We lost 3 hens the other day to a fox.

We'd taken the dogs out for a morning walk, having let the hens out earlier. On coming back into the garden, the hens
were making a bit of noise. My husband went to investigate, only to see a fox jumping over the fence with a chicken in
his mouth. Another one was lying dead in the run, and we found another had been dragged into our barn. I guess he was
going to come back for them later. The other 3 seemed to be okay, and were eating as normal!
We thought our run was pretty secure, but obviously not a problem to a hungry fox.
Unfortunately the run is quite a bit away from the house, and the dogs are not always in the garden.
Short of making a huge cage for the hens, (not exactly practical) we're not sure what we can do, if anything.
I know a lot of Bulgarians in our village keep a dog permanently chained in the hen run, but we couldn't do that.
We wondered if having a couple of geese would help? I know they couldn't do anything about a fox, but they could
make a hell of a racket if anything came near!
Any thoughts or suggestions? :Please:

We had the same problem last year with our friends chucks. So we built a big mouse trap. Basically if you look at a Bulgarian Mouse trap you will see what I mean. This was made out of mesh and wood. Put some bait in like old rotten meat and the Fox will go in just like a mouse would with bread. The door would be sprung loaded and hence trapped inside. Put the trap at the door to the hen house or in the run and Mr Fox knows no difference. Only thing is once in there you need to kill it, so I hope you have got a gun Foxes don't usually kill chickens to eat but just for the fun of it.

Thanks for the reply Tony. I know the traps you mean, but I think the local strays
might be really interested! Also, we don't have a gun, and I don't think we could
shoot a fox anyway! We might try the geese option next year.

Waste of time killing foxes, kill one, then comes another one. Contrary to what some folk say foxes control their own numbers, the amount of foxes in your area will not change what ever you do. Best solution is to make your coop fox proof. The best way to fox proof a coop is to put it up on stilts, about 3 foot high off the ground, with a little ramp for the hens to get in and out. Has the added bonus that you take the ramp away at night, so its really hard for the fox to chew his way into the coop as he has to stand on his hind legs to reach the bottom of the hut.

Have a look on this site but I can also tell you that you can also get a sonic device that works which I have used in the passed from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... ath=24_197 .

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... tAod7iRXvA

Thanks Blink and BGTRAVELLER for the info. Blink, the problem isn't at night but during the day. The hens
are quite secure at night when we put them away. I've seen quite a few hen houses like you suggest
in the village.
Great links BGTRAVELLER, I'll give them a good read.

Has Mr Fox been back yet ?

No Andy, Mr Fox hasn't returned - yet!
We've been doing a bit of work in the garden near the hens, so I'm sure
that helps. We're also getting eggs regularly which is good, they don't seem
to have been too traumatised!
Long may it continue. Thanks for asking.

Good news Scunnered lets hope the little blighter he has moved on to pastures new

Still no signs of Mr Fox then?

Unfortunately Mr Fox did return, just before Christmas and killed one hen.
So now we are down to two. They're not laying at the moment, so I wondered
if we should kill them for their meat!
Never killed anything in my life, (except a wasp or two!) so any information would
be appreciated.

The best way I have seen it done in the village is they lay the Chickien's neck across a block a chop off its head and the it jumps about for a little while. I'm not sure if breaking its neck is any better???

I find the best way is to use a slaughter cone as shown here. I use this type because it allows all the blood from the chicken to drain and once the throat of the chicken has been cut its over in a second as far as any suffering is concerned. You can use anything that you can shape like this even a plastic gallon container cut.

Place a bucket below the cone for the blood.

Thanks to you both for the info. This might sound really stupid, but how do you get
the hen into the cone?! :shock:
In our village the block method is used too, thanks therowfamily. I think I'm maybe
a bit too squeamish. I've also seen a despatcher advertised, it looks a bit like a
guillotine! Perhaps I should just let them live and hope they produce eggs once the
weather gets a bit brighter.

I've seen this method used before and once you hold the chicken by its legs it will relax and you just lower it in, but if your squeamish I would ask your neighbor to do it for you.