was 2 years ago....

This is a great idea I never thought of that as a deterrent.

 

[ronikins]

yeah i was really surprised it worked so well. thankfully she got only 2 hens. i actually accidentally snuck up her on the 3rd time in my coop. i had read about the shirt idea along with using a radio (set to a talk show). supposedly, these work because the fox are (supposed to be) scared of humans. our property backs up to 1000 or more unoccupied acres. so we have quite the variety of wild critters that find our coop.

good luck to the OP. ihope you don't give up on owning chickens.

 

[Rich386]

yeah i was really surprised it worked so well. thankfully she got only 2 hens. i actually accidentally snuck up her on the 3rd time in my coop. i had read about the shirt idea along with using a radio (set to a talk show). supposedly, these work because the fox are (supposed to be) scared of humans. our property backs up to 1000 or more unoccupied acres. so we have quite the variety of wild critters that find our coop.

good luck to the OP. ihope you don't give up on owning chickens.

The radio is another good idea! I am always pleasantly surprised at the unique solutions that people come up with.

 

[Rich386]

yeah i was really surprised it worked so well. thankfully she got only 2 hens. i actually accidentally snuck up her on the 3rd time in my coop. i had read about the shirt idea along with using a radio (set to a talk show). supposedly, these work because the fox are (supposed to be) scared of humans. our property backs up to 1000 or more unoccupied acres. so we have quite the variety of wild critters that find our coop.

good luck to the OP. ihope you don't give up on owning chickens.

The radio is another good idea! I am always pleasantly surprised at the unique solutions that people come up with.

 

[ccrow]

That's about the same time frame I had; my chickens were ranging with no problems, then last year I guess we had a fox population explosion as my neighbor and I both lost a lot of hens. I know they shot a couple, and so far this year there haven't been any.

 

[coop-er]

My neighbor and I both have chickens and we have had a fox ( or coyote pup) stage an attack on both of our coops this week... It got 2 of my neighbors hens but mine were lucky enough to escape. Both attacks in broad daylight, middle of the day, and while we were in the yard. This makes me wonder if a radio or shirt would work for this brazen creature.... We will probably go with the " shoot to kill" method. I would rather not kill it- but it will be back every
day for lunch until it wipes out both of our flocks.