So last night we came home to find a huge red fox standing in our yard and as I seen him, I happened to notice one of my roosters laying dead in the road as well ! My heart sank, as I knew what I was about to find in the backyard. I went to my chicken house to find only 1 rooster on the roost pole sleeping (Elvis is his name), So we took the gun and went on a fox hunt only to have shot and probably of not of hit him........My husband and I went on a search to see if we could find the other 23 chickens only to find feathers at the back steeps and then across the road 2 dead white leghorn roosters one cold and one warm, we looked over and seen one of my brown hens in the driveway ! Finally, we found one other dead white silkie hen........after 2 hours of searching and hunting we gave up with as about 12:30 this morning - We woke to find one more splash silkie hen and a other white rooster hanging out at the chicken house door and I managed to find one other silkie hen that must of camped out w/ my goats last night which was probably better yet but, the sad this is her mate is no where to be found ! So, as of right now I have 5 survivors and 3 dead and 16 MIA which are probably dead as well - SO SO SAD, as 2 of the MIA silkies were my boys pets How in the world do you tell them their chickens are dead thankfully they weren't here last night but, at their grandparents ! I'm thinking possibily the fox was running with a pack last night, is it even possible one could of killed that many ??? How do you trap a fox is there a great way I can lure them in ???? I just can't believe it, those poor little things
Foxe don,t normally run in packs they hunt in pairs as long as the kits need to be fed the kits are hunting on their own at this point in the year the fox I catch I use 3 main "sets" a dirt hole set a flat set and a urine post set with the dirt hole set and the flat set I use mostly food type lures with the pee post set a good gland lure and a healthy shot of fox urine works well
I know just how you feel. This past spring a fox took 9 out of 11 in a daylight attack. Just last week I lost 6 in another daylight attack. It's terrible, I know. I used to let the chickens out first thing in the morning. But unless somebody is here, they have to stay in the house. The fox we have here is VERY opportunistic, In the first attack, There was a window of under 2hrs when nobody was here. Same thing last week. It's like they watch for when you leave to make the attack. As far as trapping them goes, I tried a big live trap with various kinds of bait. I thinned out the raccoon population a bit, but no luck with the fox. I had chance at shooting him one morning, But missed, Very frustrating. It's just a shame when you have a big chunk of ground for the birds to run around on and can't do it with out worrying about loosing them all. I'm starting to give more thought to building them a big pen, I don't want to do, but will probably have to. Again, Sorry for your loss. I hope you have better luck than me at getting that fox. Jack
Quote:google "drift fencing red fox cage trap" the top 2 links are very good at explaining this , fox are pretty stupid not hard at all to catch the right trap helps a lot and a commercial lure works much better then food if you have the parts left from an attack this is a better bait then most for fox a cage trap needs to be fairly tall abt 17-20" tall they will not bend down to investigate food smells it makes them vulnerable when they can walk right in without having to crawl in they are much less hesitant to investigate a smell 12-15 "wide helps too at least 42 " long/deep is abt a minimum coil spring traps and double long spring traps work much quicker
If you live in a forested area then I'd advise to get a livestock guardian dog that will protect chickens and chase down foxes.
