Recurring Fox!

[Coturnix Quail]

Hi, I have 6 pet hens and 5 meat birds that are about 3 months old. My last batch of quail ended horribly. First attack was from a raccoon who grabbed the birds through chicken and managed to pull them through somehow. Second was from a fox who sadly got in and killed the rest of them. But my chicken coop is very secure even then I'm still worried. I do lock them in a coop inside the coop at night.
Ever since then I've been seeing this fox come at night and even today it came around 6 or 7, still not even dark. I'm also not 100% sure its the same fox, but it might be. Of course every time I see it I scare it by chasing it away and barking, but it keeps coming! How can I get rid of this pest?

 

[3riverschick]

Http://www.predatorpee.com
Not kidding, totally serious.
Best,
Karen

 

[Coturnix Quail]

This looks like a good solution.. But.. Gross.. Is there anything else??

 

[Saint_ Marwenne_Chickens]

Buy a fox trap? I've heard baked beans are a good bait. @3riverschick has the right idea. Adult male human urine has the best effects if you don't want to pay anything. You could pay for a pest removal officer to come and take care of it. You could hire a friend with a gun...

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Okay thanks. I think the trap is the best thing. Maybe if I scare if enough inside the trap it won't come back? I honestly have no clue.

 

[Saint_ Marwenne_Chickens]

Okay thanks. I think the trap is the best thing. Maybe if I scare if enough inside the trap it won't come back? I honestly have no clue.

Once you've caught it in the trap, you need to kill it. I have some friends who put a tarp over the trap (with the fox inside), so as to make it airtight. Then they ran the lawn mower exhaust underneath the tarp and suffocated the fox in exhaust fumes. Which is pretty humane if you ask me.

If you let the fox go after using a baited trap, he won't be scared, he'll just come back for more baked beans!

 

[centrarchid]

With penned birds targeted by a persistent fox, I make so a hotwire fence, usually only a single strand is used to make an outer perimeter 4" out and 4" above ground. The charger need not be much, just enough to tickle fox or a raccoon as it probes area in close proximity to pen.

For young chickens I have sleeping on the ground at night, I have a couple stretches of electrified poultry netting although that requires a stronger charger and is not always appropriate for back yard settings.


The predators are likely first coming in for rodents or sweet smell of feed so that can be managed also.

Human male urine does not repel foxes, regardless of the humans reproductive or social status. Dog urine does not work either even though it can work on coyotes. Raccoons I have experience will even follow my tracks later in the day to see what eats I may have made more accessible. If memory serves, a couple of the repellents touted on this site are also marketed as attractants for trap sets.

 

[Howard E]

How to get rid of the pest / danger to your birds?

These are wild animals, hard wired to kill and eat stuff. They must do so to survive. Our birds represent a full and easy meal, so it is not hard to see why predators are drawn to them.

So to keep birds safe, it falls upon us to construct a physical barrier these predators cannot get past. They can try as much as they like but it won't matter as they will fail. That level of protection is required from a bomb proof coop. NOT and easy meal.....in fact.....no meal at all, so they move on. Not some flimsy gimmick.....just a hard physical barrier.

But to scale, that gets expensive. So to expand that universe beyond just the safe zone of the coop, if you want to open the range the birds can roam in during the daylight hours, your options remain a physical barrier.....not cheap or easy......or a psychological one. The latter means an electric fence. Predators coming in for a full and easy meal encounter something they have not felt before........a violent, painful shock. They get to experience the pain of the shock from the fence.....but no reward in the form of a full and easy meal. All of the pain and none of the gain. So they move on and our birds are left to live in peace as we want them to.

BTW, DO NOT make the mistake of thinking some level of mild scolding while you have them confined to a trap is going to work on a wild animal. It will only teach them to avoid the trap next time. (BTW, a good scolding is NOT a replacement for an electric fence.....same principle I admit, but no substitute. If you don't think so, I challenge you to sit through a scolding, then go touch my fence then ask yourself which you avoid at all costs again).

If at all possible, DO NOT trap the animal period. Set up conditions to frustrate it and to keep it from making a kill. Do that and they move on. Fail to do that and let them make a kill and you are stuck with them. That one you may well have to kill.........and you have to trap it to catch it to kill it. So if you trap it, be prepared to kill it. It is that simple.

 

[Coturnix Quail]

Thanks guys. This fox got itself into this mess and now I have to finish the job. I'll see what I can do with electric fencing, and if not, I guess I'll just have to kill it.. I'll keep you updated and see what I can do.

 

[roosterhavoc]

You should do both keep a secure coop at night, a secure run (electric fence) and catch and kill the fox. They don't just move on.