Red Foxes! How do I get rid of them?

[cmom]

If you can trap the fox you may have a wildlife rescue in your area that will take it. I had an owl kill some of my birds. I did accidentally catch the owl and got it in a cage and a wildlife rescue came and got it. They said they had a release area and it shouldn't be back. When I originally put the netting over my pens I was short so I bought some netting online but it wasn't what I thought it was and an owl went through it and killed some birds. I moved the birds to a different coop and pen and put a camera in it. The owl came back and went through the netting again. Each time the owl went through it I put a new piece up. I have since replaced it with some good netting and the owl tried to go through it but got caught. I have seen some owls but they haven't tried to get to the birds.

 

[cmom]

The foxes I caught were mangy and stinky.

 

[nuthatched]

@cmom
I can't remember a post by you that you weren't flashing your Owl pics!
But if I accidentally caught an Owl, I'd be showing it off too.

 

[cmom]

There are plenty of post where I haven't flashed the picture of the owl. I thought it was a nice picture of the owl and I love to take pictures. I love my cameras. My point was that I contacted a wildlife rescue who came and got the owl. It's illegal to kill a bird of prey. If the OP can trap the fox and doesn't want to eliminate it there are other choices. Myself I did eliminate the foxes that killed my birds but that's not for everyone and I have seen others since but as long as they don't bother my birds I don't bother them.

 

[Pinfeathersgeek]

I am very sorry if you took what I said as being rude. I never even had a rude thought about this situation. If in your opinion the fox is ill or dangerous, by all means do whatever you think best to resolve the problem.

Thank you so much. Yes this is a very dangerous situation we are in the country and we are spaghettied in between two older country neighborhoods with our property line butting up to an Angus cattle farm we are very worried about these new fox that have shown up in our neighborhood and our neighbors are also worried we have a large wooded green space on the other end of our property then those 2 other neighborhoods on the other sides. So our children and Grandchildren and small pets and Chicken's or other foul are all in danger as the fox are running around during the day all day. My Husband was out with our flock when that fox took our Blue during the afternoon.We have huge Leland evergreens between us and our closest neighbor the chickens do wander around them dust bathing we also have some of the evergreens towards the back of our property which is where we suspect the fox grabbed her so my Husband's watching in one direction of where the main flock was and Blue being the old independent girl she was goes off on her own. Then the fox comes back 2 days later and grabbed onto another Hen this girls much bigger and my Husband was able to run at the fox yelling and it let her go thank goodness but again my Husbandis right out there with the chickens! The fox is coming across our neighbors yard into our evergreens and around the fence line and up into the woods to circling behind our pen and coop it's very stealthy. It hasn't jumped into the pen but it could if it wanted to. We are trying to figure out everything that has to go into building the pen higher. My dream is to get a carport to go over them and pen that in and put fencing on the underside of it. But for now we're going to be figuring out what is needed to put up an 8' fence. The chickens are just in the woods a little bit so they have trees to shade them and their coop from our hot sun with them being able to get sun at the front of the pen. There are woods behind the pen going down a sloped hill to the neighborhood behind us.There's also a lucky dog pen that is attached to the front of the coop so if we have to close off the chickens from the other part of the pen we can we have wired the top of that one for now and the chickens are safe in that pen for now. Our neighborhood isn't very big at all. The neighbors are letting us know that the fox is running around in day time as their children are outside so Yes very much a dangerous situation believe me it just breaks our hearts because all of these years the fox have come across our front yard and wow they are so so Beautiful we had a very large red fox that did this for years and it never bothered our chickens we also have gray fox which are also so Beautiful with their tiny cat like face so this isn't an easy decision for us to make and I'll have to find someone to do it for us because we just can't kill anything. I was praying someone would know of something we could put out and around to make them not want to stay around. As killing is the last option. I came seeking help I didn't expect that anyone would be rude we're supposed to be a kindred family here in Back Yard Chickens and I respect all of you your amazing with so much knowledge to share clearly for some jumping to the conclusion that we just don't know how to care for our chickens which happen to be loved as our feathered children just don't know the whole picture. I understand that killing the fox is horrible to do! This situation is not safe it's extremely dangerous and hard decisions have to be made. So with a very heavy heart I'm sorry but I have to keep my family and neighbors safe too. Thank you for all of the suggestions and advice I truly appreciate them.

 

[Pinfeathersgeek]

