Please help my guilt! It’s my fault a fox had 2 of my girls and I feel the most horrible person ever

[Miamuffin]

I’ve had beautiful girls for years.
I have 5 rescues at the moment and a cockerel. They are free range as we have a huge garden. I always protect them, put them away early if we are back late.
last night we were running late at 5pm for a meal with the family and my partner said “Are you locking the girls away”
my exact words… “we haven’t got time”

I was not thinking straight at all… stress and anxiety of being so late just fogged me.

Got home just after dark and I went running to the coop to find blood and feathers down the garden. I sobbed so bad I knew what was coming. We found their bodies headless in the trees. Really warm so it had just happened. I haven’t slept I cannot deal with the guilt!
I feel the worst person in the world I love animals, I haven’t eaten meat for 14 years now so I just feel so absolutely terrible!
I feel I’ve let them down and it’s broke my heart 💔

They are like little puppies they are so friendly. I’ve never ever had hens like these pair!

Is it normal to feel this guilty. They’ve died because of my stupid mistake!
I wish I’d missed the bloody meal now and saved their beautiful lives 💔😢. I just want to know I’m not alone feeling like this. If we were any later the fox would of had them all.

I feel a failure to protect.

we have 5 dogs so a fox wouldn’t come in the day 😢

I am sorry OP
That must have been awful 😢

It's horrible, but that's nature!
The horrible thing is that the foxes seem to do it for the sport, rather than to eat them, but they're wild animals following they're instincts.
We had chickens when I was young, and we forgot to shut them away one night - 10 dead chickens left in the garden!

I'm so sorry. A similar thing happened to us. We were late home because we found a fox in the road which had been hit by a car. We took it to the vets to be put down. Came home and a fox had killed 20 Chickens and 3 ducks. Leaving 2 ducks, one of which died in the night and 1 chicken. My husband didn't let me outside that night and I can only imagine what he saw. He still gets choked up and seriously angry about it 3 years on.
We felt terrible as if we'd got home earlier we could have saved some lives too. I'm not sure if you have a cockerel but we put all of the eggs we had in a incubator so our current girls are all related to the girls/boys we lost.

The pain and guilt does ease over time.

It happened about 8 years ago at a different house in broad daylight, I accepted this as I was genuinely not to know. I lost 4 then

this time though 😞 I should of known better it’s absolutely killing me the guilt xx

@LBF2020 that is absolutely heartbreaking 💔 oh I can’t even imagine how you felt!

I have a cockerel yeah. They are rescues and the 2 killed were my best layers and we’ve already had the eggs off them 😢 oh what a shame!!! I’ll try it though xx

I'm so sorry this has happened and you have lost your girls.
I doubt there are many chicken keepers out there who haven't lost chickens or ducks to a fox attack. Foxes are opportunists and that one time you don't put your chickens to bed will probably be the one time they come looking.

Don't be too hard on yourself. ❤

So sorry for your experience, that would be heart breaking, the knowing what you find as the scene unfold and the rushing realisation. You poor thing.
We have had similar, the one time we took a risk a stoat struck and killed one hen and fatally maimed another who stayed alive for hours until we found them and we called out very friend who euthanased her.
Felt awful, as we gambled with their lives.
I still feel regret, shame and sadness at what happened, but it has faded with time.
I don't think there is anything that can make you feel better, but you have my sympathy. Hope you are doing ok right now.