Bad news… A fox broke into our chicken coop and destroyed our flock of chickens and ducks. This video explains what happened and what we’re going to do to stop this from happening again. Raising chickens can be tough at times but it’s totally worth it. Cheers 🙂
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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane – the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let’s get into it! Cheers, Mark 🙂
The electric fence will help a lot, but don't get too confident because you won't win 100%. I have fox, coyotes out the ying, racoon, bobcat, wild boar, hawks, snakes, and the occasional bear. I minimize my losses buy keeping my birds locked up tight at night in their " Fort Knox" coupe 🙂 I use critter proof latches that the racoons can't open and I have a Great Pyrenees guard dog. Despite my deadeye aim with the ole 20 gauge, something always manages to snatch one of my birds occasionally. It's part of it I reckon. It's a shame they got your whole flock. The wife and I go out to breakfast once in awhile and I always order eggs like a fool and they always suck, after getting spoiled on the home growns. Are the birds worth all the trouble? Absolutely, Positively, YES! Two birds will feed a grown man for years, a dozen will feed a whole family and some of the neighbors. So in the words of Jerimiah Johnson…" Eh?…..What trouble?" gg.
I lost my flock last year. After finding what I believe to be the entry point of a raccoon, I decided to really beef up the run. Our run had to be enclosed mainly because of hawks, but we've also got raccoons, opossums, coyotes, foxes, snakes and dogs roaming around. We've started our flock over again from chicks and it's been 6 months or so and we've had a few losses but from the extreme heat from the summer. No predators…yet. I'm wanting to expand my run for a few more birds we're wanting to add into the flock. I like your run especially how you used salvaged timber for the posts. I'm trying to use as much salvageable lumber and materials as I can and really make sure it'll be as predator-proof as it can be, but a predator will always make you aware of weak points. I just discovered your channel but I love all the tips and advice you provide! Keep them coming!
Please add some smaller size fencing too, at least on the bottom couple feet.
I took chickens from a lady in town,
Oregon City Oregon USA
that didn't want them because they didnt lay anymore.
They are great at working at making compost and they are beautiful.
I also think the older ones help teach the younger ones a lot.
2:31 What's that yellow sign?
I'm so sad to hear about the loss of your animals…
Even though long….It was relaxing seeing your property. Nice tour
We just fox proofed our coop. It's roofed, triple wired in the lower meter, the wire is sunk into concrete that extends 1 metre outside the pen half a metre below the ground. Then just as a last paranoid defence we've put tin sheets around the base as well. A fox can't dig under. It's only option is to try climb above the metal. Sheets and literally chew through 3 layers of wire, or climb to the roof and chew through that..
Our fort Knox is after loosing 15 of 16 home bred chickens, 8 of which were pullets 2 gorgeous roosters and the rest older hens. There wasn't even a body left behind. I was a teenager at the time and they were my special project. It broke me for a long time. This year is the first year I've decided to get back into it.
We will be reinforcing the roof wire as well. But I need to pull off all the morning glory vine that's taken over (advise on killing that please), and clear all the leaf litter off first otherwise I don't think I'll be achieving much.
I am so sorry for the chicken. Dogs and foxes can be very creative. I would use "malla ciclon" in all the property's perimeter. It would be very effective.
Hi mark sorry to hear about the chicken flock demise….that would have been a shock…our biggest problem is with hawks, snatch and grab….bas#$"Ed's, however the best eggs is always worth it…looking forward to seeing your mark 2 version…no pun intended….
A "Fort Fox Knox"…..we had electric fence too.
Sorry to hear of your loss. Farm animals are not the same as pets but they do become family in other ways. It was good you took time to grieve.
Thanks Mark! So nice to tour the property with you! The mrs and I were watching and both so shocked when you said the fox got to the entire flock, so sorry to hear, we only have 5 chooks and attached to all of them, can’t imagine what that must have been like for you, checked the date and realised this was a while ago, so good of you to post this to help others. I’m posting a video real soon on our suburban coop if ur interested, I’d like to mention you’re videos in mine if that’s ok? we’re also in SEQ just south of Brisbane.
I really love your videos. Thank you for being such a positive and caring person showing everyone how you've been increasing your self sufficiency
We tried most of that but on a smaller scale. Electric fence & all. Didn’t work. Foxes will still find a way under it. We’ve gone back to letting the chooks out in the morning & making sure they’re secure at dusk. We only have a few though, not for commercial purposes.
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Neighbors 2 pitbulls literally chewed through the board at bottom and slaughtered my 13 hens. It is heartbreaking. Sorry you went through that. I would like to make a suggestion. Run a hot wire about 6-8 inches off the ground, as well as the one at the top.
It's sad when you lose a whole flock to predator attacks. I've lost the last of a dozen chickens that I raised from tiny chicks and you do get attached to them.
Opossums here in Northern Mexico are the worst (nasty things that always find a way into a coop and I swear the mother must train the babies to hunt because the faster I "bumped them off" the faster they kept coming) with feral dog packs, foxes and buzzards a close 2nd here.
I literally gave up 2 years ago after finding the last old bird with it's head missing despite a coop inside an inner perimeter of wire and a 10 foot wall and 400 meters of outside perimeter and barbed wire….something always found it's way inside the Hacienda eventually, no matter how hard I tried.
I sure miss those fresh eggs every day though, and this video of yours might just get me to start again….thank you and good luck with the renovations.
ps I subscribed years ago and have watched most of your vids. Luckily the snakes here are nowhere near the size of your monstors…..yikes.
Mark. Consider high tensile fencing that you can stretch tightly between posts/trees. A homemade stretcher is easily made using a couple 2×4's and some eye bolts. Stretch it a section at a time and secure to the posts with staples. The fence looks more squared away, you use less fencing obviously, and your electric strands stand off from the fence wire providing a nice gap between hot and ground. I use 72" RedBrand orchard fencing that has smaller/tighter openings near the bottom and larger openings at the top. Cheers my friend.
Did the Fig11 target, act as much defence?
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Sick em Mark.
So sorry about the loss of your chickens and ducks … A coyote killed my pet hen , "Bukka" …..so sad ..
Fort Knox? Ya ain't kid'n. All secured, and empty. All it needs is some chicken cardboard cutouts and you've got Fort Knox indeed.
Oh, that's heartbreaking. Sorry to hear you went through all of this. In the Southeastern part of America, we have two kinds of foxes that attack the chickens, and one can climb trees. Then we also have coyotes. These also eat people's pet dogs (smaller ones) and cats. The foxes eat people's cats also. This neighbor that my mom and I had kept chickens. It was in the suburbs so some of the neighbors were raising Hell about it. My mom and I loved the chickens though. They came into our garden and ate all the pests, and we had plenty of earthworms to spare. We also fed them our crackers and kitchen scraps when they came to visit. Well… One night, a coyote came and killed all of her chickens, except for one of her small red hens. She was the one that got picked on by the other chickens, but she was too smart for the coyote. She would visit us for ten more years. We called her Chicky Girl. I'm sure that she must have just died of old age.
wait, so you don't eat the chicken?