How high of fence can a Fox jump?

[bldmtnrider]

I watched a pair go through my yard and over a 6 foot privacy fence like it wasn't there. After watching that, I wouldn't put it past them to clear at least 8 feet.

 

[suki'smom]

From the ground with no climbing? 4 1/2 to 5 feet. With climbing? As high as they feel like going.

These are my youngsters from this year in the "baby pen". If that fence wasn't on top they would just keep going and going. That fence is 6 ft high and its not a problem for these guys at only 3 months old. Now they are in a pen with an 8 ft fence and still scale to the top without a problem, I'm sure they could go much higher,

 

[Dobitus]

I have a neighbor in Colorado Springs that has a 6 foot wooden fence around his chickens... and he has seen a fox climb it. This particular fox walks down our street in broad daylight. I was getting in my car about 7am, and she came down the street. All she did was sidestep me about 3 feet and kept walking right down the street. She has taken 1 of my neighbors chickens, and three of mine. This summer is dedicated to building a heavy enclosure and run that is fox proof... wired top to bottom with heavy hardware cloth. My neighbor now uses railroad ties for the bottom of his chicken coop.....

 

[zazouse]

From the ground with no climbing? 4 1/2 to 5 feet. With climbing? As high as they feel like going.

These are my youngsters from this year in the "baby pen". If that fence wasn't on top they would just keep going and going. That fence is 6 ft high and its not a problem for these guys at only 3 months old. Now they are in a pen with an 8 ft fence and still scale to the top without a problem, I'm sure they could go much higher,

They are beautiful,how do you keep them from digging out? i noticed alot of white are these from tame foxes? From i understand that the more domestice they become threw years of breeding the more white they may have.

 

[HHandbasket]

Get a dog. A big one. Our landlords' pyrenees chase foxes outta here all the time.

(knock on wood) In a year of living in the woods, we have not had a single predator go after our chickens... ya know why? They're scared of the pyrenees and the big brown chocolate lab.

Big dogs with a big bark are a wonderful deterrant!

We do get foxes in the woods just feet from our back fence, and sometimes raccoons will come through here, too... but the dogs just chase them off. They know better than to come sniffin' round here for chicken meat.

 

[Eggberto]

Foxes come out happily in the day, we have had chickens for about 4 years, in the day keeping them in an enclosure backing onto a field, it has about a 4 foot wire fence which is probably too weak for a fox to climb. Untill today we have never had a fox come near, about an hour ago in broad daylight we heard the chickens making an awful racket so went to investigate, saw a large fox in there so ran over shouting, it quickly scarpered, hopping the back fence. One chicken dead, the rest are fine. It is strange that we havent had a problem before, the fence is pretty weak and low, the field is unused, deer, rabbits and other wildlife, no doubt foxes too live there, we have lots of cats but no dogs. Although my cousins let their chickens roam their garden for a bit while they were having lunch outside and 3 dogs were out (1 a German Shepard). During this short time a fox dared to hop the back fence into the goat pen (low) then climb the next fence between the pen and garden (2m) and kill a chicken before my cousins noticed and scared it off. Clearly dogs dont phase them

 

[Gypsi]

I roofed my run for the circling hawks, 1 inch chickenwire. The rat snake went through it like it wasn't there, until he had an egg in him, but as long as there are no gaps, it successfully kept most critters out. Granted a raccoon can tear through it, but fortunately I seem to have more weasels than coons. And the 1 inch will keep weasels and PROBABLY foxes out?

I also have 2 ft apron, part half inch hardware cloth, the rest 1 inch chickenwire, and the concrete floor of the shed behind isn't diggable either.

 

[rmathews]

I have a 100lb German Shepard and he doesn't scare off the neighbor foxes. He has a big load angry bark but it isn't enough to deter the fox from scaling my 6' chain-link fence. The coop is several hundred feet from the house and where the dog sleeps. This last week something, I am assuming a fox, scaled the fence, went on the inside of the barn/coop, drug out the remaining 5-hens I had and killed them all. That has never happened before. Usually they kill and take only what they need for chow. Each night since, he has returned to take away one of the carcasses left behind until they were all gone. I intentionally left the carcass to see if it would return.

After 15 years of dealing with neighbor dogs and foxes, I am at a loss how to protect them. I suppose I could wait until I retire, sit out at the coop with my rocking chair a shot gun.

 

[Folly's place]

Electric fencing around the run should help. Trap and shoot! Mary

 

[Maybelline]

"aprophet", i very much appreciate the "trap, dispatch, repeat" directive, which i have followed successfully when i had a pasture. but now that i live in town with only two RIRs left in my back yard, what trap bait would coax a fox to enter a small enclosure when easily out-runnable hens are easy pickin's? i thought i might re-home my girls for a week, trap the fox, dispatch, then bring the girls back, but if you've got any ideas as to a bait that would be especially enticing to a fox while chickens are right next to it, i'd rather try that first.