OMG!!!!!! We have a FOX!!!!!!!!

[cjeanean]

Okay, so I'm sitting at my cpu minding my own business, and I hear our ducks outside start quacking. I look out there and there's a FOX!!!! I say it again, OMG! It was an darn fox!!! I'm like all freaking out and wondering just how predator proof my coop and duck pen really are, cause the ducks don't get closed up at night, they just sleep outside in their enclosure. I have welded wire fencing surrounding the thing, with welded wire over the top closing it in, and 1 foot wide lengths of welded wire on the ground around the perimeter of the fence, and I buried the fence 6 inches into the ground. The coop is entirely closed off, with hardware cloth covered windows with plywood and latchable shutters, and two doors that are latched tight with gate latches. When it's dark out I turned the light on inside the coop to see whether there were any places that weren't closed, and no light escapes at all. It's all plywood and siding, the floor is 5/8 plywood tongue-in-groove, the siding is 1/4 grooved siding (don't know what it's called) but I'm all thinking something is gonna get my ducks and chickens!!! What's an inexpensive, easy, gun free (hubby was a bad kid and can't own firearms) way of getting rid of the fox???? I'm open for any suggestions, since the only 'gun' we can have is a paintball gun, and I don't think that's gonna kill it! I just KNOW this thing is gonna get my birds eventually!!! If not the chickens it will definately get my ducks sooner or later!!! I may think their pen is 100% proof but I know I'm prone to error!!! (Don't tell hubby I admitted that!) PLEASE HELP ME, PEOPLE!!! I'M FREAKING OUT HERE!!!!

 

[babyboy1_mom]

For tonight, if you see it again, then I would try to shoot it with the paintball gun. If nothing else, maybe you could scare it off for the night with the paintball gun. First thing in the morning, go get you a live trap and hope that the fox will go into it instead of after your animals.

Dorothy

 

[cjeanean]

live trap??? Where do you get those??? How much are they??? Do you know if it's illegal to put out *gulp* poison for animals like that??? I'm talking about like putting something out at night and keeping an eye on it to make sure the neighbor animals don't get ahold of it....I have a brother, watching bait like that for a fox all night long would be no problem for him!!!

 

[babyboy1_mom]

A live trap is a wire cage type thing that you bait with food and when the animal goes into it, then it steps on a tray that releases the bar and the door slams shut. Around here, they can be purchased at the feed store. They have all sizes, but they aren't cheap. I think that they are around $30. I keep mine set 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't know if it is illegal to put something like that out or not. I have used something like that in the past (shhh), but I know that I had to make sure that I disposed of whatever ate it or if something came and ate the dead, then they would die also. (I hope that made sense to you..lol)

Dorothy

 

[cjeanean]

what did you use? You know of anything that is quick and efficient??? I'm outside city limits, so I think I should be able to do something like that if I need to, especially since I know I won't be able to buy a trap until next week, and I'm already picturing myself staying up all night for the next forever making sure my birdies are safe....every time I hear my chickens make noise in their coop I freak out!!!!

 

[cjeanean]

oh, and does anyone know if foxes come out when it's raining??? Cause it's about to rain out here, and I need to know if I can go to bed......

 

[babyboy1_mom]

I do not remember the name of it. My sister gave it to me and I just remember her telling me NOT to get on my skin. It was quick. I found critters just a few feet to about a yard away from where I had placed it, dead. Sorry that I couldn't be of more help. It was some bad stuff.

Dorothy

 

[Jayare's Chicks]

I just bought the medium sized live trap at the Tractor Supply store and it cost me $49.00. I saw a fox after my chickens went scurrying out of a brush pile and feathers went flying too. My RIR just made it out of there with just a bunch of missing feathers but later in the day I noticed one of my Buff Orphs was gone so I'm thinking there was 2 foxes and 1 got 1 and the other almost got 1. I have caught the neighbors cat once and their dog twice in the same day and I also caught my mini dachound twice. The trap has been tripped about 4 times also and we found nothing in it so I wonder what is setting it off. I noticed an armidillo or an opossom crossing the yard (not enough light to see what it was) the other morning at daybreak and it got away before I could get my gun sighted in on it. I am now missing about 6 chickens and a duck and I haven't caught or killed anything yet.
I am going to be cutting some more trees down back behind my coops so them foxes don't have such a short run to ambush my chickens and ducks so they will have more time to get away.

Jayare

 

[cjeanean]

I really wish I knew what it was that your sister gave you, BB1....I also wish I knew what was tripping your trap, JC.....gotta be something pretty sneaky, I wish my dogs were outside animals, I would let them out there. They're pretty trustworthy around the chicks, one of my EE chicks is perching on the edge of the brooder and has been there all day, and neither one of my vicious pit bulls touched him. I don't know!!! I'm freaking out here, I don't want my birdies to die!!!! It seems like they're morons, too.....one of them stuck his head out the side of the pen right where the fox was standing just an hour or so ago. I don't know!!!! I need to figure something out, I had no clue we had a fox....well, I did, I just didn't realize it was coming around.....

 

[icthus]

Get a pump up pellet rifle. It's not a "firearm" but at close range it should take care of a fox. Aim for the rib cage area.