I need Fox help ASAP!

[KareyABohr]

I had a mom fox take my broody duck and her eggs!
I am heart broken, but I DO NOT want to hurt her or her kids. Is there a way I can live trap her and then catch the kits to relocate to another farm we own well away from our chickens?

I am afraid that if I take her to the other place I won't be able to catch her three cubs....

ANY HELP would be appreciated. She is getting too bold and if she tore the wire off the front of her coop and the dogs didn't wake up, she isn't going to be easy to catch!

 

[rancher hicks]

One your being unrealistic if you think you can catch and relocate these. Second I hope you don't live near me cause I be real #$$%ed if you relocated your problem fox near me.
Third any dog who didn't protect you and yours from a fox needs to go.
Fourth if you feel for the fox you probably shouldn't get more chickens, cause sooner or later some other predator is going to show up I would think.

 

[Violet22]

Can you reinforce your coop or enclosure? I have fox living on my property, and it isn't a real good area for them to find food any more, so they are very hungry, but they never get my neighbors chickens, and when I had mine they were always safe in their enclosure, I never locked them in a coop at night either, I just made their enclosure fox proof (well, I shouldn't say that, you never know what can happen, but 9 years at this location, and years elsewhere, and nothing happened). You need to do daily checks on the enclosure for any weak points and areas where you can see they have tried to get in, so you can fix those before it's too late. I have ducklings that will be living in the enclosure now as soon as I can get them out of the house!
You can keep your chickens safe and live with the fox if you want to. I'd rather not worry about them, but actually, if they were gone, I'd probably have more raccoons, and those are harder to keep out....I think!

Caroline

 

[KareyABohr]

Wow rancher...
Your kind of mean and rude with your replys. I have read a few and kept from calling you to point until you answered one of mine.

I was looking for an option as opposed to shooting the mom and letting the kids die of starvation. My husband and I own 1200 crop only acres, so I am pretty sure our "Fox problem" would NOT be transported to you. Oh besides the fact that I live in IOWA.

Secondly, I just bought 20 more hens...thank you very much.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Probably going to be very difficult to catch both her and her babies to relocate to your other property. They may be killed by foxes already in residence at that location. And I'm not sure but it may be illegal to transport her anyway.

So in your situation I think I'd really reinforce the coop with hardware cloth as well as burying it around the edges to prevent digging. My personal favorite deterrent is electric fencing. Either poultry netting or a hot wire run along the perimeter low to the ground where a fox will sniff around looking to get in.

And a dog that will at least bark at, if not run off, the fox.

 

[ivan3]

If you do not want to harm them then get in the phone book, or ask around, to find a professional trapper. Your chances of taking one of these in a live trap are almost nil (have only taken one kit and one manged up vixen in going on 12 yr.s - but have shot over 30 with another 10 in either leg holds/snares). We are in Cent. MO.

We use 6 ft. 1"x2" welded wire fencing. All windows are double layered .5" hardware cloth attached, every 6" with 1" steel washers on 1.75" wood screws. The fencing is surrounded with large chunks of fossilized wood set on 4' chicken wire folded over on itself, laid flat, covered with soil and planted (don't want `em digging under).

Our chooks don't free range unless we are home and the rifles are handy. After having to doctor up our neighbor's Big Black Spanish tom (looked like he'd been worked over by a sewing machine that was fitted with 12ga. needles) and their losing their entire flock of (13) SLW pullets the first day they let them out (took just 15 minutes - went in to get them treats) to a pair of foxes, we tend to take a more pragmatic approach.

The simple rules for live chooks: Ft. Chook/ Preemptive trapping and retirement of vermin will not keep more from coming, but will decrease the overall frequency of predation/ Don't indulge in unsupervised free range unless one is prepared for losses.

The best of luck to you!

 

[mmwb]

Pups could be caught in a box trap, much more unlikely for the adult. There is probably two adults if one hasn't been killed. If one could find the den you could gang set the den with a dozen foothold traps and probably get the whole bunch. Contrary to popular belief, the proper foothold traps would do no damage.

We'll just have to disagree on the ethics of transporting them somewhere else. Odds are they would be killed by resident predators of the new area. It would be a far more drawn out and violent death than a bullet.

 

[deerman]

They sell a live trap, that has a section for live bait. no they cant get the bird,work great for fox or coyote. fox lose their fear with the meal in front of them.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Actually, while it is mean - it is reality. Life is like that.

The fox has now learned that chickens are easy pickins' and it has a reduced fear of man. Even if you do catch it and move it elsewhere, care to guess what it is most likely to start doing there?

I admire your kind heart. I prefer to live and let live, too - which is why I like electric fences. But one of life's hardest lessons is learning there are times when such things should be put aside. This may be one of them.

Let me share something with you:

"Predators are smart and observant. I rarely hear people mention this, but predators are smarter and more observant than people give them credit for. Now that I've killed two crows, at least a hundred are avoiding my farm. I've seen the same effect with four-footed predators: when the farmers and the federal trapper are on their toes about livestock-eaters, the predators not only get the message, they pass it on to their young, and a balance is struck.
Practically all the predators are eating wildlife rather than livestock, and this means that both predators and livestock get to have a normal lifespan. But if you don't kill any predators, their caution fades. After a couple of generations, the mothers stop teaching farm-avoidance to their young, and then the clueless young predators kill a lot of livestock before inevitably being killed themselves. Which is a bad deal all around." - Bob Plamondon

In the end, the critters you save by eliminating the fox may be your own.

 

[deerman]

I do keep alot of my land for wildlife. I do trap any predator near my birds, know of a fox den. but they have only got one of my hens in three years.

Now on relocating fox, big danger is the spread of diseases.