Fox broke into my coop :(

Last night. It broke the padlock and hinges off the nest box and tossed it about 1 metre away. It must have been a big thing as it seriously dented the litter tray too.
Just a pile of feathers left. These were my first amazing little birds, just coming up to point of lay, would have been any day now. I would never have thought chickens could each have their own distinct character.
I built the run where I put them in the day myself and that is I think really strong but the house was shop bought ( though from a specialist poultry shop who make them themselves). I feel so annoyed with myself.
I want to try again but build my own house , perhaps have the roosting area up higher.
Can anyone give me some pointers please ? I don't want to underestimate what foxes can do, again.

 

Oh Louise i'm so sorry to hear about that.

Same thing happened to our house Chicken in broad daylight.

You could take the Huge Fearnley Whittinstall approach & have a box on a pole with a ladder, have to be a fairly simple ladder though, i've seen dogs climb normal ladders, so a fox could probably work it out.

I'll see if I can find a link to the programme, oh, second thoughts, you're in France, channel 4 will block it.

I'll have a look for a pic instead.

 

so sorry to hear that Louise,the only suggestion I can make is could the pen go inside the run to give it a bit more protection.Even a small run with a roof over or outward sloping netting at the top above 6' high and at least 18" buried in the ground.
How many hens did he take?

 

Can't find a pic of Huge's one but something simliar on this blog

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So sorryto hear this news Louise..I dont keep chickens myself but I understand the feelings.

 

Commiserations Louise, it's heartbreaking to lose your hens like that. Hope you resolve your problem.:(

 

Thanks all. I did have 4 birds. I live in the centre village though there is a field pretty much surrounded by houses on the opposite side of a road, even then I didn't really expect this as our scent and that of the dog is all around the chicken house as I was always down there with them! The run that I built isn't huge but it is solid and had grillage everywhere, ( I was going to build a bigger one in the spring) they would go in there in the day and I would pick them up and put them into the house that was outside the run at night.
I have seen the HFW houses and they do look great, but they might be a bit imposing in my not overly big garden.
I'm thinking of maybe starting with a cheap argos /wilkinson shed and customising and securing it as the price of wood is exhorbitant here and not much seems to go to the tip . Maybe making the inside two tier, putting in a strong impenetrable platform/ litter tray about half way up , so that I can use the underneath for storage and the top half for the birds. I dunno, I will have to give it some thought.
I am shocked by the power / determination of the fox and I need to know what they can do re biting / tearing wood, jumping , climbing, before I start anything else. But if I can't keep the chickens safe, I won't have any. It's not fair on them.

 

This sort of fence arrangement will help but needs to be thicker than 1.5mm as foxy will chew it also have you considered electric fencing?

 

isn't it something that with all our technology a fox can usually outwit us. Sorry about your chickens,I know how you feel,I loose mine to coyotes some times.

 

Louise, I'm so sorry to hear of what happened. I know its awful. When I was a kid I was the one to discover that a fox had got ours. Total carnage.

My dad still keeps chickens. There is always two seperate fences between the chickens and the outside world, so any fox would have to first penetrate the boundary fence, which he aims to keep fairly secure, but I doubt it's fox proof. Then he has the chicken enclosure inside. Good mesh fence all the way round and with a mesh roof. The bottom of the mesh is buried in the ground folded outward to prevent anything digging under. Inside their enclosure is their house, just a wooden shed. The chickens are shut in their house at night and released in the morning.

Foxes aren't put off by the scent of dogs, or any other animal for that matter. Unfortunately, it seems they are also becoming much more confident, whereas once you'd be very lucky to catch a glimpse of a fox in the wild, because they know you're there before you know they're there and they hide, now its not unusual to see them just going about their business in the streets.

As for how powerful they are, about the same as a dog of similar size.

 

Thanks again everyone.
I know the fox is doing what foxes do, I just feel so angry at myself because they were my responsibility and I couldn't keep them safe and they were so amusing ( sorry these were my first birds and they were just for eggs, the next lot I was planning on having would have been eaters so I'm not totally gooey!)
I hadn't thought about electric fencing, that may be something to consider. At the moment I am going to concentrate on making a chicken house that cannot be pulled apart. Breeze blocks are cheaper to buy than wood and easier to cadge from people, so a little fixed permanent home and solid moveable day run with electric fencing just in case the foxes come out in the day, may be the answer.
I am sure that I will need some help on the technical things like what roof to use and how to fix it etc, but I will keep you posted once I have firmed up some ideas.

 

So sorry Louise,when Mr Fox means buisness there's not alot you can do...i would definatley recomend welded mesh and a roof on the run....it must have been really stressfull for you to find them...hope you are ok....

 

I have never kept chickens but I did have an outside aviary, if I wanted to keep chickens I would do it the same way i.e. build your wire 'cage' first using strong welded mesh like is used on aviary panels, bend the bottom of the wire into the 'cage' and place concrete slabs on top. Everything else, house etc goes into the cage!!

Val