Do Foxes Eat Chickens?

Telltale Intrusions

• If you find chicken carcasses with broken necks, feathers strewn around and many missing chickens, then you can be certain that a fox is raiding your coop. Also, some chickens may have a lucky escape, but may have feathers or flesh missing from the neck region. The chickens may still be salvageable, but, at that point, a veterinary visit is necessary. Also, check around the henhouse or coop; foxes are known to dig subterranean tunnels to reach prey.

Surplus Killing

• Foxes are greedy killers of chickens, as they tend to kill more than they can eat. In the wild, foxes may not be successful in hunting down prey everyday. So, they tend to kill more prey than they can consume. Foxes store surplus kill for later consumption. They tend to follow this instinct, even in a coop or henhouse, which makes it easier to kill their prey because it has no escape.

Preventing Kills

• It is next to impossible to stop foxes from coming into your backyard and trying to gain entry into the henhouse. However, using a combination of deterrents will reduce the number of attacks.

  Many garden centers sell fox repellents. These chemical-based repellents are quite effective in getting rid of foxes. The scent from the repellent confuses the fox into thinking it is another animal's territory and leaves the area. The fox may stay around to confront the imaginary animal, but on not finding one, it will leave and go to another place.

  Make sure that you lock up your flock securely before dusk. Foxes usually hunt after dusk or before dawn.

Deterring Foxes

• The best way to prevent a fox from killing and eating your chickens is by having secure and sturdy housing for the birds. Wooden or metal flooring in the henhouse deters foxes from digging their way in. Place a steel mesh wire around the coop to prevent the foxes from tunneling into the henhouse. It is advisable to bury the wire 1 foot into the ground. You can also lay the wire mesh flat on the ground. Do not use chicken wire, as it is meant to keep chickens from escaping, not from keeping predators at bay. Make sure that the henhouse door is securely locked.

  If you have the means, build a 7-foot-high wire fencing around the henhouse. Install electrical wires at the top and bottom of the fence. The bottom electrical wire should be at sniffing height. Alternatively, install a 7-foot-high fence with outcropping inclined at a 45-degree angle to the outside. Though foxes can jump as high as 6 feet, the electrical wires and the outcropping prevents them from scaling the fence. Place wire meshing around the fence, extending to around 2 feet. These fences are designed to prevent foxes from scaling over and/or digging under them.