Another fox grabbed a chicken on the front lawn just a little while ago. I ran out, and he let go of the chicken and ran off. This time, I didn’t have a good shot, and he was running toward the public road anyway.
Two hours of patrolling and coaxing later, I have seven chickens in the chicken house, and one very traumatized chicken in the underbrush behind it. She lost a bunch of feathers and won’t let me come near her. I’ll have to see if she collects herself enough to com back to the coop. One of the araucanas is missing. That puts us at eight, seven if the injured araucana doesn’t gather herself enough to let me coop her up before nightfall.
Yeah, they’re wild animals, doing what predators do, but right now I am not feeling charitable toward foxes. I put a lot of work into those chickens.
I’ll have to go to Home Despot and buy some lumber and chicken wire for a large chicken run. It seems we have a few too many predators running around here to make free-ranging chickens a wise proposition.
Claymores and wire..
I think you need a good guard dog (better two) if you are going to keep chickens long term. Maybe a longer legged Dachshund could even fill that role. Human senses are not up to dealing with predator varmits on a daily basis.
You know, we know some folks that’d be happy to help out with any pest problems you might have…
NEBS at Markos!
I live in the ‘burbs, so the most analogous experience I can think of is having to deal with car-jackers. Any advice on getting rid of those?
Cute and cuddly goes out the dorr when it interfers with the food source.
You could always use two live traps. Make a tunnel (canvas) with two live traps end to end. Put the chicken in one and waite. You can double end the chicken one and get more.
All critters fall for the tunnel. The chicken just increases the odds of getting the correct critter.
Good luck. Wait till skunks discover your feathered friends.
Yep, a good coup. I make a recomendation that you give it a good solid bottom. Bury about 12 inches of the fence, then back fill with gravel before covering over with dirt. Remember, predators can dig and jump. If determined enough they can even chew through the light gauge chicken wire.
BTW, have you tried to trap the foxes, etc?
There’s no digging under a fence at Castle Frostbite without shaped charges.
Yeah, I thought that about my own yard until dogs got my rabbits.
What I am saying is that there is nothing in which to bury the fence. You need a rock drill just to set posts since the soil is rarely more than a couple inches deep before you hit granite.
I guess he could truck the dirt in…
Ouch, that does complicate things.
Marko, try a chicken tractor. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&sqi=2&ved=0CGkQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FChicken_tractor&ei=96LoT_znEsjC2wX3t73aCQ&usg=AFQjCNGBdYJjl6neWAQ1gTnYgqUqaVpuow
I read the post title, “fox two,” and my mind immediately responded, “Sidewinder.” I can’t be the only one.
I, too, initially thought it was going to be a flight sim post.