Chicken Predators

Fox Proofing to protect your chickens

Fox proofing MUST be your primary focus when you design your chicken accommodation. You must learn how to protect your chickens from foxes.

Foxes have a very bad press, but it’s well deserved. They are are probably quite misunderstood. We are not fans of foxes except they are beautiful creatures and have a purpose in the great scheme of nature to keep the balance right as a top predator.

With this in mind, the first thing you should do beyond all else is foxproofing, foxproofing, foxproofing. If you don’t attend to this then your beloved chickens will be on the take-away menu of any resident fox in your area. It upsets us enormously when we hear that chickens have been taken due to foxproofing errors.

Please know that foxes will prowl at all hours of the day and night. They can also snatch your birds at a moment’s notice, even if you are around.

Foxes are indiscriminate killers aren’t they?

Foxes are actually misunderstood. Most people are of the opinion that foxes kill for fun. The reason they think this is that when a fox attacks, he will kill everything living in sight. Foxes like all other creatures only kill for survival. Yes it appears indiscriminate, but they do have a cunning plan.

Whenever we humans think the shops are shut we will tend to fill our freezers, fridges and cupboards almost like the world is coming to an end. The fox has the same mentality. When food is plentiful, ie you have presented your lovely chickens to the fox on a plate then he is thinking that “I don’t know when I am going to get the opportunity to eat again so I will stockpile or cache the goods”. The equivalent of us going to do our Christmas shopping. We don’t need the amount of food we buy, but we buy it just in case we get a mountain of visitors or a two day holocaust. While food is easily available, he is going to fill his cache with goodies.

A fox only has one mouth and he can only carry one at a time. By which time we have discovered his fowl deed (pun intended) and have gotten rather upset and therefore have tidied up. Mr Renard is fully expecting to keep coming back and bury your unfortunate chickens for lean times ahead.

Any hens that have been fortunate enough to escape the jaws of death, will be severely traumatised, or severely mauled. The blood-curdling screams of panicking hens when faced with a predator is not a sound you will forget in a hurry.

So how do you fox-proof?

Any physical barriers you can place in the way for fox proofing the better. Firstly CHICKEN WIRE OR RABBIT WIRE IS NOT FOX-PROOF. Even if you double it up. It is only chicken-proof and is intended to keep chickens in. Chicken wire is defeated by a fox like a hot knife through butter.

Bury the wire at least 1 foot deep into the ground and also splay it out at right angles to your run sides along the ground the make a physical barrier to exclude Mr Fox. Paving slabs can be placed round the edge to make another no dig zone. Don’t forget the doorway or the roof. The more barriers you have, the better.

Make sure your nest box lids are well attached and securely bolted. Don’t neglect the underside of your coop or nestbox which is often used as an access point. These are rarely screwed securely. Slide out droppings trays are also an easy target for a hungry predator. Rooves should be well fitting and secure. Mesh should cover any ventilation points to exclude vermin. Most cheap wooden coops are not fox-proof or badger proof. Coops can easily tip over. Mr Fox knows this. He is wiley, strong and very persistent. Mr badger is immensely strong and can rip the side off a thin wooden coop like it was tin foil.

Always close your coop at night. Get an automatic door on your coop if you are leaving it open to avoid the need for an early morning visit. Leaving the chicken coop door open is not worth the risk. Chickenguards are worth their weight in gold and we sell these in our shop.

Materials used in fox-proofing

Weld-mesh with a minimum gauge of 16 and a small aperture. Two inch by two inch is not good enough. Foxes can get their mouths into that space and use it to overcome the barrier. A 1 inch mesh or smaller is better. Rats can get through 1 inch square mesh so a smaller space will exclude rats, and mink, stoat, pine marten, badgers and weasels also. These predators are all partial to a bit of takeaway chicken too. Weld-mesh is measured in gauges. The larger the gauge number the thinner the wire. 16g is better and stronger than 19g. It is also more expensive, but the alternative is also an expensive lesson to learn. It is expensive in money terms, and emotional terms so why allow it to happen?

An excellent preventative obstacle is an electric chicken fence. The fencer or energiser (the thing that supplies the electric current) has to be powerful enough to zap any vegetation. Vegetation can weaken the current the fencer is supplying and make the difference between a startling jolt and a slight tickle for a resourceful hungry fox especially one with a load of cubs to feed in spring. A guide for installing an electric fence for chickens is here. If you want information on what electric fence to choose, there is a complete guide here

What to guard against

Foxes can climb trees. They are excellent jumpers, easily clearing a 6 foot fence. Foxes and badgers are formidable diggers so don’t assume you are safe if you have not made the perimeter fox-proof and secure. Please remember that the fox or badger only has to be lucky once, and that you have to be lucky every time. In the picture below, this fox visits every day.