Fox killed my chickens las night

I would agree, but the only earth route into the pen is undisturbed. I live in the centre of one of the most ancient cities in the UK. No cat or dog could have killed the ladies - but we have urban foxes. A family of them are living in the garden of a for-sale property on our street.
Day scope removed and NV re-fitted.

View attachment 427889
Foxes wont climb over a fence at least a red fox wont but a grey fox will. Dont believe you have greys though and as already said a fox would of tore the whole chicken apart and ate it.. mink, weasels, and raccoons will eat just the heads.. just because fox are around doesnt mean they did the deed.
 
Now I have to be a little bit careful here as I’m in the UK and in an urban situation. Has anyone any tips to baiting a fox onto their land? I know where they are denning, but it is not on my property. I want them dead and staked on an anthill. Those chickens were pets and friends as well as laying like belt fed mortars. My autistic son is distraught. The horrible little vermin only ate their heads.
We as humans are ever expanding into the animals habitat,...what do we expect is going to happen ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Blejda
Minor update. Yesterday I didn’t clear up the corpses as Small Boy was super upset, I just closed the door to the run.

Went out to sort it out just now (he’s in school) and the bodies are completely gone. 100% a fox.

Setting up trail cam, bait and a trap now. No way can I replace the chooks without eliminating animals that can come in at will.

I totally appreciate that we have made urban foxes into what they are by twisting the habitat. In many ways I feel sorry for them. I can’t tolerate this though. My chickens kept half the street in eggs, came to their names and would sit on your lap for a stroke.
 
Now I have to be a little bit careful here as I’m in the UK and in an urban situation. Has anyone any tips to baiting a fox onto their land? I know where they are denning, but it is not on my property. I want them dead and staked on an anthill. Those chickens were pets and friends as well as laying like belt fed mortars. My autistic son is distraught. The horrible little vermin only ate their heads.
Not a fox. Weasel.

Denning foxes drag off the entire carcass and bury it to consume later. They’ll take one chicken per hunt because it’s all they can drag back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: beerthief
Now I have to be a little bit careful here as I’m in the UK and in an urban situation. Has anyone any tips to baiting a fox onto their land? I know where they are denning, but it is not on my property. I want them dead and staked on an anthill. Those chickens were pets and friends as well as laying like belt fed mortars. My autistic son is distraught. The horrible little vermin only ate their heads.
You already successfully baited them into your property, didn't you?

The problem now is catching them, you already know what bait works.
 
If you shoot it, solve your mystery and send a photo to this thread.

Screw a fox. But I'm in the camp of it could be a weasel just as well.

I'm not into the fox won't climb a fence idea. Sounds similar to Coyotes leave town when a bear is seen. Another myth I've seen proven wrong many times. Kill it or get on camera
 
I am sticking with the weasel family of critters.
The fox didn’t do it.

I would have like to see the crime scene.
But if you shoot the fox anyway, I won’t blame you. I shoot everything that even looks like the might eat one of my tomatoes.

Some creature liked sampling them. Still don’t know which even with cameras. I switched the type of tomato last year and the problem was solved.

You have a much more attractive bait. If the initial find was only heads gone but all the bodies left behind, not a fox. Now if a body went missing before you cleaned up, could be a fox or large bird.
 
I would say a cat I've a funny feeling it could be a feral cat or even a pet cat living in a close environment where you have domestic cats and fox's too if it's not a cat it's definitely a fox.what sort of environment do you live in? City or suburbs or countryside I have never seen a weasel in a city lol but also friends the fox's here are notorious for just taking the chickens heads off over here in the uk as for my uk friend I think you know what todo already mate. I would call it in to your garden camo up and shoot the fecker in your garden just be very careful of your surroundings if your in a built up area or even live trap it wich would be safer I think good luck bud.
 
In my experience it's been a weasel that has only eaten the heads off my neighbors chickens and ducks. My trouble, having chickens, has been bears! And they are a lot easier to deal with. Hot wire having three verticle strands. Take the middle strand and wrap a piece of bacon around it, it's sure to get there attention! It learns them quickly. A weasel can be much more difficult to deal with, they may wipe out several animals on what appears to be a killing spree with killing bites to the head (temple) and eating some of the heads and leaving the rest as in killing indiscriminately! Fortunately he only shows up one or two nights out of the year but it's hard to plan for.

Good luck
 
  • Like
Reactions: Allroundhunter
aliens?

68519661dca71b5e3bd86b609fd1153952d412a0.gif
 
  • Haha
Reactions: ToddGeddes63
We have a fox problem too, which is the reason I became interested in PCP rifles and joined this excellent forum.

We lost one of our guinea fowl last month to a fox that was bold enough to come out in broad daylight mid-day, less than 30 minutes after my husband had just been down at the barn, and proceed to get one of our three guineas. We started out with ten guineas 12 years ago, now down to just 2😢. We weren't sure if it was a hawk or fox, had a fox get one also mid-day in Jan 2023, but this time we had video evidence of the attack. Kinda amazed that the fox wasn't able to get the first guinea he attempted to grab. Especially since the guinea missed flying up on the barn roof and did all that maneuvering to evade Mr. Fox. They're good runners, but they are also nearly 13 years old!! Here's the video from our Reolink camera -
Red fox after 12 year old guinea fowl

In all those years we haven't had fox problems, they stayed out of the guinea's field. Most of our fencing is 48in Keystone horse no-climb with 2x4in squares and we have a top electric wire. We do have a section back by a creek fenced with only high tensile wire and our game cameras pick up various critters passing through (deer, fox, etc.). All was well when they stayed in their own lane. Only in the past couple of years we've noticed them digging under the Keystone fencing at night, so we'd run some electric down across the dig spot which in the past had done the trick. Evidently they're determined to go after the guineas which I'm determined to stop.

For those that think a red fox won't climb a fence, I saw one in the guinea field after the Jan 2023 loss, ran down there and that fox didn't hesitate to go up and over the Keystone fence, hopefully getting a taste of the electric top wire in the process.

Good luck with dispatching your chicken killing fox.