suggestions needed. dealing with a fox... or 2.. possibly 3

[mmwb]

Given the time of year, you are probably dealing with a family group. Whether the pups can survive without the adults is questionable this early in the summer. If they can't and you get rid of the adults, they will starve. If they can, then they will be as much a problem for your birds as the adults.

"I've asked my relatives who are farmers and local farmers who have suggested everything from electric fences to antifreeze laced cat food and going to the toilet around my garden in an attempt to over scent them."

Electric fence may be effective, but you will need several strands at differing heights to contain the chickens and exclude the foxes.

I always highly discourage poison. Poison is indiscriminate. It will as easily kill anything else that will eat the bait as it will the Fox. Anything a fox will eat will be eaten by any number of other animals: From voles, to weasels and mink, to raccoons, to skunks, to raptors that will eat the carcasses of the other poisoned animals (I realize you may not have all of those animals there, but other readers will).

I don't think you will find human urine or feces a deterrent.

Either containing your birds or trapping the foxes (all of them) is your best bet. A savy trapper will be able to locate the den and probably get the whole bunch in one night. Make sure your in line with the laws of your area for pest control...

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
50:50 kerosene and and what you Brits call 'treacle.' You spray it as a defoliant in a line, much as one might do to control weeds. It employed around the property at large, so as to "warn" the fox out at the edges. You dont want him at the coop yard when he finds it, you know?

 

[nnbreeder]

From what I have read the Fox problem in the UK is beyond the scope of imagination. They are as common there as Sparrows are here.


http://www.thefoxwebsite.org/urbanfoxes/urbannumbers.html#q1

There is an electric fencing in the UK that is not permenant with push-in posts that is a mesh and is very effective against Fox.

 

[Pagemaker]

Don't let anyone tell you that you can't catch a fox in a live trap. I have caught two.
Albeit young ones... the old ones won't generally fall for it. But the young ones will.
Here is what you do.
Take some "u-shaped" stakes (I make them by cutting up some steel electric fence stakes and bend them in a u-shape) and stake the trap down so that it doesn't rock and it feels sturdy. Place some strawberry or fruit flavored yogurt inside in a small plastic cup. Throw some Marshmallows in as well for good measure. I have caught young foxes and they have ate the marshmallows and finished the yogurt and even chewed the plastic container up.

Since you can't use a gun where your at... you can make a "euthanasia stick/pole syringe/syringe stick" by attaching a piece of pvc pipe to the end of the plunger of a syringe.
10cc of acetone in the lungs with a syringe stick will kill them.

http://www.oktrapper.com/SyringePole.pdf

 

[Pagemaker]

Here is one that I caught with Strawberry Yogurt in a cup.