Red Foxes! How do I get rid of them?

[bmurphy349]

We have always had foxes around gray's and reds we've had our chickens for just over 10 years and never had an issue with the gray fox or the red fox until 2 months ago when the red fox had killed 2 Hens.Then this past week we've seen 2 red fox one looks sickly it's tail is like a stick no hair on it and a normal looking one. One of them got another hen and was in the process of trying to grab another Hen 2 days later when my Husband ran up and scared it off and it let go of our Hen she's unharmed.. Since then we've shut them in our small run that my Husband covered the top with wire. They're relentless coming constantly all day when my Husband isn't standing guard outside with them and we hear our Rooster going crazy crowing our German Shepherds run look out the bedroom window and then run to the backdoor to get outside to run over to the pen we have chased the Healthy looking fox off all day! He keeps coming back we see where it killed a morning dove as it's got feather collection piles just inside the woods Help help help!! Our chickens have always free ranged every afternoon and now their not able to leave the run.any suggestions on how to get them to move on??? I truly appreciate any suggestions that would help us save our flock.

My mom used bobcat urine to keep critters away. In her case they were destroying her crawl space, but I would think they’d be a predator to the fox and it could scare them away. She got it from the feed store.

 

[Abriana]

My family and I have had a red fox hanging around. Three years ago we attempted to shoot it but missed, so we decided it was okay that if it could coexist with us in peace all would be cool. About four days ago it was walking very near our chickens. My ducks were freaking out. It was doing that weird face-plant into the snow (getting mice I’m assuming) but then turned it’s attention toward the birds. I’m very thankful that one of my sisters saw it and raised the alarm because I’m not sure what would have happened if we had not noticed it. We shot it, sadly. It was a male so I’m sure it had a mate nearby and maybe even babies so we are on the lookout just in case the female comes around.

Foxes are very very smart. It’s very difficult to trap them or poison them. The only solution I can think of is to shoot them. We were lucky because that fox hung around the entire five years we’ve had chickens and never bothered them—I felt terrible that it had to die but I felt like it was getting too close for comfort. Hopefully you don’t lose any more chickens!

 

[roosterhavoc]

My family and I have had a red fox hanging around. Three years ago we attempted to shoot it but missed, so we decided it was okay that if it could coexist with us in peace all would be cool. About four days ago it was walking very near our chickens. My ducks were freaking out. It was doing that weird face-plant into the snow (getting mice I’m assuming) but then turned it’s attention toward the birds. I’m very thankful that one of my sisters saw it and raised the alarm because I’m not sure what would have happened if we had not noticed it. We shot it, sadly. It was a male so I’m sure it had a mate nearby and maybe even babies so we are on the lookout just in case the female comes around.

Foxes are very very smart. It’s very difficult to trap them or poison them. The only solution I can think of is to shoot them. We were lucky because that fox hung around the entire five years we’ve had chickens and never bothered them—I felt terrible that it had to die but I felt like it was getting too close for comfort. Hopefully you don’t lose any more chickens!

Foxes don’t begin to mate til January and February usually. No babies til March or April at the earliest so don’t worry.

 

[Abriana]

Foxes don’t begin to mate til January and February usually. No babies til March or April at the earliest so don’t worry.

Ok good, I don’t know much about foxes even though I don’t want babies around I’m glad I didn’t doom any to starvation

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Don’t bother it’s BS. Foxes will investigate all kinds of smells. Human urine isn’t going to bother them. The fox can already smell you once he’s in your yard and will know you just pissed there but aren’t still standing there.
Anyone who doesn’t believe me take a leak somewhere a few times and put a game camera on the area. You’ll draw in animals because they’re curious about the new smell.
I’ve trapped beaver in an area that has a lot of coyotes. I would park my truck when I got there and take a leak on the ground when I got there. Next day checking traps after a snow fall of a few inches. Coyotes tore up the area and they pissed on the ground all over. Not the least bit scared. Foxes are no different behavior wise.

True, I've tried peeing in a bucket then pouring it certain places....it drew foxes & they peed & pooped there to mark that turf with their scent, which obviously overpowered mine! They were telling me "I was here" lol.

 

[JNC]

I would say kill it. If you kill it I think you would have enough time to make your coop predator safe before another comes back.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We thankfully just have to worry about birds and dogs as predators here mainly. Once a racoon was causing havoc, but he was ended quickly.

We do have foxes here though. Red and maybe a different breed, but definately res ones at least. They usually don't last long when spotted by neighbors. We haven't had them on our property, but they wouldn't last here either. They're beautiful, but so are my birds and I would much rather enjoy my birds and not let a fox eat a 75$ bird because it wanted to

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Recent raccoon tracks...this is near a corn field adjacent to my very back yard, we had lots of rain & it flooded, so the racoon used the walkway lol.

 

[2 many chickens]

Find their den. Then annihilate the den. Been there, done that.

 

[Gray Farms]

High velocity lead