Lost a duck the other night

[cmom]

This is how I caught my fox, I put two live traps out and baited them and let the fox take the bait for a few days then set the trap and caught it. SSS. Most often I will occasionally see fox at night on my cameras but this one was coming out during the day and killed my favorite bird.

 

[cmom]

I also have electric wire around my coops and pens.

 

[slordaz]

Well he is a trapper but he has to get a permit from the DNR to remove a nuisance animal out of season I guess.

Then just shoot it as it's on your property and stalking your livestock, problem solved

 

[glassdragonfly]

Glad you got him! Hope we get ours soon.

 

[Tilly6]

Glad you got him! Hope we get ours soon.

I hope you do too!

 

[Howard E]

A: How was the fox caught? What traps, what methods and by whom? You or your trapper.

B. Missing head on a found bird is not characteristic to a fox. Coons and owls do that. I wouldn't let my guard down just yet.

C: The dug hole under the fence is a great educational opportunity. Animal started dig at the base of the fence. So put an apron there....horizontal wire laid flat on the ground.....and they will hit that first, and fail. May cast up and down the fence and try again, but do not back up the width of the fence apron. Far easier to install than to bury the fence in a dug trench.....and just as effective.

 

[Tilly6]

A: How was the fox caught? What traps, what methods and by whom? You or your trapper.

B. Missing head on a found bird is not characteristic to a fox. Coons and owls do that. I wouldn't let my guard down just yet.

C: The dug hole under the fence is a great educational opportunity. Animal started dig at the base of the fence. So put an apron there....horizontal wire laid flat on the ground.....and they will hit that first, and fail. May cast up and down the fence and try again, but do not back up the width of the fence apron. Far easier to install than to bury the fence in a dug trench.....and just as effective.

The fox was caught by the trapper, foothold trap. We knew were the fox was entering. He placed it in a live trap and took it away. The day the duck was killed, the geese were also left out. I assume they may have went after the fox and it only had time to eat the head. None of the birds are left out now and the camera will be left up. We only had pictures of a fox.

And we are going to be burying hardware cloth around the pen, which I told my husband from the beginning he should do........

We made it 3 years without a predator attack. We had a good run. So far this year it’s been a mink and a fox. I want someone running a trap line this winter!

 

[Howard E]

Where did you trapper place the foothold trap? Right outside the dug hole so fox would step on the pan when he came back?

Show us a picture of where and how it was done (location...spacing from dug hole, etc)..... if you can. Learning opportunity for those trying to trap a fox on their own.

 

[Howard E]

And once again.....consider using an apron vs. burying the wire.

Aprons laid flat on the ground......edge next to fence is bent upwards to make a short (4 to 6 inches) vertical leg.....an L.....that is attached to your vertical fence. Only about 100X easier than burying a wire and just as effective.....if not more so.

And unless you want it to rust out in a couple years......consider using heavier stuff like 1" x 2" welded wire.

 

[Tilly6]

The Fox had dug out under the chain link fence in 2 spots. It moved its entrance a foot because it was avoiding the snare my husband had tried. There was one foothold buried right in that 2nd low spot under the fence. He assumed that’s where the fox would go. On a whim he placed one inside of the fence, just forward of where the fox would come through the original low spot and he baited that trap with beaver meat actually. He has been very busy removing problem beavers in 3 counties this summer. Anyway, it was the baited trap that caught our fox. You really need to know exactly where the fox is entering your space for this to work.

He told me that I would have got the fox in my live traps if I had covered the floor of it with grass clippings so that the fox wouldn’t feel the cage when he walked in them. I had the traps covered with tarps and a few branches we cut. I had placed them perpendicular to the run so the ducks in the run would add to his attraction. My next step was going to be to use some of the bedding from the duck house to floor the trap, if we hadn’t called in the professional.

It appears so far that there was only 1 fox. I haven’t had any pictures on the camera and my son forgot to put the birds away last night but they are all present and accounted for this morning.

Of course the next problem will probably be the coyotes that are moving in closer to town these days. They have been killed by cars on the highway around my house.