FOX almost got my babies!

[itsasmallfarm]

Foot traps. Are those the ones that clamp on to a animals leg and basically breaks it snapping shut?

as some one who has taken a trapping course i maybe can shed some light on this.

first off yes i believe so, for the old ones, now a days we have a humane trap guide (in my province/country) allowing only certain traps (that are humane enough and legal for that animal) but foot hold traps now have to either be padded or a certain distance between the jaws to prevent breaking the leg. now to be fair i don't know much about them as i don't like them so i don't have any (well i only have rat traps for weasels is my so far of my time trapping lol)

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

Ya I don't like foot traps and would say it's cruel and would just shoot them ( as long as you won't get in trouble and you can dispatch them quickly with no suffering) humane cage traps for relocation, electric fencing or a large free range chicken kennel that you can put their house in and they will still have lots of room. Also I'm just throwing this out there maybe it was a female trying to get food for its young it is that time of year.

 

[mueri07]

so if it is a female, should I just keep them contained for the next couple weeks? As they are safe in their coop/run

 

[JackE]

so if it is a female, should I just keep them contained for the next couple weeks? As they are safe in their coop/run

I see from the pic, you have a fence of some kind around the coop. A fox can go over a 6' foot fence, like it isn't even there. And if the fence has a roof, and he can't get through it, they can darn near outdig a groundhog. Some people go with a hardware clothe surrounding cage. That can get expensive. You could run a hotwire around the outside of the fence, about a foot off the ground. Fox comes up, takes a sniff of the strange wire, and gets a 8000V snootful. He won't come back for a second try. You can do that kinda cheaply.

Like I posted earlier, I have the poultry net. In the winter, we get a few inches on the ground, unless I clear the whole fence line, the fence will be grounded out, no sparky. But, the wildlife around here wants no part of it. They won't even approach it. I've seen them go through the property and give that fence a wide berth.

 

[The Angry Hen]

So eating dinner last night and always let the girls free range after work for a bit to much on some goodies, and I happen to look out the window and a fox is carrying one of my girls in his mouth. I quickly ran out side and he dropped my girl and I chased that sob 3 blocks down the middles of a main road in town. Thankfully my girl wasn't hurt just very traumatized. What can I do to deter him from coming back into my yard? Any suggestions or ideas? Thanks in advance!

If you can't shoot towards the town... But you can aim somewhere else,
shoot the dummies den! We did that here!

Or stick logs in it!
These ideas only apply IF the den is on your property.

-The Angry Hen

 

[The Angry Hen]

I thought about a pellet gun, I do have an old bb gun that I could use. He doesn't stay long enough for me to get a good shot. I might have to do some camping out in one of my big pines in the back make him regret messing with my girls

Yeah!

 

[mueri07]

the fence on the bottom half is the hardware cloth which she is not getting through, above that to the roof of coop is deer/bird netting which if she wanted to she could get through

 

[Mysimplewyominglife]

I would put a roof on the run that way during peak fox season if you will your girls can be out without you having to worry specially if you have wire or hardcloth or whatever deep into the grown round the run so far down they won't be able to really dig in. Short of that electric wire/fence round it and one zap would deter most things.

 

[mueri07]

Is installing the electric fencing something that is easy to do? I have a dog that I am going to let hang out in the back yard and she will not have any of that business if that fox comes back around. So stressful I tell ya,

 

[mueri07]

Yeah!

do you think If I did wait around for him in my tree and caught him in the act and got him with a pellet/bb gun he would stay away?