Pack of fox got my chickens?

[newmuzzleloader]

So last weekend my flock of 8 egg layers were free ranging, as they do everyday. Its a risk we take. Anyway, I look out @ 1030ish & see feathers. Go out and find 4 different feather colorations in 4 different areas with 100' being the spread. No meat, no carcass just good sized spread of feathers. I walked around my property and the neighbors several times throughout the day with no sign of chickens, alive or dead. Around 1630 that night 4 chickens make their way back to the coop for the night
I had no idea what happened. Fast forward today @1100 I see a fox 10' from my slider door walking across the yard, with purpose but not running. Meanwhile the beagle is asleep on the couch. Get a call from the neighbors, they report 5 foxes meandering thru their backyard.
I have never heard of this happening? Is it just the fox family out running around before they go their separate ways?
Yes, we are keeping the girls locked up for a bit. Sorry no pics of the feathers.

I feel your pain, I'm a little north of you and I've lost several at a time also. What I've seen, if a hawk kills a bird they eat the neck and some breast and leave. After losing 19 of 26 birds in late Nov. I now have 15 pullets 8wks old and have just recently started to let them out for an hour or so in the evening.

In Md, I believe any time a carnivore is caught marauding livestock, it is legal to kill them on the spot no matter the season or lack of permit. These are the rules play by.

This × 10!

 

[Nay_sayer]

I lost one of my chickens to a fox yesterday. My stupid dogs are scared of rain and cold so they haven't been out as much recently keeping the vermin away. I wish my sheep would grow a pair and help out with that stuff. They're too stupid to go in out of the rain.

 

[CruncherBlock]

Wire fencing and posts do a great job for me. I have not yet lost a chicken to the hawks or fox but I also have a couple geese that make a lot of noise. A 50' by 50' pen is big enough for 40-50 chickens to free range.

 

[foxtrapper]

May have been a vixen in heat with males following her. I can't think of any other reason there would be a bunch of red foxes together like that this time of year. The litters of last spring are grown up and started roaming off in early fall. Foxes move a lot during winter, how else can I trap so many at 1 farm this time of year? 16 at one farm, and 5 days left of season. Last 1 I caught was yesterday. Once they mate and pair up they stake a territory and get the den ready and each pair becomes homebodies. They are just starting to do that now.

 

[teratos]

Coyotes?

 

[j_h_smith]

I just watched a National Geographic show yesterday about foxes. There was one segment which showed a fox killing chickens. The "expert" said that a fox will kill many chickens at one time, meaning the fox just kills the chicken, leaves it, goes to another chicken, kills it and goes on to more chickens doing the same. Only then will the fox start to eat the chickens. I think there were 12 chickens in this coup and the fox had killed 6 of them. The owner of the chickens was alerted to the attack by their dog, so the fox had no time to eat or drag any away. The owner actually caught the fox and put it in a dog crate.


Just some food for thought.

 

[Patrick]

I just watched a National Geographic show yesterday about foxes. There was one segment which showed a fox killing chickens. The "expert" said that a fox will kill many chickens at one time, meaning the fox just kills the chicken, leaves it, goes to another chicken, kills it and goes on to more chickens doing the same. Only then will the fox start to eat the chickens. I think there were 12 chickens in this coup and the fox had killed 6 of them. The owner of the chickens was alerted to the attack by their dog, so the fox had no time to eat or drag any away. The owner actually caught the fox and put it in a dog crate.


Just some food for thought.

This also applies to Raccoons, at least in my experience. I lost a lot of Muscovy and some geese one night. They didn't even finish the kill before moving to the next one - I had to put down 14 myself that they didn't finish off. It was like they just killed everything they could, just for fun. Took a whole day probing that enclosure looking for every tiny way in. But eventually it got locked up tight.

The attack OP describes sounds more like birds. I've had that happen with hawks or eagles, but my prime nemesis with chickens one winter was a large Barre Owl. I actually caught it inside the coop at 0200 one night, and after the work of me getting it out (it was caught in corner) it never came back. I suspect to this day it flies circles avoiding our woods, it was so stressed out.

As for no carcasses afterward, I've learned that it's never just one thing. Those fox in your neighborhood will clean whatever is left behind by the birds, coons, possums, cats, dogs, snakes and probably fish attacks.

Turns out everyone likes chicken.

