hi, we have a problem with foxes which we thought was over last yr, we are fed up of finding feathers everywhere when we get up in the morning and i get very distressed if i hear the slightest sound at night because my window faces the field and our coops. in the past we have used a humane fox trap to catch the fox and released it in an approved site, the last time we caught a fox my dad killed it though and i swear that was the start of our bad luck, since then we lost 72 chickens in broad daylight and then its been taking one or two since then. last night i heard squawking and shrieking and the outside light came on, i threw my shoes at it and it dropped the hen, then we went outside and he’d basically torn her to pieces.
it was my dad’s fault for not catching her last night, she roosted in a tree so he couldnt put her away with the others and he thought she’d be fine and didnt tell us she was out. so far we’ve heard lots of old wives tales, we heard you could keep foxes away by peeing around the coop, so my brother did that (only testosterone works apparently) we heard that leaving talk radio on kept them away (it did for a week or so, then the fox must have realised it wasnt ppl) we heard human hair keeps them away, didnt work at all. we also heard that you should kill a fox and ‘crucify it’ like jesus on the cross, no other foxes come near it, but im not willing to try that, i disagree with killing any animal.
is there anything else we can do?
our coops all have locks on, and a part of our garden is fenced off with electric fencing on the outside, the foxes still get over the electric fence!
What your father did was the cause of you current problem he took away the "resident"Fox and no other would have come on to it’s territory while it was around now the "king" is dead the territory is free for more to come and go as they please.till a new "king" takes over.
You can now only try to prevent acces to your coops by fair means or foul(pardon the pun)
Try putting fishing line round the area at different levels this sometimes deters them because they can not see it.