So I get this call from my wife and she tells me we had a “chicken slaughter” last night. I asked her how many and it looked like we had lost 4 and had some injured chickens that will probably die. I told her not to touch the crime scene and I would be home right away. I get there, load up the shotgun and go to inspect the coop. Feathers everywhere and a dead chicken in the corner. No other bodies around. The fencing is pulled out where the animal went in/out. I couldn’t find any fur on the fence but suspected a fox. If it had been a raccoon it would have likely killed all of the chickens just to kill them. Raccoons do that. I start working the trail back to the woods and my wife comes out and tells me she found some feathers. We go to that spot and look around some more. Find a few more feathers. I start walking the trail I think the fox may have taken and it leads me to a trail that runs parallel to the marsh. I walk that trail and then take the one that splits off and goes into the marsh. Right after the split I found the body of one of our barred rock chickens. I know I am hot on the trail. I go into the marsh, somewhat dried up due to lack of rain, and stop at this fallen tree that came down last year. It is across a trail that deer and fox use, they just jump over it or, in the case of the smaller fox, onto then over. I am standing there scanning the woods about 30 yards in front of me when I see it! Red fox moving from my left to right, about 30 yards away. I shoulder the shotgun and wait until it passes a tree, then I pull the trigger.
We had to kill two injured chickens, the rooster and our black hen. The rooster was kind of beat up, missing his primary feathers on the left wing and some on the right with more being broken. This was our lame rooster and I was going to kill him anyway but it looks like he put up a bit of a fight, even being lame. That may be why we only lost as many as we did and not more. Sad day around here, sad day. Except for the two red hens the others were "pets", hens with names. One was "Lucky". She had that name because she survived a weasel attack that killed all our chicks except her and all but two of our hens. She wasn't as lucky this time.
It was a b!tch, no more pups from her. Had a bit of mange too. I think all the foxes around here are getting mange and it is hurting their population. Good. I hope to put more of them out of their misery. Time to kick the fox hunting back into gear.
Good job tracking and hunting down that fox. I sure hope that ends all your problems with the livestock.
That sucks, Bruce. We lost chickens and turkeys to foxes more than once growing up, but we were never able to exact revenge like you.
danged things...yotes got couple of mine(2 hens, 1 rooster, 1 female duck) earlier this spring - gonna get a couple of them dead soon. sucks that it almost seems they know which are your best layers or pets to.
You need some help lemme know...gotta break in the new predator gun...can't wait for some night calling...sorry bout the chix Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2
Pretty awesome how you tracked her down and gave her a dose of lead. Makes sense that she was on the hunt with the kits she probably has somewhere. We have problems with owls getting at our chickens.
First I saw this! Fox bastard! Sorry about your chickens and rooster and good job getting that sucker!!
Thanks, Tony. I am still going after the mate, it had to be a 2 fox job. We have 12 rooster chicks coming the first week of Aug. New Hampshire Reds.