 

[foxtrapper]

This is what happened to duck eaters one winter.

 

[j_h_smith]

I had 2 foxes in my yard today. They were just playing and sunning themselves. Didn't have a worry in the world. They both had slightly orange coats. Could they possibly be shedding their winter coats for their summer coats already? They're definitely getting brighter than their usual winter coat.

 

[Kiwiknoll]

Ive heard of people running guinney hen with chickens. The guinneys squawk and act as an alarm when a predator is about.

I had a den with 4 kits last year in my yard. kits played all day when mom was away. i never saw them hunt together, but expect some training happenned away from the den. Outside of seeing the kits together, I've only ever seen loners Hunting.

 

[Vile Shadow]

Ain't nothin' a 5.56 round can't handle, if you're far enough from other folks that is.

 

[Patrick]

I had 2 foxes in my yard today. They were just playing and sunning themselves. Didn't have a worry in the world. They both had slightly orange coats. Could they possibly be shedding their winter coats for their summer coats already? They're definitely getting brighter than their usual winter coat.

Same here a few days ago. They were romping around and play fighting for almost an hour. My five year old said to me, "you could hit them from here with your bow pretty easy."

I almost spewed my soda.

 

[newmuzzleloader]

Ain't nothin' a 5.56 round can't handle, if you're far enough from other folks that is.

They don't even twitch.

 

[BigCountry14]

The only fox that had gotten close to my coop recently got run off by our tiny 5lb barn cat. Apparently shes a little bad a$$.

The raccoons seem pleased to sit with the birds and share their food, but the .22 put and end to that before they decided on chicken or duck.

We did lose a couple of birds over the summer, but im thinking that may have been bird of prey related as we have several hawks and eagles in the area.

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[Patrick]

I had a male Muscovy Drake (duck) fight off a young fox. The duck was a little worse for the wear, but the fox had this look of shock when it jumped back and realized it was getting its ass handed to it by a bird. Unlike every other duck species, Muscovy have webbed claws. Was watching the fight through a window.

Raccoons didn't care. They would drop anything but the largest goose or turkey, and sometimes they would leave as many bodies as they could.

 

[foxtrapper]

Ive heard of people running guinney hen with chickens. The guinneys squawk and act as an alarm when a predator is about.

I had a den with 4 kits last year in my yard. kits played all day when mom was away. i never saw them hunt together, but expect some training happenned away from the den. Outside of seeing the kits together, I've only ever seen loners Hunting.

Most guineas seem stupid with foxes ( though they still make a fuss when they spot 1 too close-it's when fox is sneaky enough to get in and grab one that is the problem), but I had a group of about 8 that figured things out and would even tease foxes. I saw them in action one time after I went to see what all the fussing was about. They would run towards the fox, then when the fox lunged at them, would fly up into trees. The fox started to walk away and they flew down to near it taunting it, and the same thing repeated till the fox gave up. There were other times I heard them making a fuss and would see a fox running away.

 

[BigCountry14]

Most guineas seem stupid with foxes ( though they still make a fuss when they spot 1 too close-it's when fox is sneaky enough to get in and grab one that is the problem), but I had a group of about 8 that figured things out and would even tease foxes. I saw them in action one time after I went to see what all the fussing was about. They would run towards the fox, then when the fox lunged at them, would fly up into trees. The fox started to walk away and they flew down to near it taunting it, and the same thing repeated till the fox gave up. There were other times I heard them making a fuss and would see a fox running away.

Our neighbor had them. They got eaten shortly after his chickens did. They were pretty useless for him. They decided to live behind my parents house instead of at his.

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[Vile Shadow]

They don't even twitch.

That so?

Well, when the critters git tough, the tough go bigger.

 

[MarylandDave]

Last fall we lost all 12 of our chickens to raccoons. At first I thought it was foxes too, but I checked my surveillance cams and it turned out to be about a half dozen raccoons. Savage little bastards. I immediately started to trap and shoot.

The upgraded coop now has reinforcement wire where they snuck in plus a few strands of electric fencing along the base. After the first week, I watched a coon hit that fence. Needless to say, I don't think they'll be coming back anytime soon.

 

[newmuzzleloader]

This morning one of my extra roosters had flown out of his 6' high pen and wound up as fox food. That fox won't be dining on chicken again. ( I can't understand why the pics are rotated 90*)