Fox trouble

[Shadrach]

An electric fence will deter most ground predators but I've found it needs to be a fence, not a couple of wires. The rpoblem is that fences and wires need maintenance to work properly; as @DobieLover mentions, it's very easy to get sever voltage drops in the fence due to it shorting on growing weeds etc.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Wish I had some advice for you. I am facing the same issue here.
I went to do chicken chores yesterday morning and found fox tracks in the new snow. When I left for work this morning, there was another set of tracks.
The darn thing walked right up our driveway to the barn, then circled the barn checking the holes that we patched this summer. It even stopped and looked into the barn through the cat door we installed for the new barn cat we have. At least it only looked through the acrylic of the door, it never tried to get in through that little door. It then went to the guinea coop and went in the open door and took a drink. My poor guineas must have just about had a heart attack. I can see where it chased a couple of wild rabbits out from under the grainery and into the shrubs/weeds at the field edge.
Time to set up trail cams and get his timetable down. From the tracks it looks like a big one too.

 

[WthrLady]

Get comfy, plug in your earphones to a good audio book and park with a .22 and wait for him to come back?

 

[wyoDreamer]

It is going to be 8 degrees out tonight.
I will keep the birds locked up in their coops a couple of days and see if he is on a schedule before I park it outside for a couple of hours.

 

[DobieLover]

The bottom wire, and then at pretty regular intervals going up to the top. It would be hard to dig under without getting shocked. I will have my dad check the fence to make sure it is doing its job well.

How high up from the ground are each of the wires? You want one pretty low to the ground (about 6" up) then one at 12, 18, 24, 36 or something similar.
Predators lead with their noses. You want them to sniff the wire. A fox is smart enough that one good hit to the nose should be all it takes to let him know there are easier meals to be found elsewhere.
But if the fence isn't hot enough (high enough voltage/J), it won't be enough to deter a hungry fox. That is why you want a fence tester.

 

[WthrLady]

We bait our hot wires when they go up too. Gets critters close enough to them, gets them to try the line. Forced learning.

For deer I use peanut butter. For the lower lines I use leftover steak fat and rub it on. Smells really good to a predator after a couple of days.

 

[aart]

That is why you want a fence tester.

We bait our hot wires when they go up too. Gets critters close enough to them, gets them to try the line. Forced learning.

Ditto Botha Dos^^^

 

[RoosterML]

We bait our hot wires when they go up too. Gets critters close enough to them, gets them to try the line. Forced learning.

For deer I use peanut butter. For the lower lines I use leftover steak fat and rub it on. Smells really good to a predator after a couple of days.

I like that idea.

 

[Abriana]

How high up from the ground are each of the wires? You want one pretty low to the ground (about 6" up) then one at 12, 18, 24, 36 or something similar.
Predators lead with their noses. You want them to sniff the wire. A fox is smart enough that one good hit to the nose should be all it takes to let him know there are easier meals to be found elsewhere.
But if the fence isn't hot enough (high enough voltage/J), it won't be enough to deter a hungry fox. That is why you want a fence tester.

There is one along the ground, and then probably less than six inches above it is another, and the space between widens a little as they go up toward the top.

Get comfy, plug in your earphones to a good audio book and park with a .22 and wait for him to come back?

I would! Except for he shows up, then doesn't for quite a while, and then all of a sudden when I think he's gone for good, he shows up.

 

[DobieLover]

There is one along the ground, and then probably less than six inches above it is another, and the space between widens a little as they go up toward the top.

I would! Except for he shows up, then doesn't for quite a while, and then all of a sudden when I think he's gone for good, he shows up.

Test the wires and make sure you have good voltage in all of them. Then bait a wire near the ground where you think the fox may try to get at the chickens. Drape a piece of raw bacon on the wire making sure it doesn't touch anything but the wire.

It would be great if you had a trail cam so you could find out if the fox got his lesson or if something else does, but a carnivore of some sort will surely take that bait.