Thank you so much. Yes this is a very dangerous situation we are in the country and we are spaghettied in between two older country neighborhoods with our property line butting up to an Angus cattle farm we are very worried about these new fox that have shown up in our neighborhood and our neighbors are also worried we have a large wooded green space on the other end of our property then those 2 other neighborhoods on the other sides. So our children and Grandchildren and small pets and Chicken's or other foul are all in danger as the fox are running around during the day all day. My Husband was out with our flock when that fox took our Blue during the afternoon.We have huge Leland evergreens between us and our closest neighbor the chickens do wander around them dust bathing we also have some of the evergreens towards the back of our property which is where we suspect the fox grabbed her so my Husband's watching in one direction of where the main flock was and Blue being the old independent girl she was goes off on her own. Then the fox comes back 2 days later and grabbed onto another Hen this girls much bigger and my Husband was able to run at the fox yelling and it let her go thank goodness but again my Husbandis right out there with the chickens! The fox is coming across our neighbors yard into our evergreens and around the fence line and up into the woods to circling behind our pen and coop it's very stealthy. It hasn't jumped into the pen but it could if it wanted to. We are trying to figure out everything that has to go into building the pen higher. My dream is to get a carport to go over them and pen that in and put fencing on the underside of it. But for now we're going to be figuring out what is needed to put up an 8' fence. The chickens are just in the woods a little bit so they have trees to shade them and their coop from our hot sun with them being able to get sun at the front of the pen. There are woods behind the pen going down a sloped hill to the neighborhood behind us.There's also a lucky dog pen that is attached to the front of the coop so if we have to close off the chickens from the other part of the pen we can we have wired the top of that one for now and the chickens are safe in that pen for now. Our neighborhood isn't very big at all. The neighbors are letting us know that the fox is running around in day time as their children are outside so Yes very much a dangerous situation believe me it just breaks our hearts because all of these years the fox have come across our front yard and wow they are so so Beautiful we had a very large red fox that did this for years and it never bothered our chickens we also have gray fox which are also so Beautiful with their tiny cat like face so this isn't an easy decision for us to make and I'll have to find someone to do it for us because we just can't kill anything. I was praying someone would know of something we could put out and around to make them not want to stay around. As killing is the last option. I came seeking help I didn't expect that anyone would be rude we're supposed to be a kindred family here in Back Yard Chickens and I respect all of you your amazing with so much knowledge to share clearly for some jumping to the conclusion that we just don't know how to care for our chickens which happen to be loved as our feathered children just don't know the whole picture. I understand that killing the fox is horrible to do! This situation is not safe it's extremely dangerous and hard decisions have to be made. So with a very heavy heart I'm sorry but I have to keep my family and neighbors safe too. Thank you for all of the suggestions and advice I truly appreciate them.

We will also continue to not bother the other fox that reside around us that leave our Chickens alone. As all of the other fox have done all these past years.

 

[Pinfeathersgeek]

So Sorry for you losses. My birds all stay in their pens but they have nice large pens. I have electric wires around my coops and pens, concrete under the gates and good heavy duty netting covering all of the pens, all due to losses from predators in the past. I have free ranged in the past but no longer since my special bird was taken during the middle of the day by a fox. I did catch the fox and eliminated. I caught it in a live trap. SSS. I set a couple of live traps because I was also having issues with coyotes too. I have seen fox since but they haven't made an attempt to get to the birds. I have several game cameras on my property and now it's my belief that the adults teach the young that getting zapped by the electric wires isn't worth it for any chicken. I put the traps out under some cedar trees we planted many years ago. I baited the traps and let the fox take the bait for a few days then set the trap and caught the fox. As I said I have seen some since but they haven't been near the coops and pens. I have had in a couple of attempted digs under the fence on the far side of the pens but apparently the predator came in contact with the electric hot wires and aborted the attempts. Nothing has tried to dig under the fence since. Good luck...
This fox dug under a gate and killed several birds. I chased it off and it kept coming back. That is when I put the concrete under the gates. I also put a hot wire across the bottom of the gates. This bobcat dug under a fence and killed 14 birds. That's when the electric went up around all of the coops and pens. It made the mistake of coming back for another try. I don't enjoy eliminating them but when they keep coming back and killing my birds they have to go.
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This is another bobcat outside my chick/grow-out coop a little over two weeks ago.
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I'm definitely taking a screen shot of your post! Great ideas for us for sure yes live trapping is what we're looking at my friend has them and then the fox will be eliminated. We have coyotes, red and gray fox, opossum, raccoons, huge rat snakes and huge copperhead snakes, small Hawks and very big Hawks the game cameras are an awesome idea too. Thank you!

 

[Pinfeathersgeek]

Oh, and one more thing, if you use coil traps, (what we used, and what I recommend using) be careful not to get your hand caught in the trap. Kinda obvouis, but I did and it hurt pretty bad.

Thank you I'll definitely have a friend do that if we can't live trap them. Hopefully they'll be familiar with them.

 

[cmom]

Since you apparently free range but are considering building a pen, is good. I don't know if these pictures will help but this is what I did and I have had no intrusions. I have heavy duty netting covering all of my pens with electric wires going around the coops and pens and concrete under the gates. I do have a cut off switch under the fence charger but most of the time I unplug it. I have a lot of birds. I have previously posted these pictures on other threads. I did put the netting up in sections around the trees. Originally I fastened the sections together with zip ties but they eventually deteriorated so I replaced the zip ties with hog rings. This is a spot where something started to dig but aborted the attempt when it was zapped by the electric wire. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

Prior to putting the netting up a coyote went over a fence into a pen. The fence is 5' high. Some of the birds and the coyote went back over the fence. It did kill some of the birds. I did get a shot off but I had bird shot in the gun. I'm pretty sure I hit it but didn't kill it but it ran off. The netting has been up for a lot of years and nothing has tried to go over the fence. Here is a video I have posted on other threads. I think the adults teach the young that chickens aren't worth getting zapped. Again, good luck...