Must be busy time of year for foxes, I notice a lot of people posting about foxes, and I've had one hanging around my chickens as well. I borrowed my son's gun. Although it hasn't been back since we set off all those fireworks the other night.
Well you could try fencing the fox out to see if it works before resorting to more serious measures. Trapping a fox is very difficult, shooting it would be your best option if it came down to that.
If you can get some fox urine that will do the trick on getting it into the trap. If you cant get that get a 22 or some other form of firearm and wait for it. If you hear your chickens fussing and see them run for cover
, or if you hear the crows just carrying on it is a good possibility that the fox is about to pay you a visit or just has.
Hmmm.. this is our first encounter with a fox bothering my husbands chickens, & he aint happy about it,.. i came here looking for ideas on how to trap it cz we have baited a live trap & have had no luck.. these foxes are pretty smart i guess... looks like he prolly oughtta get the gun out, & wait...
The chances of you getting a fox in a havahart style trap are very, very low. There are live traps out there that will take foxes. People get bobcats in them. I would call the local game warden and see if he will authorize you setting a foothold trap for the fox. Fox are actually pretty easy to catch once you figure them out. If you see the fox out in the yard and it spooks you can lip squeek (like you are calling a cat) and most of the time they will stop. I have called fox with a predator caller and this works to get them to stop moving most of the time. Shoot straight.
I don't know if this really works or not i have not tried it myself but i have heard that a mans urine is an excellent deterent. Not nice but apparently they do not come near.
I have just dug a trench round my coopes 18 inch deep and 3ft out and placed chicken wire in and covered. I have a resident fox who tried to dig in once but got no where so has not bothered again. Normally goes for easy pickings.
Jay, that will work for a while. Pretty much until the fox figures out that the human scent doesn't really mean anything. In my experience the only way to solve the problem is to get rid of the problem.
I work at a fish hatchery in alaska and we pretty much always have problems with otters getting into our fish. I try and trap as many as I can during the winter months (when their fur is nice and thick) to help keep the numbers down. We put netting up over our nets that hold the fish but the otters just rip holes in the sides of the nets to get at the fish. No matter what you do, if an animal wants in it will do what it can to get in. I try and catch the otters during the winter because their fur is nice and thick and I am going to get a blanket made from them. Fur prices are up right now and if you caught a couple fox over the winter that were messing with your chickens you could pay for a lot of food (red fox are averaging up to $50 apiece depending on what part of the country you are from and how clear their color is). You cannot sell them without a license though.