So, coming from an Australian perspective, the kind of fox ‘hunt’ being discussed here is laughably stupid and inefficient.
My grandfather owned a sheep farm in Victoria and was the local guy to go to in the shire if you had a fox problem. He taught my dad and I learned from both of them.
Using a light, whistle and shotgun and on foot or with a vehicle/spotlight/rifle, we would go out every night of the week leading up to lambing and for the week after lambs started dropping, watching the flocks and shooting or scaring away the foxes.
We did that for around 25 years before my grandfather sold the farm and retired and dad & I have done a lot of fox shooting for other farmers we know (most farmers can’t shoot worth a damn and are more than happy to have someone else come in and sort things out for the cost of a cup of coffee at the end of the night).
Some observations from all that: yes, a fox will kill every chook in a coop and eat one or two. When that happens you restock, grab your shotgun and wait for the bugger to come back (foxes tend to be creatures of habit) or make your coop fox proof (more work but it can be done).
Most foxes won’t kill livestock unless it’s very weak or very sick - most of the time during lambing season they are out eating the afterbirth or picking off weak lambs (which would probably survive if it wasn’t for the fox).
Most estimates I’ve seen put the number of foxes at around 5 per square kilometre, of those maybe 1 in 6 is a true killer - they will attack stock, killing multiple healthy lambs or sick ewes in a night and eating the soft parts (tongue, ears) and then moving on. Often the killers are older, sick or mangy animals but on occasion you encounter ones in good condition that start.
The killers are the ones you have to get (we knew one hobby farmer who lost 50% of his flock in the space of 3 nights). The only way to get a killer is to go out when they are active, learn their habits and then try to outsmart them - not easy if they have been shot at before and know what a spotlight is - it’s a process that can take days or even weeks. Poison baits rarely seem to get killer foxes, for whatever reason they don’t take them.
Some random fox getting chased down by a bunch of dipsticks in red coats is unlikely to be a killer.
