Mountain lion urine product -- to deter fox?

[sueami]

I'm wondering if anyone's had any experience with the commercial carnivore urine scents for deterring predators. We've had a fox jump into our yard repeatedly (it killed a pullet, returned the next night and dug her up and carried her off, and we're pretty certain it's been back since then.)

The kids and I are brainstorming various deterrents and wondered about spraying mountain lion scent on our wooden fence.

Any info would be greatly appreciated!
Sue

 

[jonathansenn]

Should work.. might scare the chickens though (don't know if they would smell it and think a lion is in the yard .... do chickens smell?) have you thought about trapping it or just shooting it (if allowed where you live). we have coyotes. they haven't tried the chickens yet, but they have thinned out the rabbit and squirrel population.

 

[conny63malies]

I heard the same thing with regular male lion urine. I guess any male large predators urine would work.. I heard some girls from on here have their DH and DS mark their territory around the coop area.!!!! Hey , if it works.

 

[LynneP]

My husband and I have had a lot of experience with foxes, who den in the old gold mines here. Bottom line is- they are smart and may not even try to avoid you in daylight when they have cubs. They repeat their visits until the poultry are all gone. You can 'warn' them with human urine, but without a roofed barrier and exceptional attention to detail, they will return to the free buffet until they have to move on.

 

[sueami]

Conny, I already have DH and DS peeing in the compost, in clement weather, at least, dunno if I want to give that up for fox protection! lol
Actually, where I'm thinking of spraying the urine spray would be on the outside of our back fence, which abuts an elementary school playground. I think DH might get arrested if he peed there, unless it was the middle of the night!

Lynne, my daughter and I were just going through the chicken coop stories on the site the other night and I enjoyed your page on your barn coop. Thank you for the warning -- we are being as cautious as we can with housing and locking up at night. My daughter's wondering, what does eventually make the foxes move on? Anything besides their cleaning out the buffet?

We had friends fill a shotgun shell with pepper and salt, I think, and shoot a fox that kept trying to get their chickens, but they live a bit more rurally than we do. I think a shotgun blast in the middle of the night would freak my suburban neighbors out...

As for killing the fox outright, Jonathan, I think we'd just have another fox to deal with after it, and another, and another. There seem to be quite a number of them in our city and its outskirts.

 

[LynneP]

It's difficult to get foxes to relocate, you have to seal your place up against them. We have so many predators here- eastern cougars, fisher cats, all manner of other weasels, black bears, mink, foxes, bobcats...that there was no choice for us. Sor far, we're keeping them out.

 

[TexasVet]

I bought coyote urine from Amazon, because coyotes are supposed to be fox predators. It has to be reapplied at least once a month, and has the downside of attracting coyotes.

You might be better off putting up a hotwire, which will repel almost anything. One should be about 4-6 inches off the ground, with a second one either 8 inches above that one, or near the top of the fence.

Good luck!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com