I Have a Fox Problem

[Kingslandcoup]

I noticed that someone said it is illegal to trap a fox. If you are in Texas it is not. Fox Hunts That's Right, Fox Hunt! ... There are no seasonal restrictions on hunting the Fox in Texas, which makes it a suitable trophy year round. Exceptions – It is ILLEGAL to: shoot at, take or attempt to take any fur-bearing animal from a boat on public waters in Texas. ... take fur-bearing animals with a foothold or body-gripping-style trap except during the season for commercial harvest. Humane traps are OK.

 

[Kingslandcoup]

You cannot trap a fox. Illegal. Store bought coop Mistake #1 ( made this mistake also). How did it get in?? Did you bury the wire 18 inches out from your enclosure? Did it get under the fence? I have fox and it just watched my girls, it found out it was WAY too much trouble to try to get in. I have an enclosed 12x 24ft garden, their coop is inside, the fence is 6ft high, I have hardware cloth around the perimeter and buried 18 inches out. I've had Chickens going on 3 yrs, not ONE predator death. After my first year I realized I was in OVER my head, I studied and built my own coop.

 

[Kingslandcoup]

Wisconsin does have a red fox hunting season, but there are no bag limits. On private land, landowners, occupants and family members can hunt or trap fox without a license to remove nuisance animals at any time except the 24 hours preceding the gun deer opener.

 

[sellefrancais]

I only just started raising chickens. My chicks are about 4 months old. I have a store bought coop and I made an extra outside pen/run for them out of chicken wire (mistake #1). I only let them out in the chicken wire area when I'm home so I can keep an ear/eye out for them. I saw a fox on our property last week but it didn't go near the chicks. Today I saw another one, I think it was a different one. The fox snatched 3 of my 4 chicks. I'm pretty sure it was coming after the last one because when I went out to check on them I saw it running away and only one chick remained. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best type of trap I can use to get him? I saw someone mention a spring trap in another post.

2. My friend has a farm with 20-30 chickens of all ages. Do you think she'd be better off there or would they pick on her for being new?

I don't feel comfortable bringing more chickens on my property until I have a better setup which I'll start working on this weekend. There are farms w/ chickens all around my property so it didn't occur to me that there'd be a predator issue.

Thank you so much! Sorry for such a long post.

 

[Tristan und Isolde]

After losing chickens to dogs (the most, although lots of people deny that dogs did it), foxes, close calls with raccoons, I bought electric poultry netting. It's light and readily moveable. Not long after I put it up, my wife heard a very loud yelp, looked out the window, and there was the fox running away as fast as it could go! Haven't seen it back, or any of the others, even though there is at least one fox den a few hundred yards away.
As for chicken wire, it's only good for keeping chickens IN, not predators OUT! Raccoons apparently use it for an appetizer. Stick with hardware cloth.

 

[Biddybot]

I've found snares more useful when it comes to catching a fox. It's fairly easy to set up something through which they'll be willing to squeeze to get to a bait, and once they're coming for the bait reliably, you can set your snare. Of course, if they're already squeezing through something narrow to get to your birds--ie. a hole under a fence--then you're already all set to have a try. The only fox I've ever gotten to go into a regular Havahart-style live trap was what I think was an escaped or deliberately released silver fox. Since I caught it in the winter and its fur was prime, I gave that one to a trapper friend.

Back when I had three dogs, one of my guys ran down and killed a fox and even retrieved him for me, but you need the right sort of dog and a goodly stretch of open ground for that. That fox went to a university student who was doing a study on the dietary habits of foxes in Nova Scotia, by the way. She was working with the folks at our local Lands and Forests (Wildlife Service) chapter and I dropped the carcass off with them so she'd have it to dissect and discover what foxes living in a coastal environment typically fed upon. I only mention this because some posters have asked about what to do with any predators they catch and maybe this is an option which some might find more palatable than just killing an animal and burying its body or tossing it into the woods or bagging it up to put in the garbage. I've also brought freshly dead animals which aren't too messed up to our Natural History Museum to become reference specimens or subjects for their kids' taxidermy club, and have brought other stuff to a raptor rehab facility. Anyway, more options... Please be proactive when it comes to protecting your poultry, folks. It's always so sad (and frustrating) to read about people losing their pets to predators that they KNOW were hanging about, just biding their time...

