Fox attack - Big hit today

[JackE]

I lost 9 in a afternoon to a fox. I had let them out in the morning when I went to work. Everything was fine at 10AM, when my wife left for work. Daughter got home from school about 1:30PM, to find piles of feathers all around the yard. You could see where the fox got each one. I looked all through the woods around the property, found another smaller pile of feathers. The chickens were just gone. I've seen this fox a few times since. The thing with the fox is, he won't take just one, like a hawk, he'll take them all. I have a large box/ live trap. I read on here that sardines were a good bait. That led to a couple less coon around here, but not the fox I want. I had a shot at him last week, but missed, got impaitent, should have waited for him to get closer. I'm going to try a raw chicken leg in the trap, and see if that works. I know that fox has really cramped our style around here as far as the chickens go. We used to let them out early in the morning, let them wander around and do whatever they wanted. Now they get let out later, we try to keep an eye on them. We went almost a full year with no problems, now we got this thing literialy stalking the birds. Good luck getting that fox. Cause if you don't get him, he'll never go away.
Jack

 

[little brown hen]

I caught a fox in a live trap today using left over chicken bones and craps from the kitchen table. I thought it would be another possum, but this morning there was this fox.

 

[GermanChick]

Quote:
Good for you !!!!
I hope we have your luck....

Had to kill one of the injured hens this morning, she couldn't lift her head. Seems like the fox tore some kind of muscle/ligament in the neck.
The other missing ones did not come back this morning. I was just hoping that 1 or 2 might were just scared off and would return .......... I guess I count them to the death ones.

 

[liebe]

We were having fox issues this spring. I lost 13 hens this spring, the fox started coming after I let them out in the morning, which is at 5:30 am.
I caught 3 foxes since, in the live trap, and my dog has killed 2. In the live trap I put chicken organs one day, a chunk of salmon bones the other, and back to chciken organs the third time. What did not catch a fox was eggs(skunk), sandwich meat (yet another skunk), or pork bones(caught my dog that time).
Good luck, I too am now waiting with a little less patience for my adolecent chicks to start laying.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
you probably have a pair of foxes with 3-4 pups

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
We have a dog and 2 cats, how would they respond to that Bell Howell thingy ??

If you watch your dog respond to different things around your place you can see how a fox responds I have walked a property with the owners dog and watched where they would urinate and I set the traps right around that area to catch some of the fox . dig a hole in the ground big enough to place chicken parts/organs in then set the trap over the bait stake weight the trap down so it cannot be flipped

 

[kateseidel]

So sorry to hear of your fox problem - my situation was very similiar, missing hens with just a pile of feathers, then we started finding them dead (my hens are fighters!!). Lost two to injuries, and then I caught the fox red-handed with his mouth full of feathers. That hen escaped with a big feather loss, but is now doing fine. Lost 6 hens in about 2 months.

My "house" dogs now spend their day outside while the hens are free-ranging, no attacks in the last 3 weeks, but we may be due soon. If the dogs don't work, I'll try the live trap.

 

[bryan99705]

If the range area is not fenced and skirted then it sounds like it's time to look into electric fence. Based on what you have said, it sounds like the fox will wipe your birds out before you get them