Chicken killing Fox!!!! HELP!!

[Kfults]

I have a coup and run made like Fort Knox, but my 12 birds needed more than their 12x12 prison yard. So I built them a fenced yard to “ free range in “
Finally got my electric fence done on my free range area and feel so much safer! One wire 4 inches from bottom, one near top. Nothing going over or under! Plus bird netting for those overhead preditors!! My DH thinks I am overdoing it but he built and hooked it all up because he also fears my wrath if my chickens were killed and he hadn’t helped me! ;-)

 

[varidgerunner]

Unless you drive 25 miles, you are not taking it far enough away that it won't be back. If you do take it far enough that it won't come back, you are releasing an animal unfamiliar with it's surroundings into territory occupied with members of it's species and predators that do. If it manages to survive, it will likely be pushed back into similar food niches, ie humans. Except now it will be reluctant to enter a trap. If it survives. Very likely that it will get chewed up by members of it's own species as they defend their territory, or starve as it is pushed from one territory to another. If it is a fox, it is likely that if the average backyard chicken keeper got it to go in a trap in the first place, there was something wrong with it. There are diseases that have a very long dormancy period, others are held in check by a healthy immune system but an animal in a weakened state can become a disease vector. Exposure risk is very high, as members of it's own species will have close contact as they attack it to drive it out of their territory or kill it. As it gets driven from territory to territory it might pick up diseases from it's attackers, supposing it is healthy enough to survive the first encounter. Lacking a family unit for defense, it will be driven from territory to territory, possibly spreading disease and parasites. This potential disease transmission could be held in check by natural or regularly occurring population barriers, such as a mountain, a river, the edge of an urban area, an interstate highway, etc. When you translocate, you might take strains of parasites from one population and introduce it to a population that has no immunity or resistance to that strain of disease or parasite. Relocating is either completely ineffective, or potentially fatal to the animal you are relocating, and possibly vast numbers of the same species, depending on how far you go. Any death resulting from relocation is likely to be much less humane than anything inflicted directly by human means, possibly taking months of suffering to reach fatality. Things like starvation, or not being able to find a den during a cold snap and getting frostbite which leads to gangrene are not pretty ways to go.

 

[Folly's place]

The bottom line is; only trap if you will shoot!
Mary

 

[cmom]

If you put a electric wire around the top of the fence it only works if whatever touches it is standing on the ground.
This is how I have my wires.

 

[cmom]

I put live traps out and no way would the fox go in even though there was a live bird in it safe from the fox if it went in.

 

[NoFlyBackFarm]

WOW!!! I'm going to be getting a livestock defending dog. I have 5 siblings (one of them is 1) Electric would be dangerous for us.

 

[NNYchick]

Well no one is advocating releasing an obviously sick animal. But if it is healthy? I kill plenty of things, but only for good reason. I would not kill a healthy racoon or fox if I could toss him in the back of my truck and take him across the river. The DNR can kiss my grits. Do they come over and kill it for me? If they did, I am sure they would tell me it is for it's own good. How they are really doing it a favor probably for good measure? That is the way they operate.

Relocating animals is not illegal everywhere. And it is for the most part BS where it is. It is totally arbitrary. Releasing a healthy raccoon into the woods after a long drive, does nothing to contribute to the spread of rabies. Unless the health people just think the only thing to do with a racoon is to kill it. Then I would ask."why aren't they out there killing them off themselves then"
It is hard enough already..... If some backyard chicken person gets a fox or a possum or coon in their trap, take it out into the woods if you want. You don't have to kill it if you don't want to. Take it for a long ride, you will never see it again. It is tough enough raising chickens. Chicken people are not particularly known for their rule following ability, and that is part of why they have chickens. God knows if you followed all the rules, you would not have chickens to begin with.

I am sorry but you are wrong. The animal may not appear sick but is incubating the infection. Rabies has an incubation period of up to 6 months, meaning the animal has the disease is not showing any outward signs of the disease and at about 10 days prior to symptoms of the disease can start shedding the virus in its saliva. So just because the animal looks healthy does not mean you are not taking a diseased animal from one area and moving it to another area.
I am not an advocate for killing animals my first choice would be to protect the flock with all measures necessary or accept losses. But sometime you have a determined nuisance that has found the food buffet and is destroying property and killing livestock at that point the animal needs to be dealt with and relocation should not be an option.

 

[JanetMarie]

I had problems during the day too, foxes and coyotes would race out of the woods, grab a chicken and run away with it. One day some of my egg customers saw it happen! Because I do want to free range, husband and I put up a 4 foot fence to surround the free range area. Now it's not possible for an animal to "run in" grab and run out. I haven't lost any more chickens to daytime predators. The run is a 50'x50' area and (so far) the chickens are satisfied with the space and even though they can, they haven't jumped the fence! My coop and run are predator proof and the flock is safe during the night! A simple fence worked for me, give that a try. Good Luck!

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Same here. Fenced around two acres. Solution is really simple, just takes some time to get it done.

Fox problem gone. No thinking about trapping, killing, relocating, or my radio going out of tune! The foxes hunt somewhere else, and my birds are safe.

 

[happyfrenchman]

By your rationale, you might as well kill everything you catch.... I don't agree with that. And I find it is usually the people who are so "concerned" that are the worst killers. Drowning them or some other horrific thing.... no semblance of the so called "humane" I am not aware if it is legal or illegal where I am, but I wouldn't care.... I would not kill an otherwise healthy animal if I had less lethal options available. (And I have killed some things that would make some of these people soil themselves). And I should add my dog makes any of this unnecessary in my case. He kills raccoons and anything else he could get hold of but mostly he just keeps them off by his presence. Often as not he is following my wife around in the house.

 

[Folly's place]

Dogs are tricky, and can also be very dangerous. It may take upwards of two years to properly train a dog, and you need two, and they need to be fenced on your property.
Electric fencing works right away, and can be off when the toddler is outside. Unless you already have suitable dogs, go with electric fencing.
Mary