Mr. Fox looking for dinner.

Hopefully not “…Dinner time”. But then again seeing how foxes will break in and kill every bird, without taking a single bird to eat does make me wonder why nature behaves in such an irrational way.

Anyone who keeps chickens will of course fear a visit from Mr. Fox. I always used to think that my birds were most at risk during the cold winter months but now I really believe the summer months are more dangerous.

Looking through our poultry forum, nearly every week I see a post from someone who has had a fox get into their chicken run and kill their chickens. A popular ‘problem’ is chickens being safely locked up at night by VSB automatic door closers (without the additional timer module) but has opened up in the early hours around 4.30am at first light, letting the chickens out whilst the fox is still around. I have 3 of these automatic door closers now and every one has the additional timer module. An extra £30 to £40 but so worth while when you risk losing all of your birds in one go like this.

The second problem with this time of year is that foxes are feeding cubs and teaching them how to hunt on their own. Last year at 9am one morning I watched 2 young foxes walk up to one of my chicken runs casually without the fear that normally accompanies older foxes. They were hungry, learning how to hunt and looking for an easy meal. Thankfully, they didn’t get it.

Rest In Peace Quackers - These were the Abacot Ducks that the fox killed.

I wasn’t so lucky this year. A few weeks ago, I had 4 Abacot Ranger ducks in a run that had a 6ft high fence around it and an electric wire. It had been a very wet night and a tuft of wet grass had touched the electric fence, shorting it out. A fox got into the run around 5am (I know this because the bodies were still warm at 6am when I discovered them) and ripped the heads off the ducks, burrying the bodies in the run and leaving without taking anything.

Foxes always come back so I now house all of my birds at night to make sure this doesn’t happen again. It is the first time I have lost birds although I can still remember discovering my parents dead chickens when I was 7 years old after a visit from Mr. Fox.

After several late  nights looking for the fox, I failed to find him, then just as I was about to go to bed one night, I went to draw the curtains on the front of the house to see a fox walking along the white line of the main road. He was coming into the garden the one way I didn’t expect… via road.

They say as cunning as a fox don’t they…?

There are some ideas on how to keep your chickens safe from foxes in the poultrykeeper pests and predators section.