fox keeps coming every night

[centrarchid]

By then, you've probably lost a bird or more. It's just a matter of time......with spring coming, they'll have hungry kits to feed. Then when kits are older, the parents train them to hunt. Good luck!

If the birds are not being taken, then fox is not an issue even with kits produced. You are pushing yourself into a situation where killing every fox you see appears to provide protection which is not accurate.

 

[Michael Apple]

Use a live cage trap and bait it with Tuna. They love it. You can call Fish and Game if you catch it. Or you can shoot him. It's up to you. The fox populations are huge in my area and likely in yours, so culling a percentage of them before they become a nuisance is acceptable. After I shoot a few, I don't see them around for awhile. It's them or your birds.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... fortify your pens/coop and shoot the fox. Unless you do something, it will continue to return until there are no more birds left.

i'll second that.

 

[mdbtalon]

If the birds are not being taken, then fox is not an issue even with kits produced. You are pushing yourself into a situation where killing every fox you see appears to provide protection which is not accurate.

So your suggestion is to let the Fox guard the Henhouse?

 

[mdbtalon]

So your suggestion is to let the Fox guard the Henhouse?

Oh and I am just so glad I got to use that saying when it actually was not an analogy ! Who would have thought!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

If birds are not being taken... fox is not an issue... killing every fox you see appears to provide protection which is not accurate.

I agree with you. There is a world of difference between managing a species like red foxes and controlling red foxes. The latter (controlling) them means killing them all. However I am all for managing foxes especially those trying to hack into your chicken pens. Given enough time any fox can find a way to finagle a chicken dinner from you. A circle with a fox silhouette in the middle and with a diagonal line drawn through it just doesn't cut it.

 

[centrarchid]

If your design and constuction is not tuff enough to deny fox access to penned birds, then either have someone else do it or get out of birds. Foxes are easy to beat if birds not free-ranged.

 

[sourland]

Killing is only one way in which fox can impact your flock. Continual attempts and scaring of penned birds can result in deaths by flying and subsequent impact. Such attempts also put birds on edge and impact egg production, food to meat conversion, etc. I stand by fortify and shoot any fox trying to enter your pens.

 

[centrarchid]

Killing is only one way in which fox can impact your flock. Continual attempts and scaring of penned birds can result in deaths by flying and subsequent impact. Such attempts also put birds on edge and impact egg production, food to meat conversion, etc. I stand by fortify and shoot any fox trying to enter your pens.

Why not make so penned birds can not see fox. Birds will not be scared of what they can not see and fox will have a much weaker attractant bringing them in.

Fox will not waste time like a domestic dog or human with nonstop futile efforts. At some point which is not all that long, fox will pass by ignoring tempation provided.

 

[sourland]

Ever seen a fox on top of a coop or pen? They will give it a try.