quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Enjoy! I live in a city (Dallas) and have only seen one fox in the 38 years at this house. I do see raccoons and opossums, though. And I feed several feral cats.

flashguy

Thanks Flash. Yeah I don't see fox here very often even though they're around. I saw one from a distance last Summer in the evening walk across the foot bridge to a small island in the pond there to see if the goose left any eggs. But all her eggs hatched last year. (A pair of geese have come the last 7-8 years to have their little ones then leave). Last Sunday we noticed tracks in the snow on a couple large fallen trees, at first I thought my 35# dog made them but they were just a bit smaller plus she couldn't walk the length of those trees w/o slipping. Now I'm sure they were fox.

I have not seen an opossum here, other than a couple dead on the road, I hope we have some.

When I first came here 20+ years back I often saw raccoons but then 8-9 years ago stopped seeing them. I believe rabies took them out. Just this year I've seen 3, or more likely the same one three times, so they're making a comeback.
The last couple years I often saw a large skunk (I mean one of the biggest ones I've ever seen) usually walking across the dirt road near my neighbor and occasionally at my field. Last Fall when going to my mail box I smelled strong skunk and when driving by later the smell was still there. The idiot neighbor had shot it he said "just because". WTF?

I went to see my parents (south of Nashville) a couple of weekends ago and saw a red fox cross the road less than a 100 yards ahead of me. This was less than than five miles from my parents house and was the first fox I’ve ever seen in the area.

About a mile further, there was a chicken coop and pen with ten or fifteen chickens; it was completely enclosed in wire all around and on top. The fox explained the need for that high-security coop. However, when I was helping my grandmother with her chickens back in the 70s, it was opossums, like flashguy mentioned, that we had to worry about, not foxes.

Yeah chickens are prey to fox and I guess possibly an opossum as well. LOL really chickens are food for most everything!
No chickens so I don't have to worry.

This unlucky fellow was hit by a car in front of my driveway a few weeks back.

Awe....

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
. LOL really chickens are food for most everything!

They really are.

We decided to get chickens a couple of years ago. We let them free range in the pasture on the east side of our shop during the day. We didn't have any issues for over a year. Starting in Aug. of last year, one or two would disappear every couple of days without a clue. We thought it was either a hawk or fox. It turned out to be a Coyote. I was able to shoot one of them and the problem went away. I'm sure it will happen again at some point. We count them often now and take more precautions. They last incident was captured on one of our security cameras. The video footage was overwritten before I could save it but I did take a pic when I had it zoomed in on the monitor.



This little jerk was caught red-handed trying to get into the coop a while back.

Very cool. Rodent control at its finest. On rare occasion I'll see one in our back yard. Have also seen coyote, which would probably put 2/3 of my neighbors into a tizzy if I told them.

A neighbor, they're a couple miles away, but they raise (well they are simply wandering all around their property) rabbits, chickens, guineas, turkeys, goats, and Lord knows what else.... many of their 100's of rabbits roam INSIDE the house! Anyway they have 4 horses, two Rottweilers, along with a few mutts, and cats wandering around.
I asked how do you protect all your animals? He said they protect themselves, the horses keep away any coyotes and dogs (including his Rottweilers which they hate), and the goats run off fox and other predators. Cats take care of the vermin.

edit: I really should post a pic of their "operation".

We have a large Rooster now that does a great job. If any of the hens sound off, he comes running. Roosters can be a pain sometimes but they earn their paycheck.

Used to see them all the time when I worked nights (along with more than my share of opossums, raccoons, deer, and skunks). They're fun to watch...very agile, they move more like a cat than a dog.