 

[sellefrancais]

It may sound silly but i try to urinate by the fence to my coop in a daily basis
I recently stopped doing it and caught a fox in the midst of killing one of my chickens
Up until then it had been working
My dog urinates around the same area
When i go away for more than 24 hours i run a hot wire around the perimeter of the fence about 8 inches from the ground with a solar powered charger
Have gone away for a week and never lost a chicken
I just don’t keep it on all the time as I don’t want the dog or visiting dogs to be zapped
It was a good hour and a half before dark when the fox showed up

 

[MadGoat]

I only just started raising chickens. My chicks are about 4 months old. I have a store bought coop and I made an extra outside pen/run for them out of chicken wire (mistake #1). I only let them out in the chicken wire area when I'm home so I can keep an ear/eye out for them. I saw a fox on our property last week but it didn't go near the chicks. Today I saw another one, I think it was a different one. The fox snatched 3 of my 4 chicks. I'm pretty sure it was coming after the last one because when I went out to check on them I saw it running away and only one chick remained. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best type of trap I can use to get him? I saw someone mention a spring trap in another post.

2. My friend has a farm with 20-30 chickens of all ages. Do you think she'd be better off there or would they pick on her for being new?

I don't feel comfortable bringing more chickens on my property until I have a better setup which I'll start working on this weekend. There are farms w/ chickens all around my property so it didn't occur to me that there'd be a predator issue.

Thank you so much! Sorry for such a long post.

Predation is a frustrating and upsetting issue to deal with! Unfortunately, many people automatically choose lethal means to eliminate the problem, but it is only a temporary solution. As you kill them, more move into their territory. I have raised poultry for 50 years and have found that in some cases you just cannot let chicken free range. A movable “ chicken tractor” is one solution, livestock guard dog, electric net fencing are a few others. I always compared free chickens to leaving your keys in your car in a bad neighborhood; it will disappear before too long!

 

[cmom]

Predation is a frustrating and upsetting issue to deal with! Unfortunately, many people automatically choose lethal means to eliminate the problem, but it is only a temporary solution. As you kill them, more move into their territory. I have raised poultry for 50 years and have found that in some cases you just cannot let chicken free range. A movable “ chicken tractor” is one solution, livestock guard dog, electric net fencing are a few others. I always compared free chickens to leaving your keys in your car in a bad neighborhood; it will disappear before too long!

 

[Shblack]

Trapping a fox is not necessarily illegal, each state is different, in this regard. Additionally, many states will issue a depredation permit to allow one to deal with a troublesome predator. If you elect to try trapping, make sure the trap is large enough and read up on concealing and baiting the trap. Each failed attempt is an educational experience for the fox, making the problem that much harder to resolve.

I only just started raising chickens. My chicks are about 4 months old. I have a store bought coop and I made an extra outside pen/run for them out of chicken wire (mistake #1). I only let them out in the chicken wire area when I'm home so I can keep an ear/eye out for them. I saw a fox on our property last week but it didn't go near the chicks. Today I saw another one, I think it was a different one. The fox snatched 3 of my 4 chicks. I'm pretty sure it was coming after the last one because when I went out to check on them I saw it running away and only one chick remained. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best type of trap I can use to get him? I saw someone mention a spring trap in another post.

2. My friend has a farm with 20-30 chickens of all ages. Do you think she'd be better off there or would they pick on her for being new?

I don't feel comfortable bringing more chickens on my property until I have a better setup which I'll start working on this weekend. There are farms w/ chickens all around my property so it didn't occur to me that there'd be a predator issue.

Thank you so much! Sorry for such a long post.

I only just started raising chickens. My chicks are about 4 months old. I have a store bought coop and I made an extra outside pen/run for them out of chicken wire (mistake #1). I only let them out in the chicken wire area when I'm home so I can keep an ear/eye out for them. I saw a fox on our property last week but it didn't go near the chicks. Today I saw another one, I think it was a different one. The fox snatched 3 of my 4 chicks. I'm pretty sure it was coming after the last one because when I went out to check on them I saw it running away and only one chick remained. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best type of trap I can use to get him? I saw someone mention a spring trap in another post.

2. My friend has a farm with 20-30 chickens of all ages. Do you think she'd be better off there or would they pick on her for being new?

I don't feel comfortable bringing more chickens on my property until I have a better setup which I'll start working on this weekend. There are farms w/ chickens all around my property so it didn't occur to me that there'd be a predator issue.

Thank you so much! Sorry for such a long post.