1) Sorry about your loss. Let some eggs hatch and you'll have plenty of roosters to choose from. 2) Personally, I let all the foxes in my woods live. We live in "Lyme Disease Central" so anything that kills field mice is my friend. Admittedly, we have not had the local foxes get into our hen house, yet. 3) We've got about 2-3 dozen chickens including 4-6 roosters. They all get along just fine, since we let them free range. They all go to roost at night, and we have a timer set up on the door to coop, that opens in the AM and closes in the PM. It has worked great for us over the last 5+ years. Cock don't fight if they can free range, but, they definitely protect the hens.
Chickens are on my radar. I was hoping to be ready this year, but life got in the way. Unless something new comes up, I should be able to clear the area for them this spring/summers. My plan is start with 6-8 hens. No rooster. Love fresh eggs. A buddy use to drop some off from time to time. I've not seen him in a while. Rumor has it something got his chickens one by one. Jason from RI
