What Does the Fox Say?

What does the fox say? 

I frankly don't give a hoot what the fox says. I just want it to go away. We have been hit by the fox once again. This is our third time with this little nuisance raiding my hen house.  

Our chickens are free range. We built the mighty covered run all those years ago when we were new to chickens and ambitious in our efforts. Then of course one day my husband opened the run door and it was all over.
Our birds are free range and when you have free range chickens and ducks there are predators that you are going to have to contend with. There are, along with foxes, many other things to be concerned about such as hawks, cats, dogs, raccoons and coyotes just to name a few. In all our years we have just been cursed with the fox as an issue. Not that there have not been hawks around, but I have very territorial crows manning the wall and they have always chased the hawks off. Now crows they are a blessing, but I digress.
Currently the fox is the bane of my existence.

The very first time we had a fox issue I was completely stunned, as for years our chickens and ducks did as the pleased around the way. They would be let out in the morning and spent the day moseying around. It started with a short head count. One of my ducks was missing. We found her remains and it was just startling.
We thought perhaps a hawk. The next day my husband was up on a ladder, the chickens and ducks were all around the bottom just nosing about. My husband didn't make much of it because they normally follow him around. Yet this day it was my neighbor who came running over to let my husband know it wasn't just chickens and ducks watching him clean the gutters, but a fox. 

I have to admit if they were not such a murderous little bunch I would be in awe of their cunning, boldness and beauty. Alas when it comes down to your chickens or a fox, the fox gets cast in a bad light.

Now I got all sorts of advice on what to do from other chicken lovers, most suggested shooting the fox. Others said trap the fox and relocate. I locked my lot up in the run and hid under the covers. I can tell you one thing prayer did not work and secondly the fox was persistent.

So we tried trapping it. Apparently the fox received notice and bypassed all attempts of being trapped. We started to feel like Wile coyote trying to catch the roadrunner. It was laughable. After some time my husband insisted we stop keeping the chickens and ducks locked away. I had to admit that he was right, we had taken chickens and ducks that were accustomed to traveling around all day picking at roots, bugs, seedlings and saplings and there they were standing crushed against the run door just waiting to be let out. So we started letting them back out.
For a time it was wine and roses until I came out of the kitchen door one day and saw my ducks waddling in a very fast pace up to the koi pond and I had to rub my eyes because right there behind them was the fox. Broad daylight, just casually hunting my little ducks. I ran, it ran and the ducks swam. I told my husband it was the fox or the run.  

My husband started spending his nights outside stalking the fox. Which I never really understood because frankly the fox seemed to prefer bankers hours in his hunting. My husband started to look, talk and act more like Elmer Fud being nightly outsmarted by the rascally fox. 

My husband never was able to dispatch the fox. I kept my lot locked in the run and this went on for months where again the fox seemed to have bored of our play. So with a good stretch of time without a sighting I decided it was a sad life for the chickens and ducks and I let them start free ranging.
We had two years of quiet enjoyment, not one fox attack nor sighting to be had. Life was good again. I can't Honestly say whether the fox got tired of no free lunch here, another neighbor dispatched/relocated it or it decided to sign up for unemployment and an Obama phone. All I knew is we had two fox free years.

A few months ago I heard a racket out back. I got to the back porch to see my oldest hens crowded against the kitchen door. I knew right then we had the fox back again to my dismay.
My flock was scattered the yard was bare. I found some in the neighbors yard, some under the deck and some dead. My son went in chase of the fox. No one knows what one would do if they caught the fox, but you feel that you must do something. I collected the ones I could and herded them into the run with a heavy heart. I stayed out until dark waiting on the pecking order line up of entering the coop. I asked my husband to leave the dead where they fell. Now I know you won't understand this, but frankly they were already dead and a hungry fox is going to come back looking for his kill, if it isn't there it is going to try and kill more. 

I was honestly just devastated, he took out the more vulnerable, my silkies and the newer younger naive girls. None of my original flock fell prey. My rooster Gladys, my nemesis was in the missing. It was one of those moments where you just regret all the threats made toward making dinner with him next time he kicks you, or telling him there was a pot with his name on it boiling on the stove. Gladys although the bane of my existence, was a tough rooster who took good care of his hens and he had been here for just so many years, since we brought him home as a day old pullet (female chickens) at the feed store.

So we went into lock down again. My husband put on his Elmer Fud Hat and set to stalking the fox pointlessly. This was starting to feel like groundhog day, obviously I hadn't found the key to february 3rd and my ticket out of town. 

 

The upside of this was it was in the midst of the worst winter ever a few days later during the worst snow storm to be had, I looked outside and there stood Gladys outside the run waiting to get in. I learned then that Gladys was far more formidable than I ever thought. The way I see it either Gladys chased the fox, or the fox brought Gladys home to its den and even the fox itself couldn't tolerate Gladys and threw him out! Either way, it was bittersweet as there was my Gladys covered in snow, but in one piece. 

So months they stayed in the run and against my protests my husband started letting them free range again. I held my breathe. Every day I counted my hens, constantly was checking outside to see who was where. Soon I got comfortable. I figured the fox was again a thing of the past.
It is spring and I have a couple of broody hens setting on eggs so when I noticed less chickens in the morning and feed left on the ground at the end of the day I wasn't concerned. When my duck Ginger went missing, again I wasn't concerned as I had watched her for weeks rolling her eggs to an undisclosed location. A few days of Pollyanna world and then it hit me, wait a minute...Head Count! The next morning I did not open the run as that would be the only time possible to get a head count and after counting all the chickens and ducks in the run, spying on all brooding hens I could see I was four chickens short, 2 roosters, no not Gladys and 2 hens. Also Ginger is gone. So we are back to lockdown again.

I honestly am not sure how this will end. Three fox massacres is three too many. 

My husband has his Elmer Fud had on, I got the lock on the run, but frankly it is a torturous situation. Here's to a new den for the fox located in Timbuktu,...having a stealthy shot neighbor...or a fox proof yard. Of course fox proof yard is the direction I am heading in. So what does the fox say? Sic!