I have had one encounter with a fox and my chickens.
I was eating lunch one day and the neighbor called and told me that she saw a fox running across her backyard carrying one of my black hens.
It wasn’t hard t figure out which one as I only had one black hen. Her name was “Rosie”. She had a name because it was some young girls pet. She had two chickens but one died and she didn’t want Rosie to be lonely, so I ended up adopting Rosie.
It was nice in a way because of the way she was raised, she was so friendly that she could easily be picked up and petted or fed and would just sit on my lap. This isn’t important, other than it probably made her an easy target for the fox in that she was much more domesticated than chickens normally get.
Any chickens I have had required very special treatment before they could be trained to stand still long enough to actually be picked up. Most run and keep just out of reach no matter how hard you try to catch them.
I had thought I had heard a noise in the chicken pen, but assumed it was just another normal celebration of one of the girls laying an egg. Those with chickens will understand what I am saying as there is almost always a lot of squawking when someone lays an egg.
Anyway the phone call tipped me off so I went out to check the situation. I found one wounded Plymouth Barred Rock. I didn’t kill her and she wasn’t bleeding anywhere that I could see. My hope was that she would pull through the attack but she died later that day.
That afternoon, about a half hour before dark I took my shotgun and sat behind the house, watching the chickens in the pen. I actually wasn’t there long and I noticed the fox coming. I was amazed that it was so brazen near houses as I never see them in the yard. In defense of the fox and his mentality, it is all wooded behind the chicken pen, so he did have some sort of cover for his approach.
I watched for only a minute or two and he turned to go back in the direction from which he had just come from. He was probably close to 75 or 100 yards away, but I touched off the shotgun in his direction, basically hoping not to hit him, but just scare him. Because of my experiences with other animals I knew the fear thing wouldn’t work, but I didn’t want to feed him any more chickens, and then I really didn’t want to hurt him.
It was getting dark so went back to the house. Once the sun set and the chickens went to roost, I went out and secured the chickens like I always do.
The next day I went and opened the small door of the coop to let the chickens into their exercise yard.
I had been painting on the front of my house and was in eating lunch when I heard a commotion in the chicken pen. Again, it wasn’t like the normal celebration of someone laying an egg so I went to the bathroom window.
I saw the fox so I grabbed my shotgun and waited in the bathroom window. He was walking back and forth near the pen, obviously looking for the hole where he had gotten in the day before. I had put a large rock on the edge of the chicken wire and had gotten his entry point secured.
He was so intent on getting in that he didn’t hear me raise the window slightly and stick the barrel of my shotgun out the window.
I live in a fairly densely populated area but it is open behind the house and there is nothing to hit that would cause any damage. Obviously safety comes first.
Anyway, with the window up, him walking back and forth, just let him have it with the gun. It was a very clean kill. He was thrown back away from the pen and never even quivered when he hit the ground. I am not proud of killing the fox.
My problem is, that I have never found that animals, once they taste chicken don’t return again and again until they get them all. I do work for a living and can’t afford to be there 24/7 to watch for the fox. I might have been able to trap the fox or have it trapped and moved to a new location and it might not have gotten any more chickens, but this way, the problem was solved.
I say solved, but I thought at the time it might have a mate that would come and get more but I never saw another one that year, or since.
The fox appeared very healthy which didn’t help my feelings as I will never like the destruction of any animal, but I won’t raise chickens to feed wild animals either.
The trap and move idea that so many people have now days is commendable, but at best that is a gamble.
It seems people wish to protect every animal and I actually do also, but as animals lose their natural fear of humans, they do quite often become a problem. It might not be a problem to some people, but when I buy chicks, raise them, and spend money on them feeding, housing, taking care of them, I need the animals to respect my property.
The best thing, even though I felt bad about killing it is that it was a male, so at least I didn’t leave a bunch of babies totally without an adult to take care of them.
Had the fox not gotten into the pen and come back for a second try. I would never have bothered it.
Tags: Foxes and Chickens