[Casey76]

With the weather being so desparately cold over the past week/two weeks I have seen increased evidence of foxes all over the place.

Early this morning (3am) I had my first every fox attack, and it was absolute carnage.

I lost eight in total, including 2 black brahma boys, light brahma pullet, blue/buff brahma hen, two birchen Marans, two black sex-linked pullets, and my silver laced dotte bantam is missing.

I now have no purebreeds left, apart from asilver/red dotte bantam   that takes my pullets down to five in total, and my chicken pen looked every so empty and forelorn this morning.

At the height of last summer I have over 60 birds, now I have only 5 left.

I'm not sure if I have the heart to hatch any this year, it's expensive, messy and time consuming, but I miss having my multicoloured flock.

[sarajane]

oh dear Casey76, what a sad thing to have to deal with this morning.  Hopefully you'll be able to build your flock up again.

[Debz]

So sorry to hear about your news.  I hope you are not too put off keeping alll the different breeds.  I loved hearing about all your different hatchings last year.

[GrannieAnnie]

Awww Casey, so sorry to hear that.  It is heartbreaking after all your hard work, but you will raise more, you know you will!!!!  xxx

[kegs]

I am sooo sorry.  That must have been just awful. 

[helens-hens]

Really sorry to hear your news, it must have been awful. As you say the cold weather is having an effect & foxes are trotting around quite brazenly in search of food  (

I'll never forget last year in the cold snap, looking out of the front window downstairs only to see a large fox directly below and then turning round to see the hens through the back window happily free ranging. We were lucky then.

I am sure you will get over this and raise more.

[Mrs Bee]

Losing your chickens to the blasted fox is awful!!!

My sister lost her first chickens to a fox and she was devastated!!

We have had to stop our girls from free ranging in the garden because the fox population is growing rapidly. I left the kitchen where I could see the chooks,  to get a cookery book from the front room and when I returned my husband had just chased off a fox who was about a metre away from getting our cream legbar. Now they have part of the garden fenced off with an electric fence. We still have foxes rampaging around the garden in pairs. eyeing up the girls but they leave after an encounter of the shocking kind.

A friend of my sister lives in the country and has loads of chickens and was constantly plagued by foxes. So he left food on the patio by the security light and kept his shotgun by the bed. Whenever the light went on  he would jump out of bed, aim and fire. The foxes became less of a problem!
There were less foxes.

I just wish the local council would have a cull of the urban foxes. They are so fearless and are turning into a real menace. A friend of mine had one get into the house through the cat flap and a neighbour had the  darn things move into his loft.

I have to admit to chasing a fox down the road with my broom at 6am whilst still in my dressing gown. Stupid really what I needed was a shotgun not a blinking broom.

Don't give up with the chickens. Get a shotgun!

[joyfull]

please don't advocate that everybody gets shotguns - there are strict rules governing the use of shotguns (and especially not in built up areas). I too have had a fox attack which resulted in me losing my ducks a few years ago and then last year I had two mink attacks which lost me a lot of birds so do understand the loss.
Huge hugs Casey xxx

[Thrift]

So sorry to hear that Casey. It is devastating but in time I'm sure you'll build up the flock again.

[Sprinter60]

Sorry to hear your news, leaves you feeling that you want to pack in keeping them.
I lost two last year, a gold bar and a sussex, fox found a chink in what i thought was an impregnable pen,well miserable 
But we need our animal friends around, so in time, as they say !

[New shoot]

Terrible news Casey    Wait a few days and see how you feel about restocking.  Feels devastating at first, but then life moves on and you will want your flock back 

[evie2]

Awful news Casey, so sorry

[ANHBUC]

   So sorry for your loss Casey. I bought a couple of Wyandotte Partridge Bantams a couple of weeks ago.  The young lad was selling up as a fox had taken most of his breeding stock.  They are beautiful little birds and very flighty at the moment.  They really go mental when our elderly cat walks by them, probably due to the fox attack.  She is deaf so doesn't even bat an eyelid.     

[sneezer]

What a horrid thing to have to see so sorry

[Casey76]

And the blooming thing came back last night!

Due to the really cold weather, the door to my coop hasn't been closing properly (wood swollen), so I've been jamming it closed as much as possible, and putting bucket infront of it.

Last night I'd just gone to bed at midnight, when I heard a squawk, so came racing down stairs, and was quick enough to see the fox with a chicken in it's mouth.  The torch frightened the fox away, so I went into the garden (at midnight, in my PJs and it was snowing like mad!) to check everything out.

Luckily the pullet was still alive, so I brought her inside, and she is now in a nice big cat box in the warm bathroom, but my coop door is a complete mess.  the fox had obviously scrabbled to get in the small crack it was pen, and now the hinge on one side is broken, so I'm going to have to think of something when i get home tonight.

I hadn't realised I hadn't rounded up all of the other remaining pullets in the cold and dark, til I came down this morning, and found one of my older hens up a ladder covered in snow!

Unfortunately in this weather, as all of the normal prey has gone to ground, the foxes are particularly hungry, and once they know where a food source is, they will keep returning to it.